Virginia NHRA National
Virginia Motorsports Park
May 17-19, 2019

Pro Stock Motorcycle

In Pro Stock Motorcycle, Hines, the No. 1 qualifier, earned his third straight victory, fourth overall of 2019 and 52nd in his career after going 6.845 at 195.68 on his Screamin’ Eagle Vance & Hines Harley-Davidson Street Rod to defeat teammate Eddie Krawiec in the final round. The last Pro Stock Motorcycle rider to win four of the first five events to start the season was Hines’ brother, Matt Hines, in 1998.

“We have developed a very good hot weather tune up for our Street Rods and that’s saying a lot,” Hines said. “We typically tend to not look forward to the middle of the season because that’s where our performance tends to fall off and people make up ground on us. Today we were able to take what we’ve learned the last couple of weeks between Charlotte when it got hot and Atlanta when it was really hot. We don’t ever go up there (the starting line) with the same tune up, ever. It was a little bit of picking on it here and there which has led to us finding the window where we need to be.”

The category points leader defeated Jiana Salinas, Ryan Oehler and defending world champion Matt Smith to reach the final round. Krawiec took down Kelly Clontz, Karen Stoffer and Hector Arana Jr. en route to his 25th final round against Hines.

The NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series continues to Chicago for the Route 66 NHRA Nationals at Route 66 Raceway May 30th – June 2nd.

ROUND 1

Matt Smith laid down the hurt in the first round of Pro Stock Motorcycle. His 6.813-second pass was only a thousandth from being the quickest of the entire event. He will battle Vance & Hines Harley-Davidson rider Angelle Sampey in the second round. All three Harley-Davidson riders posted times within .002-second of each other. That’s the good news.

The bad news? They’re all .04-second behind Smith. That means the team has its work cut out for itself to get Sampey ready for the second round of competition.

Joey Gladstone booked himself a matchup with Hector Arana Jr. by defeating Hector Arana Sr. on a holeshot to score his first round win since the Amalie Motor Oil NHRA Gatornationals. Ryan Oehler also picked up a tight win by defeating Angie Smith by .029-second.

ROUND 2

The top four qualified cars advanced, including Matt Smith, who ran the quickest time of the second round yet again. He defeated Angelle Sampey with a 6.836-second pass to get to the semifinals. He will get lane choice against Andrew Hines, who ran a 6.871 to defeat Ryan Oehler in the second round at the Virginia NHRA Nationals.

The other side of the bracket features Eddie Krawiec, who took down Karen Stoffer on her Ray Skillman Suzuki with a 6.853-second pass, against Hector Arana Jr. Arana made a solo pass at 6.884 when Joey Gladstone failed to start his bike in time for the second-round matchup at Virginia Motorsports Park.

SEMI-FINAL

A Harley-Davidson will bring home the Virginia NHRA Nationals Wally. Andrew Hines defeated Matt Smith with a 6.837-second elapsed time, his best of race day, to book a final-round matchup with Eddie Krawiec. Hines picked up nearly four-hundredths of a second from his second-round pass to defeat the 2018 Pro Stock Motorcycle champion and guaranteed the Vance & Hines Harley-Davidson team will earn the event trophy.

Krawiec defeated Hector Arana Jr. despite the Lucas Oil TV rider getting off the line first. Krawiec made a better pass by more than three-hundredths of a second to get into his fourth final of the year. He’s still looking for his first Wally, while Hines has won three of four. Hines has lane choice but there will be a big celebration in the Harley-Davidson pits regardless of the outcome.

FINAL

Andrew Hines won for the fourth time in five tries in 2019, continuing his incredible start to the Pro Stock Motorcycle season. He beat his teammate, Eddie Krawiec, after both Vance & Hines Harley-Davidson riders posted identical reaction times at the Virginia NHRA Nationals. Hines ran a 6.845-second elapsed time and beat Krawiec to the quarter mile by .013-second.

The win is the 52nd in Hines’ career and further extends his lead in the Pro Stock Motorcycle category. Hines captured the 100th win for Harley-Davidson in NHRA at the last stop on tour, the Arby’s NHRA Southern Nationals in Atlanta. He led Krawiec at every incremental down the track and took his Harley-Davidson Street Rod into the winner’s circle. He will try to continue his winning ways when the NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series movies to Chicago for the Route 66 NHRA Nationals in two weeks.

Andrew Hines, near lane, collected his fourth win in five Pro Stock Motorcycle starts this season, finishing it off with a final-round victory over his Harley-Davidson teammate Eddie Krawiec.

“This new chassis is really good. It’s very forgiving and it just plants the tire completely differently than what we had in the past, so we’re able to plant the tire a lot better than we were able to in the past. So we’re able to apply more power and run more ignition timing in it.

“Eddie’s bike is close, we just need to work on the clutch a little bit, which we also do at Vance & Hines. It’s just the total package is really good – it doesn’t roll the front tire over like it did last year which was probably costing me a few hundredths of a second last year. We’re going to go celebrate and make sure our guys get treated really well.”

Qualifying

In Pro Stock Motorcycle, the Harley-Davidson team leads the category securing the first two positions. Hines clinched his second No. 1 qualifying position of the 2019 season and 44th of his career with his run of 6.812 at 196.42 on his Vance & Hines Harley-Davidson Street Rod. Eddie Krawiec sits in the No. 2 position following his pass of 6.822 at 197.51.

“Our team does a great job in the heat,” Hines said. “We are learning our setup in this hot weather. Typically, I don’t look forward to the middle of the season because that is typically when our struggles start to happen for our team. It seems like we are hitting our stride right now in this 90-degree weather. We will take it as it comes.”

Jianna Salinas qualified for her first Pro Stock Motorcycle race in the No. 16 position and will race No. 1 qualifier Andrew Hines in the first round at the Virginia NHRA Nationals. Salinas qualified with a 7.338-second pass, while Hines rode to a 6.812 in the third qualifying session. He also earned three bonus points thanks to his session-best 6.822 in the final session.

Hector Arana Jr. moved to the No. 3 qualifying position on the back of a 6.826-second hit in the fourth session at Virginia Motorsports Park. The Lucas Oil TV rider will face Cory Reed in the first round, while his father, Hector Arana Sr., will battle Reed’s teammate (Joey Gladstone) in the opening stanza.

Qualifying Order

01 Andrew Hines 6.812 / 196.42
02 Eddie Krawiec 6.822 / 197.51
03 Hector Arana Jr 6.826 / 197.36
04 Matt Smith 6.840 / 198.32
05 Angelle Sampey 6.854 / 195.22
06 Hector Arana 6.875 / 195.93
07 Karen Stoffer 6.879 / 195.65
08 Angie Smith 6.889 / 196.07
09 Ryan Oehler 6.893 / 196.22
10 Steve Johnson 6.898 / 193.82
11 Joey Gladstone 6.899  / 194.02
12 John Hall 6.914 / 195.59
13 Scott Pollacheck 6.944 / 193.46
14 Cory Reed 6.962 / 193.99
15 Kelly Clontz 7.020 / 191.62
16 Jianna Salinas 7.338 / 189.84

Headquartered in Glendora, Calif., NHRA is the primary sanctioning body for the sport of drag racing in the United States. NHRA presents 24 national events featuring the NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series, NHRA Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series and NHRA J&A Service Pro Mod Drag Racing Series. NHRA provides competition opportunities for drivers of all levels in the NHRA Summit Racing Series and the NHRA Drags: Street Legal Style presented by AAA. NHRA also offers NHRA Jr. Street program for teens and the Summit Racing Jr. Drag Racing League for youth ages 5 to 17. In addition, NHRA owns and operates four racing facilities: Atlanta Dragway in Georgia; Gainesville Raceway in Florida; Lucas Oil Raceway at Indianapolis; and Auto Club Raceway at Pomona in Southern California. For more information, log on to NHRA.com