IN
THE
WIND
P46
KRAWIEC ON A ROLL
W
ith a win in Den-
ver, another one in
Sonoma and a victory in
the NHRA Pro Bike Battle
specialty race, Eddie
Krawiec is undefeated
in his last 11 rounds of
competition in the NHRA
Pro Stock Motorcycle
series, and with the cham-
pionship playoffs on the
horizon, the Screamin'
Eagle Harley-Davidson
rider is peaking at the
right time. Krawiec won
his latest race in Sonoma
when he defeated White
Alligator Suzuki's Jerry
Savoie in the final round.
Krawiec won the rematch of the
2014 Sonoma final by just four-
thousandths of a second at the
finish line.
"The Gator almost ate us in
the final," Krawiec said. "I am
fully aware of what awesome
horsepower Jerry [Savoie] has
because we [Vance & Hines]
supply it. Jerry has come a long
way and he's a great racer. I
wasn't going to take him lightly.
There was only four-thousandths
between us in the final. It could
easily have gone the other way."
Krawiec won the Sonoma
race from the number one quali-
fying spot, but he was far from
dominant. In fact, he consid-
ered himself lucky to get past
round one opponent, Victory
Racing's Angie Smith. In that
round, Krawiec won by just two-
thousandths of a second with a
6.963-second elapsed time.
"I guess I had a clutch mal-
function against Angie [Smith]
and we blew the tire away,"
Krawiec said. "It was odd to
do that and it was a lot closer
than it should have been. The
same went for racing Jerry in
the final. Heck, every round is
close. That's the way this class
is anymore. You have to be on
your game every round. You
can't take anyone lightly. To win
three-straight races in this day
and age is just unbelievable."
On the way to the victory,
Krawiec also defeated Steve
Johnson's Suzuki and Petrol-
head Buell's Scotty Pollacheck.
Krawiec now has 29 NHRA
victories, just one behind three-
time World Champion Matt
Hines, who is now his crew
chief.
"I have to give a lot of credit
to Matt Hines, and everyone
at Vance & Hines," Krawiec
said. "They took an outsider
and turned him into a race win-
ner and a champion. Matt is a
very unique individual. He is a
thinker and the way I look at it,
he has [97] wins because all
of my wins, all of Drew's [team-
mate Andrew Hines] wins and
all of his wins count the same
because he was a big part of
them."
Kevin McKenna
Screamin' Eagle Harley-Davidson's
Eddie Krawiec is on a hot streak.
PHOTO
COURTESY
OF
HARLEY-DAVIDSON
