Cycle News

VOL. 50 ISSUE 40 OCTOBER 8, 2013 P69 Briefly... record setting performances but this year, unseasonably warm temperatures held performance in check. Last year Andrew Hines and Eddie Krawiec ran 6.72 and 6.73, respectively, but this time the best run of the race was Michael Ray's 6.857. ultimate round in Las Vegas with a 125-point lead and under the NHRA scoring system, which essentially awards 20-points for each round win, nothing short of a complete disaster will prevent him from winning the title. Regardless, Smith is taking a cautious approach and doesn't plan on taking unnecessary chances. "This thing's not over yet," Smith said. "I'm still looking at every round as just 20 points. But we'll be strong, I guarantee you, in Vegas. We've come this far and I'd like to be able to finish it off as soon as possible or at least keep this lead going into Pomona so the pressure won't be as bad. When this thing is over I might relax. Until then, we're going to keep pushing as hard as we can." CN Final 1. Matt Smith (Buell) 6.936/193.32 mph 2. Eddie Krawiec (Harley-Davidson) 6.965/190.43 mph Whether it was the pressure of the countdown, a mechanical malfunction, or simply an odd coincidence, Lucas Oil Buell teammates Hector Arana Sr. and his two sons - Hector Jr. and Adam - were all eliminated on red-light starts on Sunday. The elder Arana lost when he dumped the clutch too soon against Krawiec in round two. "I just messed up," Arana Sr. said. "There's really not much else to say. I will learn from this and we'll move on." Following the loss, Arana Sr. is now ranked fourth in the NHRA-points standings, with positions two through five separated by 16 points. "We will just keep fighting the rest of the year," Arana Sr. said. "We have had a good season and we want to end it well. Overall we had a good weekend, all qualifying in the top half, but we want to win. When we don't, we're not happy." He's too far back to make a serious run at the championship but one has to be impressed by the late-season success of 2010 NHRA champion LE Tonglet, who rode his Nitro Fish Suzuki to another semi- final appearance a week after reaching the final in St. Louis. Tonglet was leading Krawiec's Harley until he encountered an engine problem and slowed to a 7.002. "It only cost me a few hundredths of a second, but that was enough," said Tonglet. "We've had a pretty good run lately but we've had four races in four weeks and we're ready for a break. We have three weeks off to really get ready for our last two races." Speaking of Tonglet, his round-two opponent Hector Arana Jr. was not pleased at the tactics used by the Nitro Fish Suzuki rider during their second-round race in Reading. Arana Jr. left the starting line .004-second too soon, handing the round-win to Tonglet on a red-light start. Arana Jr. felt that Tonglet altered his staging routine in a deliberate attempt to throw him off his game and apparently it worked. Arana said that after the two completed their burnouts, Tonglet went directly in the staging beams, lighting both bulbs before Arana could light the pre-stage bulb. "It felt normal," Arana Jr. said. "I just screwed up, I guess. They play games and I played into it. I shouldn't have done that. He did his burnout and then went right in and double-bulbed me. When that happens you feel rushed. Once you go in you've got to keep going. I should have waited burned his ass down. That's all right. I'll get them back."

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