Home is where the Wally is.

For Eddie Krawiec, Old Bridge Township Raceway Park is much more than just another racetrack. As a former track manager for the historic facility located in Englishtown, N.J., Raceway Park is the place where Krawiec first fell in love with motorcycle racing.

Fast forward to today, and you will find Krawiec on top of his game riding for the Vance and Hines Pro Stock Motorcycle team with championships and wins at some of the most famed racing facilities in North America to his credit. But every time he returns to Englishtown, it is truly something special.

“Obviously, when I come here I want to win. I have a lot of friends, a lot of family here. So it means a lot,” Krawiec said. “This race is one of, if not the biggest, highlight of my career. I have won championships, I have won the U.S. Nationals, I have won a lot of things, but it’s not often a racer gets to say they have won their hometown national event. When I checked that off my list, I felt like I am complete.”

But Krawiec is not complete. He still has so much more to prove.

Riding an impressive streak to start the 2016 NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series season, Krawiec continued to flex his muscle Saturday at the NHRA Summernationals with his third top qualifier award of the season in four races as the Pro Stock Motorcycle teams prepare to enter into the meat of their schedule beginning this weekend.

“It is tough to be at the top of the heap in this motorcycle class. There are a lot of great bikes out there and anybody can run fast at any given time,” Krawiec said. “Everybody is going to say that they expect to come here and expect to win. But first things first is qualifying. That is why it is so important to lay down a good lap out of the truck, because then you can go into, what I would say, is winning mode. And that is where we are right now.”

Krawiec placed his Screamin’ Eagle Harley-Davidson at the top of the charts Friday night and held that advantage on Saturday with a 6.783 at 195.53 mph, just holding off Jerry Savoie who qualified second with a 6.788 at 197.80 mph. Hector Arana Jr. qualified third with a 6.799 at 195.65, while Kawiec’s teammate Andrew Hines qualified fourth with a 6.802 at 197.57.

“Today was a little different than it was yesterday. Obviously times were much slower than they were on Friday, but fortunate for us this looks like what it is going to be like during race conditions,” Krawiec said. “Our goal coming into today wasn’t so much trying to run low e.t., it was to learn. We made some changes to the tuneup first round today and saw some really good data and good information. We were top speed of the session with a really good e.t., so we are going to work off of that.

“During Q4 we made a drastic change in what we would have thought would be the right direction and we learned it wasn’t. So that is really valuable information transferring over into tomorrow. That run was right around finals time, so hopefully, if it is either Andrew or myself in the final, we will be able to use that data to go some rounds.”

Krawiec will face Brian Pretzel in round one as he looks to improve on his impressive 10-1 round record in 2016. But if you think years of experience at Englishtown will give him the edge, think again.

“It’s one of those things where you tend to know the characteristics of the track, how it tends to react and do things, but all in all we are all at the same advantage and disadvantage going out there each round,” Krawiec said. “You still never know what you are going to get. NHRA has been doing a great job all year to give us the best tracks that they can. We are going to continue to chip away at the tuneup, work toward what we think is the right way, and hopefully get four win lights tomorrow.”

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