After nearly a decade of near domination by the Screamin’ Eagle Vance & Hines Harley V-Rods, the NHRA Pro Stock Motorcycle Championship is once again on the open market. Following a season in which Harley-Davidson teammates Eddie Krawiec and Andrew Hines combined to win 15 of 16 events and finished first and second, respectively, in the point standings, the hammer came down this winter. In a stunning announcement, NHRA rules makers not only took away the four-valve cylinder heads that had helped to make the Vance & Hines V-Rods so dominant, but they also threw in a bonus clause that required that all V-twin entries have a standardized pushrod length of no less than eight-inches. That essentially sent the V&H squad back to the drawing board as they could not even revive the two-valve engine program they last ran in 2008.
“We had to start from scratch on our engine program and that has made for a long winter,” said reigning World Champion Krawiec. “On December 23 we got the final approval on our design, which has given us a little more than three months to get it done. The reality is that should be a six- to eight-month project. That’s means a lot of late nights for the guys in the shop, and that doesn’t count the outside vendors that we’re working with.”
