Andrew Hines has been on a roll this season and he doesn’t appear to show any signs of slowing down.

After nearly a one-month layoff for the Pro Stock Motorcycle class, Hines picked right up where he left off, earning his second number one qualifier of the year and 42nd overall Saturday at the 21st annual JEGS Route 66 NHRA Nationals at Route 66 Raceway.

Hines was tops in three of the four qualifying sessions and overcame a hard-charging Hector Arana Jr. in the fourth and final session to earn his fourth career No. 1 start in Chicago.

“I had a good motorcycle today. I left the starting line with the same 60-foot each session, which just so happened to be my two best of the season,” Hines said. “This track has been really good to us and I always love racing here at Route 66. It is one of my favorite tracks on the tour.”

Hines earned his second green hat of 2018 with a 6.849-second pass at 194.83 mph aboard his Screamin’ Eagle Vance & Hines Harley-Davidson in the final pass of qualifying. Arana temporarily took over the top spot a few pairs earlier, but was pushed to second with Hines’ chart-topping pass. Arana crossed the stripe with a 6.852 at 197.45 mph.

Hines’ Vance & Hines teammate Eddie Krawiec qualified third with a 6.862 at 193.24 mph, while Matt Smith (6.871) and Jerry Savoie (6.881) round out the top five.

Adding to the drama for the motorcycle class was a lengthy delay in the nitro ranks as oil and other issues pushed the Pro Stock runs to later in the evening leading to unique conditions for the riders.

“That was like a marathon session. We rolled up here and once they told us to turn around and go home, all the bike guys were going out the back of the staging lanes and I said let’s make a parade out of this and we went up the return road to show off for the fans,” Hines said. “It was nice to run at night. We put up better ETs and we got to run under the lights which we don’t get to do that much.

“For the Pro Stock Motorcycle class it is a different scenario. It is fun, but it changes the tuning. The track was as tight as we could ask for, but right now we are pretty consistent from greasier track conditions to good track conditions. We are still working on Ed’s bike, but at least we got our Harleys near the front.”

Despite proving fastest in most of the sessions, it wasn’t all smooth sailing for Hines as his team thrashed on the bike to get it to turn the kind of numbers that placed them atop the ladder.

“It took a little bit of brain scratching overnight to figure out how to get it off the starting line after our disastrous Q2. But all-in-all the guys are doing a great job,” Hines said. “It is a repeatable motorcycle and I can go out there with confidence to attack the tree.

“We threw everything at it. I talked to my dad a little bit doing some telephone tuning and I told him everything that I wanted to do and he is like, ‘wow, that is like 56 changes.’ We went back to some older notes that we used last year when we had track conditions similar to this. Using those old notes and some new transmission ratios has this thing riding really smooth and really fast.

“I feel really good about Sunday.”

Hines will square off with Cory Reed in round one seeking his first win of the 2018 season and 49th Wally of his career.