LE Tonglet has an innocent face, an accent like gooey molasses, a lanky 5-foot-11, 130-pound body perfect for competing in the Pro Stock Motorcycle class, and, for a 20-year-old, a curious mix of hobbies such as movies, golf, skydiving, paintball, and day trading.
 
Now he also has four victories in five final rounds, including three straight over points leader Andrew Hines in the money round, with his triumph Sunday in the O'Reilly Super Start Batteries Fall Nationals.
 
Tonglet rode Kenny Koretsky's Nitro Fish Suzuki past a red-lighting Hines to a 6.972-second pass at 187.94 on the Texas Motorplex quarter-mile. With that, the rookie from Metairie, La., claimed the distinction as the only undefeated competitor in the Countdown to the Championship.
 

LE Tonglet has an innocent face, an accent like gooey molasses, a lanky 5-foot-11, 130-pound body perfect for competing in the Pro Stock Motorcycle class, and, for a 20-year-old, a curious mix of hobbies such as movies, golf, skydiving, paintball, and day trading.
 
Now he also has four victories in five final rounds, including three straight over points leader Andrew Hines in the money round, with his triumph Sunday in the O'Reilly Super Start Batteries Fall Nationals.
 
Tonglet rode Kenny Koretsky's Nitro Fish Suzuki past a red-lighting Hines to a 6.972-second pass at 187.94 on the Texas Motorplex quarter-mile. With that, the rookie from Metairie, La., claimed the distinction as the only undefeated competitor in the Countdown to the Championship.
 
"It's unbelievable," Tonglet said -- the same thing he has said throughout his on-track battles with Hines and his Vance & Hines Screamin' Eagle Harley-Davidson V-Rod -- and against the source of his horsepower.
 
"Our season's turned upside down," Tonglet said, recalling how Koretsky rescued his performance-strong but sponsorship-weak rookie-of-the-year bid before the Brainerd race in mid-August.
 
However, Tonglet said this weekend at the Motorplex (his new hometrack-away-from home since the NHRA dropped the Memphis venue from its schedule) wasn't easy. Cutting Hines' lead in the standings from 66 to 44 points was hard work.
 
"I wasn't feeling too confident Saturday night, We've been stumbling in qualifying," the No. 6 qualifier said. "We didn't find it [his motorcycle's potential] until the second round. The bike really woke up.
 
"From then on," he said, "our confidence all went up. My dad said, "We can do this. We just need to have a good light against Eddie [Krawiec] and see what happens."
 
He said he was "just happy to be in the semis. From there on out it's a bonus. It didn’t matter whether we won or lost. We were still going to go home happy. The win makes it that much better."
 
In the process, Tonglet beat Michael Phillips, Karen Stoffer, and Eddie Krawiec to reach the final.
 
His toughest opponent all day turned out to be Krawiec, who had posted low elapsed time and top speed in both of the first two rounds atop his Vance & Hines Screamin' Eagle Harley-Davidson. Krawiec ended up with low E.T. (6.899 seconds) and top speed (195.03 mph) of the meet.
 
In the semifinal, Tonglet and Krawiec clocked identical 6.969-second E.T.s and Krawiec's 187.68-mph speed (best of the round) was slightly faster than Tonglet's 187.08. However, Tonglet used reaction time to advance to the final, his .011 of a second topping Krawiec's .030.  
 
Hines eliminated red-lighting Angie Smith, as well as Steve Johnson and Matt Smith to advance to his sixth consecutive final round. He fouled out by six-thousandths of  a second in the final-round showdown between the class' top two ranked riders.
 
Tonglet said three-time champion Hines had remarked at the previous race, at Charlotte, that he "had a complex" about facing Tonglet so much and letting the young rider get the better of him.
 
"This race it showed," Tonglet said. "He's definitely thinking about it. For him to go up there and red-light, he had to feel the pressure."
 
He added that Terry Vance, the "Vance" of Vance & Hines, said he was proud of Tonglet and was proud, too that his company is "showing everybody that Vance & Hines gives out the right amount of power to beat them."
 
Tonglet said he "saw the red light when I left, so just knowing that you're going to win, that's just so nice. It's just so awesome."
 
Pressure is something Tonglet says he doesn't like to dwell on. "I don’t feel that much pressure. It is there. I'm just glad I have GT (older brother and Pro Stock Motorcycle class veteran) and my dad (Gary, his crew chief, who raced in the class first) there to keep me calm.
 
"We'll happy with a top-three finish," LE Tonglet said, "but my dad says he's hungry for that championship. He needs the money, he said."
 
He earned the winner's jackpot Sunday, but he said, "We have to keep this momentum going. We have to keep our heads straight and it should play out pretty good."
 
However, Tonglet said this weekend at the Motorplex (his new hometrack-away-from home since the NHRA dropped the Memphis venue from its schedule) wasn't easy. Cutting Hines' lead in the standings from 66 to 44 points was hard work.
 
"I wasn't feeling too confident Saturday night, We've been stumbling in qualifying," the No. 6 qualifier said. "We didn't find it [his motorcycle's potential] until the second round. The bike really woke up.
 
"From then on," he said, "our confidence all went up. My dad said, "We can do this. We just need to have a good light against Eddie [Krawiec] and see what happens."
 
He earned the winner's jackpot Sunday, but he said, "We have to keep this momentum going. We have to keep our heads straight and it should play out pretty good."

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