Former NHRA Pro Stock Motorcycle champion L.E. Tonglet came out swinging for eliminations Sunday at the Sonoma (Calif.) Nationals.

Tonglet knocked out all comers, including Harley-Davidson teammates Eddie Krawiec and Andrew Hines in the semifinals and finals as he claimed the 18th win of his career and second this season.

“Anytime you beat them, I say they are the two best bikes in the class,” said Tonglet, the 2010 PSM world champ who drives for Jerry Savoie’s White Alligator Racing team. “It shows, they’ve won a lot of championships so whenever you can beat one it is a good day, and whenever you can beat two, it is just a great day. We were able to beat both. Against Eddie, I had a very good reaction time and we were able to hold him off for a holeshot win and Andrew left on me and Tim (Kulungian, his crew chief) tuned it up and we actually ran our quickest ET of the weekend in the final round and this shows we have the power to run with them and beat them.”

Tonglet clocked a 6.771-second elapsed time 198.09 mph to defeat Hines’ 6.802-second lap.    

Tonglet, who pilots the Nitro Fish Suzuki, ousted Cory Reed, and Joey Gladstone in the first two round and then proceeded to upend the powerful Harley duo of Krawiec and Hines. Tonglet has won at Sonoma three years in a row and four times in his career, the first coming in 2011.

“It’s a lot of luck,” Tonglet said about his good fortune at Sonoma. “Some people might not think that, but you need luck to win races and we got lucky in round one, I had a terrible light and we were able to get the round win and from then on my lights were pretty decent and we just kept turning on win lights. Coming from Denver (the last event), you go from the slowest track on the circuit and then you come to one of the fastest. As a rider, you just have to wait on that shift light. The shift light is going to come so fast here, and you just don’t want to get behind because if you get behind, that’s going to ruin the whole run. We’re just able to come off the trailer going fast and kept improving all day.”

Tonglet acknowledged working with Kulungian is a pleasure.

“Tim is a unique guy,” Tonglet said. “He’s very smart. He’s very into the numbers and he tells me never to worry about qualifying because on Sunday he tunes it up and usually we haul butt on Sunday. That’s the biggest adjustment for me is not worrying about qualifying position because in years past that is all I would care about. With him, he says don’t worry about it and I have all the faith in the world in him. Now, my brother GT is out here helping and doing some stuff with Tim, so it is a very good season.”