VOL. 56 ISSUE 17 APRIL 30, 2019 P29
missed tune-up in the first round
but made up for that later on,
and we worked our way to the
second round where we had that
wacky round."
The wacky round that Hines
referred to was the semi-final
heat that he shared with Hector
Arana Jr. and Hector Arana Sr.
as well as Denso EBR's Angie
Smith. The entire round had to
be re-run after the Christmas
Tree starting system malfunc-
tioned in Arana Sr.'s lane. Hines
initially thought he'd lost after he
received a red-light in his lane.
"I was staging my bike, and I
could see the light flicker in lane
three where Hector Sr. was,"
Hines said. "I didn't know what
the heck was going on. I was all
staged so I turned the throttle
and the red light came on. I was
not sure exactly what the mal-
function was. At the top end, I
was interested to see if we'd get
a re-run. Thankfully, we did, but
that's something that has never
happened in my career. I just
saw all those blue lights flashing,
and it looked like I was getting
pulled over by the cops. When
we got the word about the re-
run, we had the bike ready in 30
minutes."
Luckily for Hines, the final
round was far more subdued. He
gave up a slight lead to Krawiec
but was able to power to the
win with a 6.831 elapsed time,
finishing just ahead of Krawiec's
6.858. Arana Jr., the winner
of the most recent race in Las
Vegas, was third with a 6.908
and Oehler, appearing in his first
final, was fourth with a 6.959.
"In the final, we all did our
normal job of staging which was
a big relief after what happened
the round before," Hines said.
"When I left I knew I didn't get all
of it. I could also tell that Eddie
was making a good run. I was
all tucked in and started thinking
he'd better not drive around me.
I got there by a hundredth which
means it was pretty close."
Krawiec rode a solid race
including his semi-final win
against Oehler, Cory Reed, and
WAR Suzuki's Karen Stoffer,
who was the low qualifier for the
race for the first time since 2015.
Krawiec won that round with
a 6.859, holding off Oehler's
competitive 6.890. Krawiec has
now been a runner-up six times
in Charlotte but has never won a
four-wide race.
After three of 16 rounds, Hines
has a substantial lead in the
Mello Yello points standings over
Krawiec, Arana Jr., and reigning
champ Matt Smith. After suf-
fering through a winless 2018
season, it's been a dramatic
turnaround for the second-gen-
eration rider.
"I'm happy to put what hap-
pened last year behind me,"
Hines said. "We struggled all
year and just never got our act
together. Thankfully, we ad-
dressed a few things over the
winter and fixed my bike and
this year has been totally differ-
ent. We just need to keep the
momentum going."
The Pro Stock Motorcycle
class will now head South to
Atlanta Dragway for next week-
end's NHRA Southern Nation-
als. CN
Karen Stoffer was
the top qualifier.
