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Contact:
Matt King (414) 343-7634 matt.king@harley-davidson.com FOR
IMMEDIATE RELEASE HINES
MAKES SECOND CONSECUTIVE FINAL ROUND APPEARANCE AND GAINS VALUABLE
POINTS ON V-ROD Krawiec
Qualifies for First NHRA Eliminations at Home Track
Most
champions like to start the season off with a bang – or in race terms,
at least a win or two. Hines started the 2007 season with two first
round losses. Then
the rider of Screamin' Eagle/Vance & Hines Harley-Davidson V-Rod
recorded two consecutive second round losses – not exactly the way a
champion would like to kick off the search for a record-setting fourth
consecutive championship. That's
when the team went testing. Hines and the rest of the squad made more
than 40 passes at O'Reilly Raceway Park at "We
want to make our big changes at the shop and in testing and just have to
make the smaller, necessary changes at the track," Hines said.
"We're learning how to be more consistent and testing made all the
difference. The team is making great calls on the whole package and it's
coming together. We're more confident about the motorcycle and what it
will do when we make changes than we were at the start of the
season." The
testing and hard work has paid off. Hines won last weekend's NHRA event
at Route 66 Raceway in "We
had another consistent weekend and that's what we've been aiming to
find," Hines said. "We had to make tuning calls to adapt to
the changing weather and we even had to change motors between first and
second round (Sunday). We've done so much testing and work lately, we
were able to make an educated guess about how to set up the new motor so
quickly and it worked. We're making some good strides to where we want
to be." Hines
qualified in the No. 2 position with a career-best 6.910-second pass at
193.57 mph. Teammate Eddie Krawiec qualified for his first NHRA event at
his home track with a 7.023 pass at 190.14, good enough for the No. 13
position. While
Krawiec slipped from 12th to 13th in the point standings after his
fourth consecutive first round loss, Hines gained ground in the race for
the championship points. Hines was in fourth place and 169 points out of
first place coming into the Englishtown event, but left 126 points out
of first. "We
had a good weekend and we saw some good 60-foot times again which shows
that we're moving in the right direction when it comes to getting the
V-Rod off the line quickly," Hines said. "It's nice to know
that we're making good strides at the right time. "It's
especially huge making a move up the point standings because the group
of riders from fifth to 10th place was so tight. I knew that if I had a
bad race, I would be at the bottom of the pack. It's nice to know that
we made up some ground and we created a little distance. Now we can go
out and concentrate on winning rounds without the added pressure of
knowing the pack was right on our heels." Hines
beat Paul Gast in the first round. Hines rode his V-Rod to a 6.957 pass
at 189.60 to beat Gast's 7.074 at 187.13 on his Fast by Gast Suzuki.
Hines went on to beat Geno Scali in the second round with a 7.016 at
190.11 over Scali's 7.103 at 188.52 on his Performance Machine Suzuki. In
semifinal action Hines topped Steve Johnson and the Snap-on Tools Suzuki
team. Hines recorded a 6.969 at 191.13 over Johnson's 7.045 at 189.90. Hines
fell in the final round to Craig Treble and the Team Tigue Suzuki squad.
Hines came up short in his 17th career final round appearance by turning
in a 7.003 at 190.48, falling to Treble's 6.990 at 191.70. While
Hines is disappointed the team wasn't able to score its second
consecutive victory, he knows they are on the right path when it comes
to seeking out success. "The
caliber of my team is the reason why I was even in the position to win
two in a row," Hines said. "They don't like being down. They
like being at or near the top and that's what has kept us so motivated.
We have a great group of people working on the Screamin' Eagle V-Rod and
we've discovered other ways of making changes that make the bike more
competitive. "It
used to be that we were all about finding horsepower but now we've found
other ways of making the bike quicker through clutch management. We're
happy where we are at especially considering where we were at the start
of the season. We would still like to be a little quicker and even more
consistent, but the team has accomplished a lot especially since it's
the middle of the season." Krawiec
– an employee and long time racer at "It
was so good to be able to race at home and qualify at home at my first
national event," Krawiec said. "I had a lot of friends and
family that were able to come to the race and it was exciting to have
great support and be able to race on Sunday. "The
bike made four consistent passes in qualifying and I was hoping that
would transfer over to Sunday's first round. But we had some technical
issues that affected the bike and kept us from winning the round. "We're
going to keep working on it and head to the next race. Just qualifying
at my first event at my home track was amazing, but I'm looking forward
to moving on and earning some round wins at the next event." The
next NHRA POWERade event is the Summit Racing Equipment NHRA Nationals
in Hines
said he's pleased the races are moving at a quick pace now. "We're
looking forward to continuing our recent success," Hines said.
"And it's great that we're running well at a time when the races
are so close together. Hopefully we can continue to achieve some team
goals without having to wait a month between races to do it." Krawiec
is especially anxious to be at a track that is new to the NHRA circuit. "I'm
the new guy on the team and Screamin’
Eagle Performance Parts are inspired by and built in the spirit of the
raw adrenaline and power of motorcycle racing. Screamin’ Eagle Pro
parts are specifically designed for race-use applications, while
Screamin’ Eagle parts offer street-use performance options for the
Harley-Davidson motorcycle owner. Visit www.harley-davidson.com for more
information.
The
Screamin' Eagle/Vance & Hines Pro Stock Motorcycle team is sponsored
by Ford Truck, Dunlop, Matco Tools and S100.
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