Cycle News

NHRA PRO STOCK SERIES VOL. 51 ISSUE 11 MARCH 18, 2014 P95 been more than enough to win it," Pollacheck said. "I hit the first two gears and everything was fine and then it wouldn't go into third gear. I hit the [shift] button three times and the engine hit the rev limiter and by the time it finally shifted he was gone. It was just one of those things that hap- pens sometime. I still had a great weekend." CN Final 1. Steve Johnson (Suzuki) 6.912/191.32 mph 2. Scotty Pollacheck (Buell) 7.093/190.81 mph Briefly... been a major issue over the past two seasons. A mechanical prob- lem cropped up in Gainesville and cost him a possible round win against Scotty Pollacheck. "When I dropped the clutch I heard it: The bike just died. Not only did it die, but it did not respond for what seemed like an eternity to me. When it finally took off I was like, 'Okay, I still have a chance to catch him.' I shifted and went for the next gear change and it wouldn't change. At that point I just had to shut it off; the run was over for me. It's just really frustrating. The bike has been having this same is- sue since we left Pomona last year. I've gone over the transmission and replaced a bunch of parts to see if I can figure out what the problem is. Apparently, I haven't gotten it figured out yet, but I'll go home and go over everything again until I get it." Motorcycle drag racing is popular all over the world and that's certainly true of the Pro Stock Motorcycle class that has an International flair in Gainesville with the addition of a pair of European riders, Finland's Fredrik Fredlund and Elvira Karls- son of Sweden. Fredlund, the reign- ing FIM European champion, rented a Suzuki from Gary Stoffer, who is also his crew chief. He qualified for the first time with a career-best 6.93. Karlsson, who is the quickest rider in Europe with a 6.99 time slip to her credit, made her U.S. debut, but missed the field with a 7.02 best. Karlsson plans to compete in the up- coming four-wide event in Charlotte before returning home for the start of the 2014 season in Europe. Katie Sullivan is so determined to follow through on her dream to be- come a professional motorcycle rac- er that she is in the process of sell- ing her graphics business in order to raise enough funds to compete in all 16 NHRA Mello Yellow series events. Sullivan got off to a good start by riding her Modern Outlaw Suzuki to a career-best 6.874 to qualify for the field. "The way I see it, I'm young and if I'm going to try and make a career out of this, now is a good time to do it. I've got a little bit of sponsorship and I'm going to go as far as it will take me." After struggling on the starting line for much of his rookie season in 2013, Lucas Oil Buell's Adam Ara- na left on opponent John Hall in round one, but had to abort the run when his bike made a move towards the retaining wall. "I stayed with it as long as I could," Arana said. "This isn't qualifying; it's race day and I didn't see him so I held on to it. I fi- nally had to lift. It's too bad because I absolutely could have won that race." For someone who had made a total of three runs on a Pro Stock Motor- cycle before his debut in Gaines- ville, Eddie Reed did quite well for himself. Reed, of Compton, Calif., rode the Nitro Fish Suzuki normally piloted by World Champion LE Ton- glet, and nearly qualified for the field with a 6.996 best. Tonglet was forced to miss the season-opener while he continues fire fighter train- ing in his hometown of Metairie, Louisiana. "I can't thank the Tonglet family enough for letting me ride their bike," said Reed. "This has been something that I've wanted to do since I was a kid. I'm blessed to be able to do this." (Left) Johnson beat MSR Buell's Scotty Pollacheck in the final. (Below) Team Johnson celebrates the victory in the series opener.

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