On paper, everything went right for points leader Eddie Krawiec at the Texas Motorplex.

The Bayonne, New Jersey, native posted the lowest elapsed time and top speed for the FallNationals, earned the No. 1 qualifier, and then recorded his sixth win of the season.

But the rider known as “Steady Eddie” felt he was capable of more in his powerful Harley-Davidson.

“I usually pride myself in the way I drive in the Countdown, but today I drove horrible and struggled to get off the starting line,” Krawiec said. “This was one of those days where the team carries you a little bit.”

Krawiec's final round pass of 9.336 seconds at 92.62 mph was still good enough to defeat defending world champion Jerry Savoie, who fouled out due to a red-light.

“In my opinion, we didn’t deserve to win based on tuning,” Krawiec said. “We got lucky for those last two rounds.”

The string of good fortune for Krawiec began in the first round when LE Tonglet, Krawiec’s primary challenger in the championship, was upset by Joey Gladstone. Krawiec navigated his way through the field by adapting to a strong crosswind that he said reached 25 mph at times

“The wind played a huge role,” Krawiec said. “You could see that a lot of guys were definitely struggling to get down through there. “

Following his second round triumph against Karen Stoffer, Krawiec struggled to straighten his bike out in the  shutdown area.

“I had to yank the bike hard,” he said.

With the help of crew chief Matt Hines, Krawiec was able to counter the wind by establishing a baseline in the left lane while also solving some gremlins with clutch tune-up.
Krawiec then held on to record his 42nd career victory, which ranks third in class history.

“With the caliber of motorcycles in our class right now, almost anyone that qualifies can possibly win,” Krawiec said. “We need to have good reaction times because the margin of error gets much smaller.

“The rider, crew chief and tuner all must do their jobs. If you get all that working in your direction, you’re going to be running up front.”

Entering the final two events of the season at Las Vegas and Pomona, Krawiec has a 107 point lead over Tonglet in the championship standing.

“Leaving here kind of sets the tone for how that championship is going to shape up,” Krawiec said. “I probably put more pressure on myself to do really good. You need to capitalize. For me I would say I had a perfect weekend for how it worked out. This was the opportunity for me to grab the ball and run with it. I think that was more of my drive for today. Lucky enough for me, I had a great motorcycle under me.”