VOL. 53 ISSUE 33 AUGUST 23, 2016 P41
HINES GRABS HISTORIC 46TH CAREER NHRA WIN
IN BRAINERD
F
ollowing his most recent win
at the Lucas Oil Nationals in
Brainerd, Screamin' Eagle Har-
ley-Davidson's Andrew Hines
now stands alone as the most
successful rider in the history of
the NHRA Pro Stock Motorcycle
class. Following a close win over
White Alligator Suzuki's Jerry
Savoie, Hines has now won 46
times in his career, passing the
late Dave Schultz as the class'
all-time leader.
"Recently our team has been
on a mission to help me attain
the all-time wins lead," Hines
said. "Having accomplished
that, I cannot be more proud to
have done that atop a Harley-
Davidson with the support of
Vance & Hines. We all know that
Dave would have won a lot more
races if he hadn't left us but
given the level of competition
out here, I feel honored to have
46 wins."
While he is capable of
dominant performances, Hines
clearly did not have the best
bike in Brainerd. Instead, he
won the race largely because
of his riding skills including a
perfect .000-second reaction
time in the final round against
Savoie. Hines' quick start en-
abled him to win with a 6.866
elapsed time, slightly slower
than Savoie's 6.863. Hines was
also very quick off the starting
line the early rounds during his
wins against Star Buell's Cory
Reed and Lucas Oil Buell's
Hector Arana Jr. In both of those
rounds, Hines was almost per-
fect off the starting line.
"I definitely didn't want to have
a perfect light in the final," Hines
said. "At the same time, I knew
that I needed any advantage I
could get because Jerry had
been killer all day long. When
I saw that I'd won the race I
almost didn't believe it. If I had
rolled the bike in another eighth
of an inch when we were stag-
ing, that perfect light becomes a
red light and I'd have lost.
"As for our bikes, I don't know
if we were ever comfortable
here," Hines said. "We actually
came to this race with the inten-
tion of testing for the upcoming
Countdown [playoffs]. We put
new tires on our V-Rods and in
hindsight that was a bad deci-
sion because the track was so
good here that we did not need
new tires. We were off on our
tune-up but we just consistently
pecked away at it. I finally put
on an old tire for the final round
because it offered less rolling
resistance. The risk is that when
you change tires you're not
totally sure that the bike is go-
ing to go straight. Thankfully, it
worked and we managed to get
the win."
Much like Hines, Savoie also
started slow in Brainerd and
then rallied for a strong finish.
The number eight qualifier in the
16-bike field, Savoie settled into
a comfortable pace on race day.
He used a holeshot to defeat
low qualifier Angelle Sampey
in the second round and then
topped Hines' Harley-Davidson
teammate, Eddie Krawiec in the
semifinal round with a strong
6.822-second run.
Kevin McKenna
Andrew Hines celebrates
historic win at Brainerd.
