Screamin’ Eagle®/Vance & Hines rider Andrew Hines rode a Harley-Davidson® V-Rod® to his fifth NHRA Pro Stock Motorcycle event win of the season at the Toyo Tires NHRA Nationals at Maple Grove Raceway. Making his seventh consecutive final-round appearance, Hines defeated Nitrofish Suzuki rider LE Tonglet and now leads second-place Tonglet by 74 points in the NHRA Full Throttle Countdown to the Championship playoffs.
“This was a big win for the Screamin’ Eagle team,” said Hines. “We leave here with a little cushion in the championship race, up by 3.5 rounds with eight rounds left to go. Now we have two weeks off to go home and see the family, and find a little more power in the V-Rod.”
Screamin’ Eagle/Vance & Hines rider Ed Krawiec qualified second for the event with an elapsed time of 6.855 seconds, and advanced to the semi-final round of eliminations on Sunday. Krawiec is third in Countdown points. Hines was the third-quickest qualifier at 6.859 seconds. Lucas Oil Buell rider Hector Arana led qualifying with a 6.828 pass in the final round on Saturday.
Krawiec moved through the first two rounds of Sunday eliminations with red-light wins over Team Joey D Suzuki rider Joe Desantis and Run Bum Racing Buell rider Shawn Gann.
Hines defeated Mohawk Automotive Kawasaki rider Neil Jacobs in the first round, and got a red-light win over Coffman Tank Trucks Buell rider Angie Smith in round two. Hines defeated Krawiec in the semi-finals, and for the fourth consecutive event faced Tonglet in the final.
Hines used a quick 0.020-second reaction time to beat Tonglet (0.043) off the line and got the hole-shot win with a 6.916-second blast that held off Tonglet’s 6.913-second run. For Hines, the win snapped a three-race losing streak to Tonglet, and padded his points lead over his closest rival for the championship. Hines now has 23 final-round wins in his NHRA career.
“Well, we finally got by that blue bike,” said Hines. “As has been the case in the past couple of races, we were losing horsepower as the day went on, but (crew chief) Matt Hines has got the clutch tuned just right. My hole shot is really consistent, and the bike is easy to ride round after round, which is great for my confidence.”
After four of six rounds in the NHRA Full Throttle Countdown, Hines leads the Pro Stock Motorcycle class with 2,566 points. Tonglet is second with 2,492 points, followed by Krawiec with 2,351. Al-Anabi Racing Buell rider Matt Smith is fourth with 2,323 points.
Pro Stock Motorcycles will next race at the NHRA Las Vegas nationals, Oct. 28-31. Hines has won three times at Las Vegas, most recently in 2009.