IN
THE
WIND
P34
CLUTCH VICTORY
FOR TONGLET
N
eeding nothing less
than a win in order to
stay in contention for the
NHRA Mello Yello Pro Stock
Motorcycle championship,
Nitro Fish Suzuki's LE Ton-
glet delivered with a strong
performance at the NHRA
Midwest Nationals in St. Lou-
is. Tonglet won five events
during the regular season
but watched as Screamin'
Eagle Harley-Davidson's Ed-
die Krawiec won the first two
races in the Countdown to
the Championship playoffs.
Tonglet defeated Krawiec in
the second round of elimina-
tions and then went on and
finished the job by beating
Krawiec's teammate, Andrew
Hines, in the final round.
"We needed that big
time," Tonglet said. "The
win over Eddie was espe-
cially important. That was
a make-or-break for our
whole season. If we had
lost that round I'm not sure
we could have caught him.
Now, we're right back in
it. If I had lost the final, it
wouldn't have been too bad
but when you come that far,
you might as well go ahead
and finish the deal. For a
while, it looked like both of
the Harley-Davidsons could
not be stopped."
Tonglet entered the St.
Louis race in second place,
but he was 71 points behind
Krawiec. He's now trimmed
that deficit to just 16 points,
or less than one round of
competition.
Tonglet has admittedly
struggled during qualifying
on his Tim Kulungian-tuned
Suzuki, but he's been solid
on race day. That was the
case in St. Louis where he
emerged from the No. 7
spot to win the race. Along
the way, Tonglet rode past
San Marino Suzuki's Joey
Gladstone, Krawiec and Vic-
tory Magnum's Matt Smith.
Tonglet also improved his
performance in each round,
going from a 6.829 to a
6.792 in the final. Thanks
to a quicker starting-line
reaction time, he was able
to hold off Hines' slightly
quicker 6.790.
"I was pretty fired up
when we ran Eddie but I
was also fired up for the
final," Tonglet said. "That
would explain my reaction
time, which was the best I've
had all weekend. I wasn't
happy about us qualifying
seventh, but we worked on
the bike last night and came
back and ran better today. In
the final, we decided to go
LE Tonglet
kept his title
hopes alive
with a big win
in St. Louis.
for the jugular and we ran a
6.79. That was our best."
Tonglet wasn't the only
Pro Stock Motorcycle racer
to get healthy in St. Louis.
Hines was also on the verge
of falling out of contention
before his runner-up fin-
