KRAWIEC STARTS SURGE FOR NEW STREET ROD WITH BIKE-CLASS VICTORY
Eddie Krawiec completed what crew chief Matt Hines called “an incredible comeback weekend” for the Vance & Hines Harley-Davidson team Sunday, logging the first NHRA Pro Stock Motorcycle victory for the newly designed Street Rod at the Mopar Mile-High Nationals at Bandimere Speedway near Denver.
Krawiec took advantage of Matt Smith’s red-light foul aboard the Polaris Racing Victory motorcycle by seven-thousandths of a second in their final-round match-up.
He covered the quarter-mile in 7.145 seconds at 188.28 mph – the second-quickest elapsed time and second-fastest speed in the 38-year history of this event at the Morrison, Colo., facility.
With his 38th career victory, second this season, and fourth at Denver, No. 2-ranked Krawiec sliced class leader L.E. Tonglet’s margin over him in the standings nearly in half, from 141 to 74 as the Mello Yello Drag Racing Series’ Western Swing will continue in California this weekend with the Toyota Sonoma Nationals at Sonoma Raceway.
The Vance & Hines racer said he has been learning with the new Street Rod that’s teammate Andrew Hines’ design baby in co-operation with Harley-Davidson. But he said Sunday after running consistent 7.1-second E.T.s in eliminations that he “learned that we’re taking a Wally from Denver.”
Like a real-estate agent says the key is “location-location-location,” Krawiec said the mantra for his team from now until the Countdown to the Championship that starts in mid-September is “data-data-data.” He said they “want to load the arsenal” for the six-event sprint to a 12th series crown for the Vance & Hines organization in 21 years.
Krawiec backed up Matt Hines’ assessment: “We got off to what I consider a slow start. We stunk up the place [at Englishtown] with the new bike, and we’ve been behind the eight-ball.”
The Western Swing is notorious for its three distinctly different conditions at high-altitude Denver, sea-level Sonoma, and oxygen-rich Seattle. So will the emboldened Harley-Davidson perform as well out of thin air?
“That’s the big question we have,” Krawiec said. “It should translate,” he said, his voice hinting that he wasn’t making any promises. “That’s the way we figure it. I guess if you correct some our runs that are made up here to sea level, they should be pretty stout.”
He said without having the luxury of any significant testing time recently, “We just figured [at the shop at Brownsburg, Ind.] if it translates here [at Denver], it should go right down to sea level [and perform well]. We’d like to say we’re going to be back [to frontrunner status] in Sonoma.”
“This is the right time for [the Street Rod] to start heading in the right direction,” Krawiec said.
He was referring to the Countdown, for which the bike class has only three more events to prepare (Sonoma, Brainerd, and Indianapolis). But he’s the top seed for this weekend’s Mickey Thompson Pro Bike Battle bonus race. The all-star field of eight is going for the winning prize of $7,500.
After reaching the final round past David Hope, Joey Gladstone, and Scotty Pollacheck, Krawiec shared the winners circle Sunday with Antron Brown (Top Fuel), Robert Hight (Funny Car), and Drew Skillman (Pro Stock).
Smith, the No. 3 starter, advanced past wife Angie Smith, Andrew Hines, and Jerry Savoie before registering his second runner-up finish of the season.