Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/875372
IN THE WIND P28 KRAWIEC CLAIMS COUNTDOWN WIN T wo weeks after winning the biggest drag race in the world, the Chevrolet Perfor- mance U.S. Nationals, Screamin Eagle Harley-Davidson's Eddie Krawiec scored again when he won the Pro Stock Motorcycle title at the Carolina Nationals in Charlotte, September 17. For Krawiec, the Charlotte win was actually more important than his Indy triumph since it came during the first race of the Countdown to the Champion- ship, which is NHRA's six-race playoff to determine the season champions. Krawiec won the final by defeating Vance & Hines teammate Andrew Hines in the final round. "This is huge for me," Krawiec said. "First of all, I love this dragstrip, zMax Dragway is a beautiful place. It's nothing short of spectacular. Then, to win the first race of the Countdown is huge. To come out of here with the points lead is huge. I think that history shows that the person who wins this race, more often than not, has gone on to win the championship. I hope that stays true this year." Krawiec and Hines have made a dramatic improvement recently since they adapted their old V-Rod chassis to their new Street Rod body work. Earlier this season, they debuted a pair of new motorcycles but when that plain failed to produce the desired results, they quickly built a pair of hybrid bikes that have so far been superior to their previous bikes. In Charlotte, Hines was the low qualifier with a 6.825-second run and Kra- weic was second-quickest with a 6.836. "By now, everyone knows the story of these bikes," Krawiec said. "We debuted them in June in Englishtown [N.J.] and we struggled a little bit. Actually, we struggled a lot. We expected to run better but the new bikes gave us a fit. We did get a win in Denver, but that was more of a unique situation. We won there because of finesse. Once we got back to sea level, we struggled. We were giving up a lot in the first 60 feet of the track and when you do that, you can't run them down. We went to plan B, and we won Indy. We've shined since then." During final eliminations, Krawiec opened with the quick- est pass of the day, a 6.838 in his win over Mark Paquette. He then proceeded to take down championship contenders Polaris Victory Magnum's Matt Smith and White Alligator Su- zuki's Jerry Savoie before facing off with Hines in the final. "We prepared for this," Krawiec said. "After we won Indy two weeks ago we stayed and tested afterwards. People thought, 'You just won the race, why test?' but we needed to be better. We were having 1.07 60- foot times and we needed to be 1.05 and we got that. We got our chassis setup right. "As far as racing Drew [Hines] Eddie Krawiec got the Coundown to the Championship started with a big win at Charlotte's zMax Dragway.