about this track but obvi-
ously I love racing here,"
Tonglet said. "It's one of the
fastest tracks we race on so
I really like being able to put
up big numbers. We usu-
ally get great weather and
we had a sold-out crowd so
that made this a lot of fun.
It's never easy to beat any
one of the Harleys, let alone
beat both of them but we
were able to do it today.
"It takes a lot of luck to
win races out here and I
did get lucky in round one
because I had a terrible
reaction time," Tonglet said.
"From then on I was decent,
and we were able to turn
on some win lights. Com-
ing from Denver, which is
the slowest track, to here,
which is the quickest, is an
adjustment. Here, the shift
light comes on so fast you
have to be on top of it. You
don't' want to get behind
or you'll ruin the whole run.
We just kept improving all
day and found a way to get
it done."
Tonglet's 2018 season
has been a roller coaster.
He opened the year racing
as a privateer after a suc-
cessful 2017 campaign with
Jerry Savoie's White Alliga-
tor team. Tonglet rejoined
the White Alligator team for
the second event, and he's
quickly regained his cham-
pionship forum. In addition
to his wins in Sonoma and
Richmond, he's got a pair
of runner-up finishes to his
credit and he's got a strong
16-6 record in elimination
rounds for the season.
In Sonoma, Tonglet was
the fourth-quickest qualifier
and the fastest Suzuki in the
field with a 6.806, 197.57
and he worked his way
through the field with wins
over Liberty Buell's Cory
Reed, Yello Corn Suzuki's
Joey Gladstone and Hines'
Harley teammate, Eddie
Krawiec. Against Krawiec,
Tonglet got off the starting
line with an almost-perfect
0.009 reaction time and
won on a holeshot with his
6.796 holding on to beat
the Harley's 6.769.
Hines was obviously
disappointed to lose in the
final, especially since he
has yet to win a race this
season, but the news wasn't
all bad for the five-time
world champion. Hines
struggled a bit in qualifying,
but his Street Rod came to
life on race day with a 6.778
in his round-one win over
Suzuki Extended Protection
Suzuki's Scotty Pollacheck.
Hines also beat Matt Smith
and Jimmy Underdahl to
reach the final round for the
85th time in his career.
"We changed our tune-up
VOL. 55 ISSUE 30 JULY 31, 2018 P41
LE Tonglet calls
Sonoma home after
winning for the third
straight time at the
NorCal venue.
