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NHRA W inston Drag R a c in g Series Round 3: A tlanta Dragway (Right) Fonner college sprinter Antron Brown claimed his seventh career NHRA Pro Stock Bike win when he rode h is Team 23 Suzuki to a finalround victory over Matt Hines In Atlanta. Brown got the holeshot a nd beat Hines to the finish lin e despite a slower elapsed time. (Above) After w inning his fi rst race of the 2001 season , Brown was abl e to move from fourth to seco n d In the points standings. After three of 11 events, Brown is j ust 59 points behind l ea d er Hines STORY BY K EVIN M cKENNA PHOTOS BY NHRA ATLANT GA, MAY 3-6 A, h e same q u ic k reflexes tha t he lp ed ma k e An tron Brown a world -class sprinter in coll ege have a lso h elp ed mak e him one of drag racing 's best Pro Stock Bike rac er s. B rown p ut those re fl exes to go od use at the Advance Au to Parts NHRA S outh ern Nationals, as he u sed a startin g -l in e ho leshot to upset former three-time NHRA cham p Matt Hines in the final round. Brown left the starting li ne three-hundredths of a second ahead of Hines and held on for his seventh career win despite a slower elapsed time down the quarter-mile 7 .26 to Hines ' 7.24 . At the fi ni sh li ne , both bi kes were separated by j ust six teen -th ousand ths of a second. "My bike go t into some bu mps and j u m ped around a little, " Brown said . "I knew it was going to be close . I di dn 't want to look over to see where he was because usually when you look at Matt, he's driving around you . We really needed this win. Matt has been a man on a mission thi s year and if we're going to kee p up with him in the points , we're go ing to have to win more races like th is. I didn't wa nt h im to pull any further ahead than he already is, so this was a huge w in fo r us." In qualifying, Brown was plagued b y tran sm ission problem s. On fo u r T 30 M AY 23 , 2001 • cue I e consecutive runs , h is Suzuki wouldn't engage high gear. Despite the prob lem, Brown managed a c om petit ive 7.2 6 for the sec o nd sp ot, but he was a full seven- hun d redths beh ind Hin es, w ho set the A tl anta D ra g w ay track reco rd with a 7.19 blast. "We never felt like we were th at far behind Matt," Brown said. "I knew we c o u l d ru n w i th h im as lon g as t he tra nsmission hit all six gea rs. My crew chief, Mark Peiser, an d my dad, AI , stayed up half the night on Saturday and put a new transmission in the bike. It was last year's transmission, but it worked perfectly and we were able to close the gap a little on race day." In the first round of elim inations , Hines again had the qu ickest b ike with a 7.21 win over B l a ine Hale's Kawasaki, and Br o w n was secondquickest with a 7 .30 win over Ron Ayers' Mac Tools Suzuk i. Brown closed the gap in round two with a 7 .26 win over Steve Johnson, who made his best" run of the week end with Ii 7.32 on his K&N F ilters Suzuk i. Hines was just two hun dredths of a second quicker than Brown with a 7 .24 win over Shawn Gann , who slowed t o a 7.46 on his TLlOOO . One rider that neither Hines nor Brown had to worry about was Team Winston 's Angelle Savoie. The reigning NHRA Pro Stock Bike champ was looking to win the A tl anta race for the third straight year, but she broke her n _ ... s best eng ine in qualifying and couldn't run quicker than 7.30 with her back up. Savoie qualified fourth in the 16bike fiel d and got past Joe DeSantis in round on e, but got beat by Jonco Motorsports rid er Geno Scali in round two , 7.26 to a 7.30. " Evide ntly, our sec ond -best eng ine isn' t as go od as th e one th at we broke in qua lify ing , " said George Bryce , Sav oi e's crew chief and team owner. ."We tuned on it and got it to run pret ty well , but it wasn 't eno ugh to beat Geno . So m eth in g went away , a nd now I've got to find it. If I have to, I can d ig out the stuff that ran a 7.23 here last year, but I've got a ne w combination tha t has shown a lot of p ro m i se and I wa nt to stick wi th it. O b v i o u sl y , ou r co mpetitio n has stepped up this year, but it's ea r ly and we're stil l very much in the points battle. We 're just going to hav e to work a little harder this year," In the semifinals, Brown ran another 7.26 to slip past Craig Treble, who ran a 7.31 on his Mateo Tools Suzuki and Hines countered with a 7.25 victory over Scali , who coasted down the track after a lo ose ig n it io n wi re k illed his engi ne . Despite the lo ss, Scali, who mainta ined the fi fth spot in the points standings , was encouraged by his semifinal finish . " O n our first qua lifying run, we broke a crankcase stud: Scali said . "We managed to get it fi x ed but it cost us two q ualify in g runs . It also put us two runs beh ind everyone else . We didn 't have a good baseline tune -up for eliminations, but we managed to find it when we ran Angelle. I think I could have beat en Matt if the engine hadn't stalled . It would have been a good race , anyway. " Unlike last year, where a variety of rider errors cost him a fourth championship , Hines had little to apologize for after losing to Brown. The Vance & Hines rider has appeared in th e final round in each of the first th ree races and already holds a solid lead in the points standings - although with 11 rac es remaining, it' s way too earl y for him to start practic ing any championship sp eeches . " Ho nestly, I thought I d id a fai rly decent job on th e sta rti ng li ne: Hi nes said . "I saw An tron a little in second and third gear, and I could tell it was going to be close. M y bike got reall y clo se t o t he c enterlin e a n d it w a s spinning th e ti re all through the m id dl e of th e track . I di dn' t want to cross the centerline o r h it a [timing m arker] but I was n 't about t o li ft ei ther. T he important thing is that we kept the points lea d , especi all y sinc e I p ick ed up two ro un d s on Angelle . It also doesn 't hurt to see so me different faces in the winner's circle . It helps keep the class exciting: CN Atlanta Dragway Atlanta, Geurgia Results: May 3-6, 2001 IRuund 3 of 141 PRO STOCK FINAL : 1. Antran Br own (Suz) 7.26/183.72 ; 2. Malt Hlnes (Sua) 7.24/185.03 . NHRA W INSTON PRO STOCK MOTORCYCLE SERIES POI NTS STAND INGS ( Afler 3 o f 14 rounds) : 1. Matt Hine5 (3 12) : 2. Antran Brown (25 3) ; 3. Angelle Savo ie (246); 4 . Croig Treb le (246); 5. Gene Seen ( 183) . Upco ming Rounds: Round 4 - Englishtown. New Jersey, May 17-20 Round 5 - Joliet, Illino is, June 1-3 .