Harley-Davidson Screamin’ Eagle/Vance & Hines riders Ed Krawiec and Andrew Hines battled the first wave of summer heat to qualify both of the team’s Harley-Davidson V-Rod motorcycles for Sunday eliminations at the Toyota NHRA Summernationals at Old Bridge Township Raceway Park in Englishtown, N.J. Krawiec advanced to the second round of Pro Stock Motorcycle racing on Sunday.
Temperatures topped 90 degrees during Friday and Saturday qualifying rounds and the Screamin’ Eagle/Vance & Hines team had its first experience tuning its new two-valve V-Twin engine for the extreme heat.
Hines qualified in seventh position with an Elapsed Time (ET) of 6.980 seconds. Krawiec, the defending Pro Stock Motorcycle champion and 2012 Englishtown winner, placed the team’s other Harley V-Rod in 10th position with an ET of 7.002 seconds. Steve Johnson led all qualifiers with a 6.931-second pass on his Suzuki.
Ed Krawiec says: “We’ve never tuned this new engine for this air, so it was another learning opportunity,” said Krawiec, the defending Pro Stock Motorcycle champion and 2012 Englishtown winner. “We just have to take it as it comes in the first part of this season and keep improving the motorcycles.”
For the second race in a row, their qualifying positions resulted in Hines and Krawiec being paired in the first round of Sunday eliminations. Krawiec emerged the winner on a holeshot, with a 0.030-second reaction time and 7.013 ET to the 0.073/7.007-second run posted by Hines. Krawiec lost to Lucas Oil Buell rider Hector Arana Sr. in round two. Sovereign-Star Racing Buell rider Michael Ray defeated Arana Sr. in the final to take his first win of the season and the second of his career.
Andrew Hines says: “The new V-Rod motorcycles are working well, but we need to find about 10 more horsepower from this new engine to race with the front runners. We know it’s there and finding that power will be our focus on the dyno and in testing going forward.”
Following four rounds of Pro Stock Motorcycle competition of the 2013 NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series, Lucas Oil Buell rider Hector Arana Jr., who lost to his father in the first round at Englishtown, continues to lead the class with 417 points. Sovereign-Star Racing Buell rider Scotty Pollacheck did not qualify at Englishtown but remains in second place with 266 points. Arana Sr. is third with 265 points, followed by Ray with 260 and Viper Motorcycle Company Buell rider John Hall in fifth place with 243 points. Krawiec is in sixth place with 226 points. Hines is in 11th place with 179 points.
The Pro Stock Motorcycles will next race at the inaugural Auto-Plus NHRA New England Nationals, June 20-23, at New England Dragway in Epping, N.H.
