Well, fellow Harley riders, as shocking as it may be, Mother Davidson is building fast bikes. Not for us, mind you, but true drag bikes that are actually contenders for championships.
I didn’t think that old H-D had it in them anymore! The real irony is that H-D got back into the running because Suzuki quit building bikes that run straight and I think, deep down, that Buell just cannot spend like Harley.
Right now, Andrew Hines and Ed Krawiec, who raced a Harley-Davidson V-Rod motorcycle to the final round of Pro Stock Motorcycle eliminations and now lies just 21 points out of first place to Hines in the Countdown standings with two races left in the season. Krawiec took advantage of a first-round loss by the Pro Stock Motorcycle points leader, Harley-Davidson Screamin’ Eagle/Vance & Hines rider Andrew Hines. Hines, the defending class champion, still leads the Pro Stock motorcycle class with 2,412 points. Krawiec now is in second with 2,391 points.
The real fun is that this will pretty much be about who the better rider is – both bikes are going to be 98% the same, no matter what the press releases tell you. And that will be the other fun part – Harley Corporate will have no choice but to have to spin one of their team’s loss. Both of these guys are great riders and deserve to win – really – that’s the part that really sucks about this – either one of these guys is better than any rider we are apt to know.
“Great preparation and consistent performance wins championships,” said Krawiec, a three-time Pro Stock Motorcycle champion, “and it looks like it’s going to go down to the wire for the title this year. I think I’ve got the team and Harley-Davidson bike to win it all.”
The fifth round of the six-race NHRA Countdown to the Championship starts October 29 at the 15th annual NHRA Toyota Nationals at The Strip at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Nothing more American than racing an iconic bike near an American city known for zaniness at a track sponsored by a Japanese auto maker that builds an awful lot of their vehicles in the Heartland.
It’s gonna be crazy and I can’t wait to see what really happens as the standings and the bikes really make it through the weather and the heat – relative though it is out there – of Las Vegas in the Fall.