Cycle News Staff | October 16, 2017
2017 NHRA Pro Stock Motorcycle Dallas Results – For the third-straight year, rivals Eddie Krawiec and Jerry Savoie met in the final round of the AAA Texas Nationals and after back-to-back losses, Screamin’ Eagle Harley-Davidson’s Krawiec emerged with the win to extend his lead in the NHRA Pro Stock Motorcycle points standings. Krawiec ran the table in Dallas. He was the number-one qualifier, and then went on to win the final round after reigning champ Savoie left the starting line too soon and fouled.
2017 NHRA Pro Stock Motorcycle Dallas Results
Eddie Krawiec planted himself firmly ahead of the 2017 NHRA Pro Stock Motorcycle Championship pack with a win in Dallas. But it’s not over yet! There are two rounds left.
“For me, it’s the drive to get that cowboy hat; that’s what it’s all about,” Krawiec said, referring to the special edition Stetson traditionally awarded to all the Dallas champions. “This is huge. There are just two races left after this so this sets the tone for the championship. Coming in here, I put more pressure on myself to do well and I had a perfect weekend. In qualifying, I went out there and got some [bonus points] and qualified number one then we won the race. That’s about as good as it gets.”
There was more good news for Krawiec when his biggest championship rival, Nitro Fish Suzuki’s LE Tonglet, suffered a rare loss in the first round of eliminations against San Marino Excavating Suzuki’s Joey Gladstone. That resulted in a huge points swing where Krawiec now has a 107-point lead with just two races left.
“When I saw LE go out in the first round, I knew we needed to capitalize on it,” Krawiec said. “It was unfortunate for him, but I knew we needed to pick up the ball and run with it. That was my motivation for today.”
Krawiec’s day began with a win over David Hope and also included wins against Big St. Charles Suzuki’s Karen Stoffer and Suzuki Extended Protection’s Scotty Pollacheck. Against Stoffer, Kraweic ran a 6.785, the quickest run of the weekend in the class. He defeated Pollacheck with a 6.853 elapsed time and later rolled the throttle in the final after he saw Savoie’s red light.
“I had a great motorcycle under me all weekend,” Krawiec said. “I usually pride myself on my reaction times but at times I was horrible. The team carried me a little. The way this track was, it was hard to find a balance with the clutch between getting a good [reaction time] and getting the bike to leave the starting line. It was tricky. We had to walk a fine line.”
2017 NHRA Pro Stock Motorcycle Dallas Results
Jerry Savoie made it to the final but red-lighted, giving an easy win to Krawiec.
Krawiec and the rest of NHRA’s two-wheel racers also had to deal with a stiff crosswind that blew from right to left for the first two days of the event and then changed directions during Sunday’s final eliminations. More than one run had to be aborted when a rider drifted dangerously close to the centerline or the guard wall.
“The wind played a huge part in this race,” Krawic said. “It was probably more important to have lane choice here than at any other race. In qualifying, we had the bike setup to make good clean runs and then the wind turned on us 180 degrees. It was blowing across the track at 25 mph and we needed the wall to break the wind. We had to make a chassis adjustment and that was huge. The problem is that on Sunday, we just didn’t know where to start. In the second round against Karen Stoffer, it got me really hard past the finish line. I had to yank the bike hard left. A lot of us were struggling just to get down the track.”
Savoie, in search of his third-straight win in Dallas, rode past Gunner Courtney, Gladstone, and Polaris Victory Magnum’s Matt Smith before losing to Krawiec in the final.
After the event, Krawiec holds a 107-point lead over Tonglet while Savoie is now in fourth, 146-points back. Krawiec’s teammate, Andrew Hines sits third, 142 behind. The final race in Pomona features a points-and-a-half format, which means all four riders are still very much in the running for the title.
“We have Las Vegas and then we go to Pomona and I like where I’m sitting right now,” Krawiec said. “We’ve got a deal here where any bike in the top 10 can win a race so you have to approach each race with caution. I’ve just got to worry about what’s going on in my camp and do my job. If I can stay focused, I think we can win that championship.”
By Kevin McKenna
2017 NHRA Pro Stock Motorcycle Dallas Results
