VOL. 55 ISSUE 23 JUNE 12, 2018 P25
were fast. Before I ran Andrew,
me and Tim [Kulungian, crew
chief] and my brother, GT, talked
in the trailer and said we need
to repeat the 6.84 run that we
made a round earlier and we
came pretty damn close. We ran
within a thousandth of a second
of that run. Our bike is just flying
and it's fun to ride right now."
"This [win] is going to show
that last season wasn't a fluke
and we're here to win every race
that we go to. We had a bad run
during the Countdown [playoffs]
last year and were going to do
a lot better this time. We have
five or six very fast engines and
we're swapping them and getting
data on all of them so at the last
six races were' not going to have
a hiccup like we did last year."
Tonglet struggled early at Vir-
ginia Motorsports Park, a track
that had not hosted an NHRA
national meet since the 2009
season and had not featured
the Pro Stock Motorcycle class
since 1998. Tonglet was the
fifth-quickest qualifier in the
field, well off the pace set by
Lucas Oil EBR's Hector Arana
Jr. The only rider to run 0ver
200-mph in NHRA competition,
Arana led the field with a track
record 6.79-second run at over
199-mph. Tonglet's best was
a 6.858, and he was behind
Arana, both factory Harley-
Davidson's and Chicago winner
Matt Smith.
Tonglet faced his first test in
round two when he faced Screa-
min' Eagle Harley-Davidson's
Eddie Krawiec and prevailed in
a close 6.871 to 6.875 battle.
He lowered the boom a round
later when he surprised Arana Jr.
with a 6.840 run, a performance
he nearly repeated in the final
round.
"Judging by each qualifying
run and half of race day, we felt
like we showed pretty much
all we had," Tonglet said. "Tim
made a big adjustment and he
went all in. He said we were
either going to run fast or slow
down a lot. It picked up and
that was just a huge confidence
booster, not just for this race but
going into the next races. We've
shown that we can run with any-
one but we have to be absolutely
perfect and we have to have
the tune-up dead-on to run with
those top guys."
"In the final round against
Andrew I told myself I had to run
my own race," Tonglet said. "I
was .006 [reaction time] on the
Tree. I wasn't trying to do that
but it worked out. Those Harley
guys do bring out the best in us
and this is a huge confidence
booster."
Despite the loss, Hines man-
aged to enjoy one of his best
outings of the year by riding
his Street Rod to wins against
Hector Arana Sr., Scotty Polla-
check, and Chicago champ Matt
Smith, who red-lighted in the
final four. With five of 16 rounds
in the books, Hines maintains
his points lead over teammate
Krawiec while Tonglet has crept
into third place, with Pollacheck
and Arana Jr. rounding out the
top five. The next NHRA Pro
Stock Motorcycle event will be
held at Summit Motorsports Park
in Norwalk, Ohio, June 21-24.
Kevin McKenna
Results:
1. LE Tonglet (Suz)
2. Andrew Hines (H-D)
PHOTOGRAPHY
BY
KEVIN
MCKENNA
