NHRA’s Pro Stock Motorcycle Battle specialty race turned into an all-Harley Davidson battle – won by Andrew Hines.

Hines, who pilots the Screamin’ Eagle Vance & Hines Harley, beat his teammate Eddie Krawiec in the finals at Sonoma Raceway Saturday.

Hines clocked a 6.775-second elapsed time to defeat Krawiec’s 6.811-second lap.

“This (win) doesn’t take any pressure off, we always want to go out there on Sundays and this race we just happened to get to race on Saturday,” Hines said. “I’ve been pretty successful in this deal. I don’t know if it's because it is for money and no points, maybe I over think the points deals a little too much. Our guys always make sure they give us good V-Rods to go run down the race track and here is no different. We just seem to finally stumble on the tune-up (Saturday). We were struggling a little bit on Friday and we knew we had some work to do. The class was running quick and we have the quickest bump spot (6.902 seconds) in the history of the class here. We had to be on our game.”

This was the sixth time Hines won the Pro Stock Battle – and the 12th time the Vance & Hines team won the Pro Stock Battle in 21 attempts.

“It was a double bonus there in the finals for myself because I had to improve my qualifying position and I had to run under 6.780 and went (6)775 and that help set the stage a little different for (Sunday). I moved up from fifth to third and that was a big deal.”

Krawiec defeated Hines in the 2015 Pro Stock Battle finals, but there was no measure of revenge for Hines.

“He has made me a better racer ever since he joined our team in 2007,” Hines said. “It helped me change my perspective on how I should be racing instead of riding. Without him being so good, it wouldn’t have pushed me to be better. He has a lot of wins in his career and three championships also.”

The performance of some Suzukis at Sonoma, which Vance & Hines provide motors for, also has Hines’ attention.

“Obviously the Suzukis are quick out here and we’ve seen the history of that with Jerry (Savoie) running killer ETs out in Dallas last year. Here is no different and it’s nice to see some of our Vance & Hines 4-cylinders putting up times that are representative of what they should be running. LE (Tonglet) ran 6.78 and that is the first non-alligator Suzuki to run that quick. That’s a good sign for Vance & Hines. We give our competitors enough equipment to go out there and do well and they’re finally making the most of it. It makes us feel good to have the Vance & Hines on our chest. They have been quicker than us in weekends past and it makes us feel good when we can come in here and sneak away race wins. We don’t always have the quickest bikes down the track.”

While Kraviec lost the Pro Stock Battle he did qualify No. 1 with a track record 6.751-second lap at 197.65 mph. Angelle Sampey was second at 6.752 seconds, followed by Hines.

This was Krawiec’s fifth No. 1 qualifying position this season and his third at Sonoma. He has 32 No. 1 qualifying efforts in his career.

What’s more, Krawiec has three PSM victories at Sonoma 2012, 2014-15 – the most of any PSM rider.

“I’ve always loved coming to Sonoma,” Krawiec said. “They have great fans, great support, not to mention awesome racing because this track, being close to sea level, obviously makes for fast runs and good ETs. What it comes down to, is I feel very comfortable, relaxed. I think when you have that your mind is other places, you are just out there saying I have to do what I have to do. It’s (about) building momentum. The Countdown is only two races away so we have to really stay focused and keep refining what we have.”