IN
THE
WIND
P38
STEADY EDDIE STRIKES AGAIN
Y
ou can't blink your eye in two-thousandths
of a second but you can win a drag race.
Screamin' Eagle Harley-Davidson's Eddie Kra-
weic proved that when he claimed his 28th career
NHRA victory at the Mopar Mile-High Nationals
in Denver. Krawiec finished the final round just
two-thousandths of a second ahead of Lucas Oil
Buell's Hector Arana Jr. The winning numbers
favorited Krawiec via a starting line holeshot, with
his 7.239 holding off Arana's quicker 7.230.
"Two thousandths; that's really close," said
Krawiec. "I could hear him next to me," said
Krawiec. "I usually don't have to push that hard but
this year I do because the class is so close. I really
wasn't expecting it to be that close but I couldn't ask
for any better. It always makes the driver look good
to win on a holeshot."
Krawiec's improved performance is the result of
a recent mid-week test session for he and team-
mate Andrew Hines. Before heading for Denver,
they spent two days in Martin, Michigan, testing
new parts. Krawiec's efforts paid off with a new
track record 7.169-second in qualifying and race
day wins against Chaz Kennedy, Matt Smith, and
Jimmy Underdahl.
"We've had a humbling year," said Krawiec.
"It's taken a lot of hard work and a lot of digging to
get to where we are. I've always had a dominant
motorcycle but we've struggled and that's not the
way we expected this year to go. This started last
Monday when we went testing. We felt like we
had too. We made some changes and not just
because we were heading to Denver. We were
lacking race-day consistency. This week my bike
was fast and consistent."
Arana Jr., who won the most recent NHRA
event in Chicago, turned in another strong effort
on the thin altitude of Denver. The former rookie
of the year winner was the number two qualifier
behind Krawiec and reached his 17th career final
round by defeating Fred Camarena, Steve John-
son and Andrew Hines. Against Hines, Arana Jr.
squeezed out a narrow win, 7.245 to 7.277, to
prevent an all-Harley V-Rod final round.
Following the Denver round, Krawiec, Arana Jr.,
Hines, and Karen Stoffer occupy the top four spots
in the NHRA Mello Yello Championship standings.
Kevin McKenna
NHRA Mello Yello Pro Stock Motorcycle points leader
Eddie Krawiec scores his first win of 2015.
