VOL. 53 ISSUE 25 JUNE 28, 2016 P37
PHOTOGRAPHY
BY
STEVE
EVANS
THREE TIMES KRAWIEC
E
ddie Krawiec's latest NHRA
Pro Stock Motorcycle victory
at the Summit Racing Nationals
in Norwalk, Ohio, June 24-
25, wasn't exactly a day at the
beach, but in some ways it was.
Krawiec won for the third time
in five events this season when
he defeated teammate Andrew
Hines in an all-Harley-Davidson
final round, but the real story
came after the finish line when
Krawiec couldn't get his 195-
mph V-Rod stopped in either of
the last two rounds. With a prob-
lem that was later diagnosed as
a bad master cylinder, Krawiec
went into the sand trap twice,
but managed to avoid injury both
times.
"In my entire career, I've never
been into the sand pit even once
and I did it today on back-to-
back runs," Krawiec said. "I
guess that confirms that we have
a bad master cylinder. The first
time it happened I grabbed the
brakes and there was noth-
ing there. I shut the engine off
and squeezed my legs as tight
as I could against the body.
Thankfully, I wasn't going that
fast when it hit the sand so we
could get the bike fixed before
the final. We just had to clean
out 30-pounds of gravel. Then,
the same thing happened in the
final. We will definitely get it fixed
before the next race."
Other than his sand adven-
tures, not much went wrong for
Krawiec in Norwalk. The three-
time NHRA champion qualified
on the pole for the fourth time
in five races with a 6.822 and
rolled into his 60th career final
round after wins against Chip
Ellis, Lucas Oil Buell's Hector
Arana Sr., and White Alligator
Suzuki's Jerry Savoie. Against
Savoie, Krawiec had to use a
starting-line holeshot to get the
win with his 6.891 holding off
Savoie's quicker 6.889 run.
In the final round, Krawiec
defeated teammate Hines,
6.926 to 6.937, to earn his 34th
NHRA national event title. So far
this year, Krawiec has a nearly
perfect 14-2 record in elimination
rounds.
"In the final, I went for the
brake lever again and nothing
happened and I thought, 'great,
not again,'" Krawiec said. "The
second time, I knew what to
expect but the good thing is that
I wasn't going as fast when I hit
the sand. The bike only went in
maybe 10 feet so it really didn't
get too banged up.
"This is by far my best start [to
a championship] but we have to
keep building on this momen-
tum," Krawic said. "We have to
stay confident and keep moving
forward. That's always been the
strength of this team; we stick to-
gether when we're struggling and
when we're winning. It was a little
embarrassing to end up in the
sand twice but I honestly wouldn't
change a thing about this race. It
was just about perfect."
Kevin McKenna
Despite two runs that ended in the
sand trap, Eddie Krawiec came
away with the NHRA Pro Stock
Motorcycle-class winner in Ohio.
