2014 Atlanta NHRA Pro Stock Motorcycle
Harley-Davidson Screamin’ Eagle/Vance & Hines rider Ed Krawiec defeated teammate Andrew Hines in an all-Harley Pro Stock Motorcycle final at the 34th annual Summit Racing Equipment NHRA Southern Nationals at Atlanta Dragway.
Riding Harley-Davidson V-Rod motorcycles, Krawiec and Hines also qualified 1-2 for the event, and posted the quickest times in three of four qualifying sessions.
Final elimination rounds were delayed until Monday due to extended periods of rain on Sunday.
“Even with the rain delay, things could not have gone much better for the Screamin’ Eagle team this weekend,” said Krawiec, who won the final round for the 23rd time in his career. “We’ve got great V-Rod race bikes now. Last year we were good, but everything would have to go perfectly for us to win. Now we are coming to the track knowing we’ve got a good shot at going home with a Wally.”
Krawiec led qualifying with an Elapsed Time (ET) of 6.796 seconds that set a new track record for the Pro Stock Motorcycle class. Hines qualified second at 6.833 seconds. Krawiec advanced to his second final-round of the season with wins over Savoie Alligator Farms Suzuki rider Jerry Savoie, Adam Arana on the ProtecttheHarvest.com / MAVTV Buell, and Gottspeed/Star Racing Buell rider Michael Ray. In the first round, he re-set his track ET record to 6.794 seconds.
Hines, coming off a final-round victory on April 13 at the NHRA Four-Wide Nationals in Charlotte, advanced to the Atlanta final with wins over Full Throttle Powersports Suzuki rider Steve Johnson, Lucas Oil Buell rider Hector Arana, and John Hall on the Matt Smith Racing Buell.
“We burned up a lot of race gas on the dyno since Charlotte, and all that hard work paid off,” said Hines. “We found some power and were thrashing to get all the engines updated before we left. It’s a special feeling for the entire team to get back up to the front of the field.”
In the final, Krawiec used a 6.806-second blast to best the 6.860-second effort posted by Hines.
After three of 16 events on the 2014 NHRA Pro Stock Motorcycle schedule, Hines retains the series lead with 286 points. Krawiec moves from fourth to second place, with 276 points. Hall is third with 230 points, followed by Quality Tire Buell rider Scott Pollacheck with 220 points.
The Harley-Davidson Screamin’ Eagle/Vance & Hines team will be back in action on May 29-June 1 at the 45th annual Toyota NHRA Summernationals at Old Bridge Township Raceway Park in Englishtown, N.J.
