Harley-Davidson® Screamin’ Eagle®/Vance & Hines rider Ed Krawiec qualified for the NHRA Countdown to the Championship playoffs as Pro Stock Motorcycle points were reset for the top ten riders following the Chevrolet Performance U.S. Nationals at Lucas Oil Raceway. Krawiec will be seeded seventh when the six-race Countdown begins September 13-15 at the NHRA Carolina Nationals.
Riding a V-Rod, Krawiec qualified second for the U.S. Nationals with an Elapsed Time (ET) of 6.948 seconds on Sunday. Andrew Hines qualified the team’s other V-Rod in eighth position with a 6.984-second run. Lucas Oil Buell rider Hector Arana led all qualifiers with a 6.938 ET.
Both Hines and Krawiec lost in the first round of eliminations on Monday. Viper Motorcycle Company Buell rider John Hall defeated his teammate, Matt Smith, in the final round to claim his second event title of the season.
Krawiec, the defending NHRA Pro Stock Motorcycle champion, won the first of his three titles in 2008 after being seeded seventh for the Countdown.
“I’ve started this deep in the field before and we won the championship with consistency,” said Krawiec. “We just need to stay focused and tune a consistent motorcycle and turn in a consistent performance on the track, and never beat ourselves.”
Hines, also a three-time NHRA Pro Stock Motorcycle champion, leaves Indianapolis in 12th place and out of the Countdown for the first time since the playoff format was inaugurated in 2007.
“We knew coming to Indy it would be a longshot to get me into the Countdown,” said Hines. “This has been a challenging year for the Screamin’ Eagle team as we adjust to all the tuning nuances of a new engine. My goal for the rest of the season is to keep developing this V-Rod and maybe be a nightmare for the rest of the class. I think we can win some more rounds before we are done, and I’ll be ready to help Ed whenever I can.”
When racing resumes, the riders in the Countdown will have their points reset, with ten points separating each of the ten riders. Lucas Oil Buell rider Hector Arana Jr. receives 20 bonus points for earning the top seed. That means the 149-point lead Arana Jr. had over second-place rider Smith coming into Indianapolis will shrink to just 30 points to start the Countdown. Arana Jr. will start the Countdown with 2110 points. Krawiec’s seventh seed position starts with 2030 points, 80 behind the leader.
The ten riders in the Countdown will race for the championship during the six events remaining in the 2013 NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series, beginning Sept. 13-15 with the Carlyle Tools NHRA Carolina Nationals presented by NAPA Auto Parts at zMAX Dragway in Concord, N.C.
