IN
THE
WIND
P22
KRAWIEC ROLLS ON
I
t has been more than a month
since Screamin' Eagle Harley-
Davidson's Eddie Krawiec lost
a race in the NHRA Mello Yello
Drag Racing Series and based
on his performance at the
Lucas Oil Nationals in Brainerd,
it doesn't appear that streak
is likely to end anytime soon.
Coming off wins in Denver, So-
noma, and the Pro Stock Bike
Battle specialty event, Krawiec
won again in Brainerd when he
defeated his teammate, Andrew
Hines in the final round.
"I have a great motorcycle
under me," Krawiec said. "Ear-
lier this season we just lacked
consistency. I'd say that since
Denver we've really gotten into
the groove and figured out what
the motorcycle wanted. I've
been fortunate enough to go
to three final rounds and win all
three and also win the NHRA
Pro Bike Battle in Sonoma, so
I'm on a pretty good roll. Hope-
fully it's not too early because
after Indy is when you really
want to get on a roll like this, but
hopefully I can continue it all the
way through to the end of the
season in Pomona."
Starting from the number-two
spot after rain shortened qualify-
ing from four to three rounds,
Krawiec had to beat one of the
toughest lineups imaginable
during eliminations when he was
faced with four past world cham-
pions: Hector Arana Sr., LE
Tonglet, Matt Smith and Hines.
Krawiec's best performance
came in the second round when
he set the Brainerd International
Raceway track record with a
6.78 in his win over Tonglet,
who made one of the best
runs of his career with a 6.83.
Krawiec returned with a 6.83 to
beat Victory Gunner's Smith and
then closed out his 30th career
NHRA victory with a 6.84 to
6.89 win over Hines.
"We came off the trailer and
ran fairly well with both motor-
cycles," said Krawiec. "Andrew
went to the pole on Friday night,
and I was right behind him,
made a really good run. We kind
of struggled there with my bike.
It's kind of weird the way that
you'd have two motorcycles in
the same camp, one struggles
to get off the starting line and
the other's good but obviously
we were both good on race
day."
With the win, the 30th of his
career, Krawiec is now tied with
his crew chief, Matt Hines for
fifth place on NHRA's all-time
Pro Stock Motorcycle wins list
behind Dave Schultz, Angelle
Sampey, Andrew Hines and
John Myers.
Kevin McKenna
Eddie Krawiec
extended his
win streak
to four in the
NHRA Mellow
Yellow Drag
Race Series.
PHOTOGRAPHY
BY
KEVIN
MCKENNA
