Pollacheck Gets Long Overdue
First NHRA Win
F
or more than a decade, Scotty
Pollacheck has been regarded
as one of the most talented racers
in the NHRA Mello Yello Drag
Racing Series, but victory had
eluded him until the Denso Spark
Plugs U.S. Nationals in Indianapo-
lis, September 4-6.
A runner-up in his first six final
rounds, Pollacheck finally broke
through for his first win at NHRA's
oldest and most prestigious
event. Pollacheck raced his Matt
Smith Racing-prepared Strutmas-
ters.com EBR against Screamin'
Eagle Harley-Davidson's Andrew
Hines in the final round and beat
the six-time champion with a
6.790 elapsed time. Pollacheck
also ran 200.53 mph in the final,
his second 200-mph run of the
weekend.
"When we came in here, we
joked about running the table
and we nearly did it," Pollacheck
said. "We qualified number one,
ran over 200-mph, and we won
the race. That's a pretty good
weekend. Honestly, my bike was
flawless all weekend. It has been
good all year but with all the rac-
es we've missed due to Covid-19,
we haven't had many opportuni-
ties to show it. The round before
the final, we made a good run,
but I didn't' do a very good job
of shifting so I felt that we could
run even better in the final. [Crew
chief and team owner] Matt Smith
said we could probably run over
200 again and he was right. It's
been a long time coming but I'm
glad the wait is finally over."
The only disappointment for
Pollacheck came on Saturday
IN
THE
WIND
P44
After more than 10
years of trying, Scotty
Pollacheck finally
nabbed his first career
NHRA Pro Stock
Motorcycle victory.
