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NHRA W in s t o n Drag Rac in g S e r ie s IA bove) Hines now has 27 NH RA nation al event vic torie s In his career and has taken the early-season lea d In the points stan d in g s over reigning NHRA champ Team WInston's Angelle SavoIe. (Left) Former three-time NH RA champ Matt Hines won h is fi rst race In six months as he rode h is Vance & Hines Eagle One Suzuki to a holeshot win over CraIg Treble's Mateo Tools bike In the final. Hines 7 .29 edged Treble's 7.28, thanks to a quicker starting-line reaction. t took three weeks longer than it should have, but for Matt Hines the wait to complete the rain -delayed Mac Tools Gatornationals was well worth it . Hines, w inless o n the NHRA Pro Stock Bike tour since last September, not only scored career victory number 27 in Gainesville, but also took over the points lead for the first time in more than a year after beating Team Scream 's Craig Treble in the final round . As if winning the final wasn't gratifying enough , Hines was also relieved in the way he won it; beating Treble at his own game. Treble made a slightly quicker run , 7 .28 to 7.29 , but Hines' superior startingline reaction time put h is Vance & Hines Eagle One Suzuki across the finish line first. "I red-lighted six times last y ear, and that cost me the champi onship ," Hines said. " I' m trying not to be so pumped up when I get to the starting line, but I knew that I'd need to b e on my game for Craig. He w a s last year 's reaction-time leader, so to beat him on a holeshot really m ea ns a lot. Right now , my bike is working so good that all I have to worry about is po pping the clutch and riding it. I'm not worried about tun ing it. We had a lot of troub l e with our clutch set -up on the first weekend , but we've gotten it a lot better lately. Our numbers have improved to the point where we are running faster than most of our competitors , so that takes some of the pressure off me." With runs of 7.23, 7.20 and 7.22 on race day, Hines was indeed run ni ng quicker than m ost his competi tors , t h o u g h severa l r iders , most notably Treble , Angelle Savoie, and Antron Brown, were also solidly in the 7 .2s . He attributed the improved performance to a new cylinder head that his father , Byron Hines, developed during the off-season. "T h at new head makes about 10 more horsepower on the dyno, and it requires a totally different clutch setup than what we used to run. I came out here three weeks ago fo r the first weekend of th is rac e and we had a lot of trouble with ou r clutch . It was slipp ing all the wa y down th e track. We still had some problems at the next race in Houston, but we 'v e pretty much got it figured out now. Of course , all of our engine customers got the new head and they are flying as welL " On the first weekend of the event, Team 23's Brown was the low qualifi er with a strong 7 .20 . Brown was able to nearly du plicate the performance during eliminations with a 7.21 in round one to beat Michael Phillips, but his day came to a premature end in round two against 18-year-old rookie G.T. Tonglet when his transmission wouldn't shift into fourth gear. 60 neVIl's STORY BY K EVIN M cKENNA PHOTOS BY NHRA GAINESVILLE, Fl, APRIL 20·21 I MAY 16, 2001 • eye • e " I was wailing on the [air-shifter) button, but it wouldn 't go into gear," Brown said. "I rolled off the throttle and it finally went into gear, then it popped out again . By then , he was long gone. It's too bad , because I definit ely had a bik e that could have won the race today ." With Brown out of action , Tonglet moved on to the semis, where he was paired with Treble, who cruised into his third career final after tak ing a 7 .24 to 7 .35 win over Tonglet. In the other half of the semifinals, Hines took a win that , to him , was equally as important as the final , as he beat Team Winston's Savoie, 7.22 to 7.28 , and officially reclaimed the po ints lead, albeit after just two of 14 rounds. Savoie, who was running a six speed transmission for the first time, n ever got a chance to make a solid run in eliminations and fell off the pace when her Star Racing -prepared Suzuk i broke a cam chain ;n round two . Savoie 's crew inst a ll ed a fresh engine for her race against Hines, but without a race-day tune -up, she was ab le to run just a 7 .28, and was no match for Hines. "I thought I had him," Savoie said . "I k new that if I cut a good light, drove straight, and shifted on time that he would have to have his best run of the day to beat me, and he did." "The points lead is a b ig deal, " Hines said. "Angelle was able to get the first win of the year in Houston, but that was the main thing I thought ab o ut w hen I thought about coming back here to Gainesville. If we both made it to the semis. I was going to try and take her out and take over the points lead. It worked out great." For T reb le, whose bike is powered by a Vance & Hines engine, just making it t o the final round was a major ac co m plishment, especially after his Matco T ools Suzuki failed to make it to the fini sh line under power on two consecutive runs during Friday's test session . Treble had been experimenting with a new ignitio n sy st em , and on both runs it cut out be fore he hit thi rd ge ar. He replaced it with his old unit for r ace day and r e sum ed a stea dy 7 .2 -seco nd pace. After recording wins over Shawn Gann, Geno Scali and Tong let, Treble believed that he had a legit shot to win his second career title, but when Hines got the j um p off the starting line, Treble was unable to pass him, des p ite a quicker elapsed time. "I've been racing Pro Stock Bikes for four years and that's the first time that I've ever lost on a holeshot," Treb le said . "It 's pretty embarrassing , really. The only cool thing is that he didn't drive away from me. We 've got the power to run with him now. I hope that is an indication of how our year is goin g to go. We struggled last year, and I co uld sure use a break now." CN Gainesville Raceway Gainesville, Florida Results: April 20-21, 2001 [Round 2 of 141 PRO STOCK ANAL: 1. Mot! Hin•• (S uz) 7.29 . 180 .50 2. Croig Tre ble (Suz) 7.28 . 182.72 NHRA WINSTON PRO STOCK MOTORCYCLE SERIES POINTS STANDINGS (oft., 2 01 14 events): 1. MlItt Hines (2 14/1 win ); 2. An gell e Savoie (l 9l/! win); 3. Croig Treble (1 70); 4. Antron Brown ( 136); 5 . Gen e Scali ( 109). Upcoming Rounds: Round 3 - Atlanta. Georgia. May 3-6 Round 4 - Englishtown, New Jersey, May 17-20