Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/588372
IN THE WIND P22 LATER GATOR, SAVOIE DOMINATES TEXAS NHRA W hite Alligator Suzuki's Jerry Savoie has now won five NHRA Pro Stock Motorcycle events in his career but none of them have been as impressive as his latest victory at the AAA Texas NHRA Fall Nationals in Dallas, October 17-18. Savoie unleashed some of the quickest runs in the history of the class on his way to a final-round win against Screamin' Eagle Harley- Davidson's Eddie Krawiec. Savoie saved his best run for last with a 6.744, the quickest non-Harley run in NHRA compe- tition. Krawiec got a big lead at the start, but his 6.915 was no match for Savoie's Suzuki. "We went a 6.78 at English- town, and the conditions were better here than in English- town, but we weren't expecting anything more than maybe a 6.79," Savoie said. "We would have been plenty happy with that. But to run a 6.74, that was amazing. It's something we've been chipping at over the past few months. When you're making the power like we had this weekend—and I can't thank Vance & Hines enough for that— you don't want to throw it away on a red light. We tried to set up the clutch and myself to be a bit conservative but we managed to get away with a couple of close ones, so it's all good." Savoie began the weekend as the top qualifier in the quick field with a 6.76. He also set the top speed of the event at 199.88 mph. The part-time racer and full-time alligator farmer contin- ued his domination during Sun- day's final eliminations with runs of 6.78, 6.77 and 6.75 in his wins against Scotty Pollacheck, Victory Gunner's Matt Smith, and Big St. Charles Motorsports Suzuki's Karen Stoffer. Savoie's 6.7-second runs aside, the next quickest run of the entire event was Stoffer's 6.814. The battle for the Mello Yello Championship took an odd turn when incoming leader Andrew Hines broke his Screamin' Eagle Harley V-Rod in the opening round. With Savoie winning the race and Krawiec racing to a runner-up finish, Hines watched from the sidelines as his once robust lead shrunk to just 21 points over Krawiec and 31 over Savoie with two champion- ship rounds in Las Vegas and Pomona remaining. "I honestly never expected to be in this position," Savoie said. "When we started this team I knew that we'd come out here and we'd be competitive and win some races but a champi- onship is something else. I'm not going to get too excited about it. We're just going to go to the last two races and see what happens but I do like the fact that we've got a really fast motorcycle." Kevin McKenna Jerry Savoie scored an impressive win at the AAA Texas Fall Nationals in Dallas. PHOTOGRAPHY BY KEVIN MCKENNA