The Harley-Davidson® Screamin’ Eagle®/Vance & Hines team remains undefeated in 2012 as rider Andrew Hines rode his Harley-Davidson® V-Rod® to the Pro Stock Motorcycle win at the O’Reilly Auto Parts Route 66 NHRA Nationals at Route 66 Raceway. The win is the second for Hines in 2012 and the fifth in a row for the team in five events this season. Hines defeated GT Racing Suzuki rider LE Tonglet in the final.
“I was really feeling the pressure when we went to line for the final round,” said Hines. “I wanted to win because this is the closest race to Harley-Davidson headquarters in Milwaukee and we had a lot of fans down here. And we’ve never had a winning streak like this before, undefeated this season and really seven in a row going back to last season. That’s really special and I don’t want this moment to end.”
Hines qualified his Screamin’ Eagle Harley-Davidson V-Rod in second position with an Elapsed Time of 6.917 seconds. Krawiec qualified the team’s other V-Rod fourth at 6.941 seconds. Lucas Oil Buell rider Hector Arana Sr. was the top qualifier at 6.884 seconds.
Hines moved through the elimination rounds with a win over Sovereign-Star Racing Buell rider Scott Pollacheck in round one, an automatic win in round two when Kuryakyn Buell rider Chip Ellis fouled at the start, and a win over Hector Arana Jr. on a Lucas Oil Buell in the semi-final round.
Tonglet had won the last two events at Route 66 and had won 11 consecutive elimination rounds at the track. But the Suzuki rider went for a quick light and left the starting line 0.004 seconds early to hand Hines the automatic win and his 27th career final-round victory.
“I had the performance advantage on him, so I’m sure he was trying to cut a good light,” said Hines. “After the last race I re-wired my V-Rod because we thought there was an electrical issue, and we had a chance to test both bikes. We’ve got a pair of strong-running Harley-Davidson motorcycles right now.”
Krawiec opened Sunday’s rain-delayed elimination rounds with a win over Matt Guidera on the Harley-Davidson of Folsom Buell. Krawiec lost in round two on a holeshot to Tonglet, who used a 0.022-second reaction time and a 6.993 ET to beat Krawiec’s 0.048/6.971 run by just 0.0047 seconds.
“The track was good today but a little tricky, and we had to pull a little clutch out of my bike,” said Krawiec. “When we do that I find it’s harder to hit the tree, so my reaction times were not where I wanted to be today. I really just lost a good drag race to Tonglet.”
Krawiec retains the NHRA Pro Stock Motorcycle points lead, leaving Route 66 with 522 points. Hines remains in second place with 447 points. Arana Sr. moves up to third place with 383 points, followed by Arana Jr. with 381 points. Tonglet is fifth with 292 points.
The Pro Stock Motorcycles will be in action again on July 5-8 at the 6th Annual Summit Racing Equipment NHRA Nationals at SummitMotorsports Park in Norwalk, Ohio.
