Racing for the first time at New England Dragway, Harley-Davidson® Screamin’ Eagle®/Vance & Hines riders Ed Krawiec and Andrew Hines qualified their Harley-Davidson® V-Rod® motorcycles for the Auto-Plus NHRA New England Nationals. Both riders were eliminated in the first round of racing on Sunday. The event was won by Viper Motorcycle Company Buell rider John Hall.
Racing in warm and humid weather all weekend, the Screamin’ Eagle/Vance & Hines team continued to seek more performance from its new two-valve V-Twin engine. Hines qualified 10th with an Elapsed Time (ET) of 6.921 seconds, while Krawiec qualified 14th at 6.961 seconds. Sovereign-Star Racing Buell rider Michael Ray qualified in the number-one position with a 6.832 run.
“I feel that we’ve made progress with the new package in the last two weeks,” said Hines. “We find a promising tune-up on the dyno at home but then that gain does not seem to translate to the race track. It’s the typical growing pains we are going to go through with an all-new engine. There’s a lot of talent and experience on this team, and I’m confident we’ll sort it all out.”
In the opening round of Sunday eliminations Hines lost to Nitro Fish Suzuki rider
LE Tonglet. Krawiec had a rare red-light foul in his opening-round race, leaving the line 0.022-second early to hand a win to Viper Motorcycle Company Buell rider Matt Smith.
“My red light was total rider error,” said Krawiec, the defending Pro Stock Motorcycle champion. “I was trying to anticipate the light and get a good jump on Matt. The Harley team is just going through a big learning curve right now. We knew how to adjust our previous engine for any situation. We were in humidity again this weekend and we are still trying to figure out what this engine likes.”
Following five rounds of Pro Stock Motorcycle competition in the 2013 NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series, Lucas Oil Buell rider Hector Arana Jr., who lost on a red light in the first round at Epping, leads the class with 451 points. Hall moves into second place with 359 points, followed by Ray with 345 points and Hector Arana Sr. in fourth place with 327 points. Krawiec is in seventh place with 257 points. Hines is 13th with 211 points.
The Pro Stock Motorcycles will next race at the 16th annual O’Reilly Auto Parts Route 66 NHRA Nationals presented by Super Start Batteries, June 27-30, at Route 66 Raceway in Joliet, Ill.
