guys take a long time to stage and some guys want
to get up there as quickly as they can. You have to
be prepared for anything."
Hines qualified third in the field and drew a tough
assignment in round one with a heat that pitted him
against reigning World Champion Matt Smith, 2009
NHRA champion Hector Arana and Shawn Gann.
Smith's hopes for a victory ended with a red-light
start and Hines powered to a 6.820 to advance. In
the second "quad," Hines actually finished second
to Krawiec - 6.840 to 6.851 - but managed to ad-
vance due to the unique format of the event.
"To get the first win light was big and then to make it
to the final round was tremendous," Hines said. "Go-
ing forward I think our Harleys will be tough. We're
close now, but there are still some guys running more
miles-per-hour than we are and that's a sign of power.
We have some new parts that should be ready this
summer so as the Countdown gets closer we should
be closer to returning to our old form."
Following his runner-up finish, Krawiec was near-
ly as happy as Hines since he had also struggled
with the Vance & Hines team's new two-valve en-
VOL. 51 ISSUE 15 APRIL 15, 2014 P107
Briefly...
With the win, Hines now has 33
NHRA national event wins which
ties him with the late John Myers for
third place on the all-time wins list.
Dave Schultz remains the leader
with 45 wins followed by Angelle
Sampey with 41. "It's very cool to be
tied with John Myers," said Hines.
"I remember running around as an
eight-year old kid having rubber
band fights with John. He and Dave
Schultz were phenomenal in their
time. It's very cool to be associated
with that group."
Lucas Oil Buell's Hector Arana
Jr.'s speed poised him to defend
his Four-Wide Nationals title, espe-
cially after making the quickest pass
of the race in the opening round,
but a tuning call that backfired took
him out of the running. "We made
an adjustment before round two that
continued on next page
The Vance & Hines Harley-Davidson team celebrates their 1-2 finish.
