VOL. 50 ISSUE 40 OCTOBER 8, 2013
P67
Briefly...
A week after Scotty Pollacheck announced his abrupt departure from
the Sovereign/Star team and joined
Matt Smith's Viper Motorcycle Co.
Buell effort; both teams basically
went about their business in Reading. Pollacheck red-lighted in the
first round against LE Tonglet while
Star owner George Bryce continued
to field two bikes for Michael Ray
and development rider Chaz Kennedy. Behind the scenes, the war of
words continues as Bryce has made
it known that he feels disrespected
by the sudden turn of events while
Pollacheck maintains that as someone who paid to ride, he was free to
pursue other opportunities if he was
unhappy with the current arrangement which was clearly the case
here. The only questions now remaining are whether legal action will
take place, and if so, who might be
held accountable. Stay tuned.
After his win
at Maple Grove
Raceway, Matt
Smith heads
into the final
two rounds
with a healthy
125-points lead.
Countdown to the Championship. After struggling at times
this season, he has now won two
races in a span of seven days,
backing up last weekend's victory in St. Louis with another title in
Reading. This time, Smith got the
best of his arch rival, Screamin'
Eagle Harley-Davidson's Eddie
Krawiec in the final round, winning by a 6.93 to 6.96 count.
"First off, I can't say enough
While teammate Eddie Krawiec went
to his second final round in the last
three events, Screamin' Eagle Harley teammate Andrew Hines wasn't
able to get out of the second round
as his 7.00 elapsed time fell victim
to low qualifier Michael Ray's 6.96.
"We put a new rear tire on my bike
this weekend and struggled with setup a little at first, but had a good run
in the first round," said Hines. "We
tried a different tune-up in round two
and I think we found something to
use in the future. Our new engine is
still down on performance to the fastest bikes here, so we just have to be
consistent and take advantage when
others make mistakes."
Usually, the Maple Grove round features some of the best conditions on
the NHRA tour, which often means
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