| October 30, 2017
2017 NHRA Pro Stock Motorcycle Las Vegas Results – At this point, Screamin’ Eagle Harley-Davidson’s Eddie Krawiec could get lost in the woods for the next two weeks and still win the NHRA Pro Stock Motorcycle Championship. At the NHRA Toyota Nationals, the penultimate round of the 2017 season, Krawiec racked up his seventh win of the season and his fourth in the Countdown to the Championship playoffs. As a result, he now holds a nearly insurmountable lead over Nitro Fish Suzuki’s LE Tonglet in the points standings. Krawiec only needs to qualify for the 16-bike field in Pomona in two weeks to make it official.
2017 NHRA Pro Stock Motorcycle Las Vegas Results
“I know it’s officially not over yet but I feel pretty good right now,” Krawiec said. “We’ve been on a roll lately and this feels pretty good. Our Screamin’ Eagle bikes are as good as they’ve ever been and we’re getting all the luck when we need it.
“You wouldn’t think it right now, but we struggled at midseason after we made a chassis change. The bikes did not go in the direction we wanted. We brought out our old bikes and haven’t looked back since. We put the Street Rod bodies on our old chassis and they are a pleasure to ride. That is the result of a lot of teamwork that happened behind closed doors where people don’t get to see it. Now, after all this recent success, I can roll into Pomona with no pressure.”
Krawiec had a fast bike in Las Vegas but he also needed a bit of luck, especially during the final round when he faced off against Lucas Oil Buell’s Hector Arana Jr. Krawiec went to the starting line for the final with what he believed was a broken transmission. The team had no time to fix it before the final round so they simply hoped for the best. The faulty gearbox held together long enough for Krawiec to take a close win with a 6.924 to Arana’s 6.949 elapsed time.
“That was interesting,” Krawiec said. “In the second round the bike rattled the tire and it wouldn’t shift into second gear. We got back to the trailer, went through the transmission and it was fine. I rolled up to race Scotty and I had no second gear on the burnout. In second gear it would freewheel. My plan was to pop the clutch and hope for the best but it actually shifted and it caught me by surprise. The bike hiked up the front end and hauled the mail. I won a round I wasn’t supposed to and the bike made a liar out of me because I told my crew that no way it was going to last.”
2017 NHRA Pro Stock Motorcycle Las Vegas Results
Krawiec was the low qualifier for the fifth time this season and 38th time in his career. Starting from the number-one spot, he made his way past John Hall, Liberty Racing Victory’s Angelle Sampey and Suzuki Extended Protection Suzuki’s Scotty Pollacheck to reach the final. Krawiec’s good fortune began when he raced Sampey. Krawiec had to shut off well before for the finish line but won the round after Sampey left the starting line 0.006 of a second before the green light and received a foul start.
For Arana Jr., the Las Vegas round was a solid rebound after two difficult outings. Arana raced to wins over Katie Sullivan, Mike Berry and Tonglet before dropping a close battle against Krawiec in the final. It was the 23rd final round of Arana’s career.
“This was a great weekend for us,” Arana said. “It’s crazy how drag racing goes because there really wasn’t anything drastically different when we weren’t running well to what we did this weekend. Everything started clicking again. If just felt like luck returned to our side and we’re very happy to have our bike in top form.”
By Kevin McKenna
2017 NHRA Pro Stock Motorcycle Las Vegas Results