races now, and I've finally got
an Indy win. I was joking that I
could just step off the bike now,
announce my retirement and not
run the Countdown. I think I'll
stick around though."
Krawiec qualified in the num-
ber one spot for the sixth time
this season and held a significant
advantage over the rest of the
field with a 6.829-second run
VOL. 51 ISSUE 35 SEPTEMBER 3, 2014 P87
Briefly...
After racing last weekend at Teirp
Arena in her native Sweden, Elvira
Karlsson returned to the U.S. to
compete in NHRA's biggest event.
Karlsson, whose Suzuki is tuned
by Gary Stoffer, made one of the
best runs of her career, but did
not qualify for Monday's final elimi-
nations. Karlsson ran a 6.99 on
Saturday, but it wasn't one of the
12-quickest runs that carry over to
Sunday. "We ran well but it wasn't
good enough," Karlsson said.
"We're going to go back home and
then come back over for the last
two races in Las Vegas and Po-
mona."
Greg Cope, who helped tune the
late Dave Schultz to many of his
record 45-wins, was seen wander-
ing the pit area at Indy. Cope, who
also worked for the Star and Vance
& Hines teams, now operates his
own motorcycle performance busi-
ness just outside of Cincinnati.
Craig Treble made another of his
infrequent appearances with his
Winning Combination Suzuki, but
had nothing but problems and did
not qualify. Treble broke a throttle
cable on one run and his bike
stumbled badly off the starting line
on another. The end result was
a best of 7.515, far show of the
7.01-second bump spot.
White Alligator Suzuki's Jerry
Savoie, who was the number-one
qualifier and the runner-up at the
Sonoma round, continued his re-
cent string of strong runs on his
Vance & Hines-powered machine.
Savoie was the leader for most
of qualifying with a 6.87-seocnd
run before settling into the sec-
ond spot. "It's been a long time
coming," Savoie said. "We never
wanted to give up on this Suzuki
program and now it's paying off.
I'm having a lot of fun."
The field for the upcoming Count-
down to the Championship field
is now set. The ten riders that will
race for the title at the final six
events of the season are, Andrew
Hines, Eddie Krawiec, Hector
Arana Jr. Hector Arana Sr., Matt
Smith, Angie Smith, John Hall,
Scotty Pollacheck, Michael Ray,
and Steve Johnson.
Prior to NHRA's biggest race, it
was announced that John Hall
would become a member of Kenny
Koretsky's Nitro Fish team, which
already includes world champion
riders Matt Smith and LE Tonglet.
Hall will carry the colors of the pop-
ular apparel brand for the balance
of the 2014 season.
Lucas Oil Buell's Hector Arana
Sr. lost his bid for a second U.S.
Nationals title when he lost in the
opening round to Kandy Buell's An-
gie Smith. Arana Sr. was especially
frustrated by his .110 reaction time.
"I was comfortable on what I was
going to do, but when I dropped
the clutch there was a hesitation,"
Arana Sr. said. "There was nothing
at all and then the bike took off. It
was out of control."
Qualifying has not been a problem
for Screamin' Eagle Harley-Da-
vidson's Eddie Krawiec this year
and he shined again at Indy when
he rode to a 6.82 to claim his sixth
pole position in the first 10 races
of 2014. "This means everything,"
continued on next page
KRAWIEC'S 25TH
COMES ON NHRA'S
