When the 2016 season began, Eddie Krawiec dominated the class and looked almost invincible, then the tides shifted a bit, and his teammate, Andrew Hines, positioned himself as the one to beat this season. After slipping and winning just one round in the first two Countdown events, Krawiec has once again swung momentum back in his favor, following up his strong Reading showing with another winning outing in Dallas. With Hines exiting in the second round, the win became especially valuable because it allowed Krawiec to move to the top of the standings.
Krawiec rode his Screamin’ Eagle Vance & Hines Harley-Davidson to a 6.880 at 196.36 in the Pro Stock Motorcycle final round to cross the finish line before Jerry Savoie, who posted a 6.856 at 196.76 on his White Alligator Racing Suzuki. Krawiec claimed his fifth win of the season, 36th of his career, and second at Texas Motorplex. Krawiec beat Karen Stoffer, Hector Arana Sr., and LE Tonglet to appear in his seventh final round of the season.
“Anytime you’ve got to race [Savoie], you’ve got to be focused,” said Krawiec, who now has a 17-point lead over teammate Andrew Hines. “As a matter of fact, you have to be focused for just about anybody out there. When you look at this category as a whole right now, it’s some of the best racing that there could be. You see LE [Tonglet] came up from nowhere and took Andrew out, then I’ve got to run him, and we run almost neck and neck with each other. You have to be on your game every single round here, no matter who you’re racing and who’s in that other lane.”
Savoie, an alligator farmer from Louisiana, beat Krawiec in the final round in Dallas one year ago. Savoie qualified No. 1 and sprinted past Joe DeSantis, Matt Smith, and Englishtown winner Angelle Sampey before losing to Krawiec.
In what is turning out to be a regular occurrence, the first round once again featured the Aranas, Hector Sr. (pictured) and Hector Jr., lined up against each other, and as has been the case in most of the matches this season, dad came out on top against son. This was the sixth meeting between the Aranas this season — three of which have been in the Countdown to the Championship — and Hector Sr. has won five of them. Though Hector Jr. got off the starting line first in this latest race, nabbing a nearly five-hundredths advantage, Hector Sr. rode around him and got the win, 6.87 to 6.95.
After recording his career-best e.t. during final qualifying yesterday, Joey Gladstone made the fastest run of his young Pro Stock Motorcycle career, powering to a speed of 194.10 mph in a losing effort against Andrew Hines.
Though he ended up not needing it because he outran Cory Reed, Matt Smith cut a perfect .000 light in the opening round. Smith was pleased with the win but acknowledged the 6.89 he put up vs. the 6.92 of Reed was not a perfect run.
Chip Ellis may not have won the race today, but his team most definitely scored a moral victory. After struggling most of the weekend with ongoing mechanical problems that caused his Buell to shut off, Ellis and his team got to work after qualifying yesterday and continued until 3 a.m. today, essentially completely reworking the bike to try to fix the gremlins. Though Ellis did not make competitive runs, he did get to the finish line under power on both passes, first clocking a 7.16 in the first round against a red-lighting Melissa Surber, then posting a 7.48 in a losing effort against Angelle Sampey.
One of the people somewhat pulling for Chip Ellis today was Angelle Sampey, a good friend of Ellis’ who trailered him in the second round.
PRO STOCK MOTORCYCLE (following the 14 of 16 events)
Position | Rider | Team | Points |
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| | | |
1. | Eddie Krawiec | Screamin’ Eagle Vance & Hines Harley-Davidson | 2425 |
2. | Andrew Hines | Screamin’ Eagle Vance & Hines Harley-Davidson | 2408 |
3. | Jerry Savoie | Savoie’s Alligator Farm Suzuki | 2376 |
4. | Angelle Sampey | Precision Service Equipment Buell | 659 |
5. | Chip Ellis | PiranaZ Buell | 2328 |
6. | LE Tonglet | Nitro Fish Suzuki | 2288 |
7. | Cory Reed | Precision Service Equipment Buelli | 2229 |
8. | Hector Arana Sr. | Lucas Oil Buell | 2211 |
9. | Matt Smith | Nitro Fish Victory | 2202 |
10. | Hector Arana Jr. | Lucas Oil Buell | 2183 |
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