VOL. 53 ISSUE 43 NOVEMBER 1, 2016 P37
Hines fouled at the start.
"It takes the pressure off of me, really,"
Savoie said. "Last year I was in a similar spot
and I said I wasn't worried. I said whatever
happened, happened and now this year, I
think it's different. We want this champion-
ship and we want it badly. I lost the final
round at the last race in Dallas and it hurt.
We lost because a clutch part broke, but I
still felt like we should have won it. We took
the bike home and went to work on it to try
and make it better. This is just like football or
any other sport, the harder you work the bet-
ter you get. This is going to be very interest-
ing in two weeks when we get to Pomona."
Entering final eliminations from the top
spot, Savoie had little trouble making his way
through the field with wins against Scotty
Pollacheck, Nitro Fish Suzuki's LE Tonglet,
and Victory Gunner's Matt Smith. On the
other side of the ladder, Hines kept the
points battle close when he defeated team-
mate Krawiec in the semifinal round, 6.968
to 7.014. The final ended early when Hines
left the starting line 0.018 of a second before
the green light.
"This win isn't on me; it's on my crew,
especially my crew chief Tim [Kulungian],"
Savoie said. "Tim is amazing. After every
race, win or lose, he looks at his notes and
sees where we failed and where we showed
promise and he adjusts accordingly. That's
his approach. He doesn't care what anyone
else does.
"We're going to Pomona and we've got
a chance to actually win this champion-
ship and that's about all anyone can ask for.
Those Vance & Hines [Harleys] are great bikes
and Eddie and Andrew are probably two of the
best riders in the class but we're going to give
them a run for their money."
Kevin McKenna
Savoie's Suzuki was the dominant bike in Las
Vegas. The Louisiana-based Alligator farmer
qualified number one in a field of 27 bikes with
a 6.880 elapsed time and earned bonus points
for making the quickest run in each of the four
qualifying sessions, and he finished the job on
race day with a 6.915-second run in the final after
PHOTOGRAPHY
BY
MATT
POLITO
