DRAG RACE
2017 NHRA PRO STOCK MOTORCYCLE CHAMPIONSHIP
ROUND 6 / JULY 22-23, 2017
BANDIMERE SPEEDWAY / MORRISON, COLORADO
P96
three on his new Victory Polaris
Magnum entry, Smith defeated
his wife, Angie, and then went
on to score big wins over five-
time champ Hines and reigning
champ, Jerry Savoie's White
Alligator Suzuki to reach the
second final of the season.
"I know our day is coming; it
has to be," Smith said. "We've
made a lot of progress with this
new Victory Polaris bike this year
and we've been good enough to
win the last two or three races.
We've just had bad luck, mostly.
I have to think our turn is coming
soon."
Not surprisingly, the Denver
race was dominated by the
Harley-Davidson, Victory, and
Buell V-twin bikes largely be-
cause of their big displacement
bikes," Krawiec said. "It's only
one race a year so it's not the
most cost effective thing to do
but we needed to get our butts
in gear and get our motorcycles
figured out. I also have to men-
tion that Matt [Hines, crew chief]
spend an extra weekend in the
shop getting these bikes dialed
in. Matt and Andrew Hines and
the rest of the guys in our shop
deserve the credit for this. I'm
just the lucky guy who gets to
ride the bike."
Smith remains winless on the
season but he's far from discour-
aged. After qualifying number
cally to run at Bandimere Speed-
way, which sits at the base of
the Rocky Mountains, 5800-feet
above sea level.
"I'm not sure how many
teams do it but we build a pair
of Denver engines for our two
(Above) The Colorado win was
the 38th career victory for
Krawiec. (Left) Matt Smith met
Krawiec in the final but came
up a little short.
