Terry Vance, co-owner of the Vance & Hines Harley-Davidson operation, said before the Pro Stock Motorcycle final round between Andrew Hines and newly minted class champion Eddie Krawiec, “I think Eddie’s just got destiny going with him.”

Vance was partially right. Krawiec came into race day Sunday as the lone Mello Yello Drag Racing Series Countdown contender to have clinched a championship. That happened to him Saturday. Then Krawiec, the No. 1 qualifier with a meet-best 6.781-second elapsed time, knocked out Lance Bonham in the first round. He followed by dismissing the outgoing champion, Jerry Savoie, and later two-time champion Matt Smith to reach his ninth final round this season.

No one could blame Vance for thinking Krawiec was unstoppable. Krawiec was racing in a final round for the third consecutive time.

But he was.

It was Hines’ turn to shine.

And it was about time. Hines hadn’t won since the 2016 U.S. Nationals. Naturally he was frustrated, for last season he won five time in nine final-round appearances.

Moreover, he had worked closely with Harley-Davidson engineers to bring the manufacturer’s new Street Rod to life. But for all his effort and pride in the project, he saw the flaws in it as the season went along and he struggled on-track in a way five-time champions aren’t used to struggling.

“It was a long year – for my side of the team, at least,” Hines said after claiming his 48th overall victory.

“We had a pretty good struggle there in the middle of the season with both our Street Rods. But our team found ways to make ourselves better: figure out how to tune better, how to make the motorcycles more consistent. That’s what I’m most proud about, what we had to overcome to get back to the level we expect of ourselves. It was a rocky road there through the middle. We were fighting and trying to figure how to make those new chassis work for us,” he said. “They would respond. They make a good show bike now.”

He said, “This year we built three new chassis, and typically we run one chassis for 10 years. So there’s a lot of work at Vance & Hines, with all our guys putting in long hours. We asked the world of them, and they delivered.”

For the record, Hines overcame Krawiec’s outstanding .005-second reaction time and won with a 6.856-second elapsed time and  196.02-mph speed on the Auto Club Raceway quarter-mile. Krawiec countered with a 6.930, 177.58.

Hines’ victory moved him up to second place, where he ended the season 169 points off his teammate’s torrid pace.

Once again, Krawiec was unable to win at the Finals in the same year he earned a championship.

With the team’s dominance in the class, at least this gives them something new to aim for in 2018.

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