Screamin’ Eagle/Vance & Hines rider Andrew Hines advanced to the final round of Pro Stock Motorcycle eliminations at the Fram/Autolite NHRA Nationals at Infineon Raceway. In his fourth final-round appearance of the season, Hines lost to Rocklin Motorsports Buell rider Matt Guidera, but added to his overall lead in NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series season points. Screamin’ Eagle/Vance & Hines rider Eddie Krawiec advanced to the semi-final round before losing to Hines.

Aboard a Harley-Davidson V-Rod motorcycle, Hines qualified in the sixth position for the Sunday Pro Stock Motorcycle elimination rounds with a time of 7.033 seconds. Krawiec qualified his Screamin’ Eagle V-Rod seventh at 7.036 seconds. Karen Stoffer rode the Geico Suzuki to the top qualifying spot with a 6.962 pass.

Hines opened eliminations with a red-light win against Hector Arana in the first round, and a victory in round two over his closest rival in season points, NitroFish Buell rider Matt Smith, who had a mechanical problem during his run.

Krawiec defeatedTeam Tigue Suzuki rider Craig Treble in the first round, and won in round two when the motorcycle ridden by Chris Rivas broke at the starting line. In the round three race between the Screamin’ Eagle/Vance & Hines teammates, Hines left the line with a reaction time of just 0.006 on his way to a pass of 7.055 to beat the 0.039/7.097 run posted by Krawiec.

In the final, Hines lost at the light with a 0.050/7.026 run to the 0.018/7.054 pass by Guidera, who crossed the line with a .0045-second margin of victory.

“I really cut it close at the start against Eddie, so maybe that was on my mind and I watched the yellow just a little too long in the final,” said Hines. “But all the way down the track I thought that I would catch Guidera, especially after the 7.125 run he’d made in the semi-finals. But he beat me by about the thickness of my front tire.”

Beating Smith in the second round was a highlight of the day for Hines.

“I thought it would be tough to beat Smith,” said Hines. “That win not only helped us in the points, it let us run some rounds back-to-back today and really work on our tune-up. I think we’ll be racing with real momentum in the second half of the season.”

Krawiec raced to the semi-final round of eliminations for the third consecutive NHRA race weekend.

“It’s good to be consistent, because we keep scoring points,” said Krawiec. “I guess I dropped back one position to sixth in the points, but we gained ground on the teams ahead of us, and now there are less than 20 points between sixth and fourth. We’ll have a real opportunity to move up before the U.S. Nationals at Indy.”

After nine rounds in the 2008 NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series, Hines leads the Pro Stock Motorcycle class with 762 points. Smith is 76 points back in second place with 686 points, followed by Chip Ellis with 644 points, Rivas with 569, Guidera with 563 and Krawiec in sixth place with 554. NHRA Pro Stock Motorcycles will race next August 7-10 at the Lucas Oil NHRA Nationals at Brainerd International Raceway, Brainerd, Minn.

Used with permission from H-D®.