Cycle News

Cycle News 2017 Issue 11 March 21

Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles

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BLAZING START FOR KRAWIEC AT NHRA OPENER S creamin' Eagle Harley-David- son's Eddie Krawiec has an incredible knack for winning the first race of each new season and he did it again with a victory at the Amalie NHRA Gatorna- tionals at Gainesville Raceway, March 18-19. Krawiec rode to a final round win over his Vance & Hines teammate Andrew Hines. Krawiec powered to a 6.763 for the win to cover Hines' competi- tive 6.802 elapsed time. "Getting a win this early re- ally helps set the pace for the year," Krawiec said. "If you can win two or three races, that just about guarantees a spot in the Countdown. This is an extra- competitive class and we've got a lot of good bikes out here this year so a fast start is more important than ever. It just feels good to get one out of the way so quickly." The Gainesville opener featured premium weather and track conditions which allowed for record-setting performances. Krawiec qualified number two IN THE WIND P28 with a 6.791, behind White Alliga- tor Suzuki's Jerry Savoie, who rode to a 6.753 for the top spot. All 16 qualifiers ran quicker than a 6.922, making it one of the most competitive fields in the history of the class. "We spent the winter work- ing to refine our program and it showed this weekend," Krawiec said. "We spent a lot of time in the dyno room working on engines and trying to learn a whole new way to tune our bikes. We also knew coming in here that this track was going to be really quick and we knew our challenge was going to be to harness that extra horsepower. We went testing a week ago and we swapped my tune-up with the one that my teammate was using. We picked up 3.5 miles- per-hour and that told us that we were on to something. By the time we got here we had a couple of fast motorcycles." Although Krawiec had one of the quickest bikes in the field, getting it to the finish line proved to be a challenge on at least a couple of runs including his round one win over Mike Berry. Krawiec rode the centerline for much of the track before finally getting the bike settled. "I was pointed a little crooked and when I popped the clutch, the bike headed for the center line and I couldn't get it to come Eddie Krawiec got the 2017 NHRA season off to a winning start like he usually does.

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