IN
THE
WIND
P36
THIRD WIN IN FIVE
FOR TONGLET
N
itro Fish Suzuki's LE Tonglet scored his third
title of the young season when he rode to the
Pro Stock Motorcycle win at the NHRA Summit
Racing Nationals in Norwalk, Ohio, June 25.
Tonglet defeated Polaris Magnum's Matt Smith in
the final round to win for the 13th time in his ca-
reer. Tonglet rode to a 6.824, his best pass of the
weekend, to hold off Smith's 6.882.
"The final was a very good run for us," Tonglet
said. "We were 0.02 of a second behind [Smith]
in qualifying but this [Sunday] is the only day that
counts. Matt slowed down after the semis; he said
he missed a shift or something. I don't know what
his problem is but I'm glad we got around him.
"Not having Jerry here had a huge impact on
our team," Tonglet said. "We didn't have all the
tuning data we'd normally get with two bikes. We
struggled early but Tim [Kulungian, crew chief] fig-
ured it out in the last couple of rounds. We missed
Jerry but his business comes first."
Tonglet joined Jerry Savoie's White Alligator
Racing Suzuki team this season as part of a two-
bike effort but that team was reduced to one bike
in Norwalk. Savoie had to withdraw from the event
at the last minute after a tropical storm threatened
his alligator farm in southern Louisiana. Savoie's
absence allowed WAR crew chief Kulinguan to fo-
cus all of his efforts on Tonglet's bike. The results
were impressive. Tonglet qualified second in the
field behind Smith with a 6.847 and earned race-
day wins against Melissa Surber, Steve Johnson
and Lucas Oil Buell's Hector Arana Jr.
Tonglet is now a dominating 13-4 in national
event finals and he's got a 13-2 in elimination
rounds this season, the best in the Pro Stock Mo-
LE Tonglet celebrates
his win in Ohio.
Tonglet holds the
points lead after his
third win of the year.
Matt Smith went up against Tonglet in the final.
