Screamin’ Eagle Team takes rare double early exit at Houston raceway park event

The two-bike Screamin’ Eagle/Vance & Hines Harley-Davidson V-Rod team posted dual first round losses Sunday at Houston Raceway Park.

Riders Andrew Hines and Eddie Krawiec each lost their opening round matchups at the O’Reilly NHRA Spring Nationals. Hines – the three-time defending NHRA POWERade Pro Stock Motorcycle champion – said the weekend still had its advantages.

“We lost all of Saturday to rain but we still managed to come up with a hot weather setup,” Hines said. “I came up with the wrong color (red light foul) at the starting line on Sunday but I still think we figured out some tuning aspects that are going to help us throughout the season.”

Hines fouled at the starting line against first round opponent Tom Bradford and his Sportsman Channel Buell after he qualified in the No. 3 position. Hines recorded a 6.995-second pass at 192.41 mph on Friday to earn the third-best qualifying position on his Screamin’ Eagle V-Rod.

Krawiec qualified in the No. 10 position with a 7.071 run at 189.92 before coming up short with a starting line foul against Peggy Llewellyn and her Klement Motorsports Buell in the first round on Sunday.

“We certainly didn’t have the greatest weekend this time out,” Krawiec said. “But I think we did some things very well. We had just two chances to qualify and both bikes got in the final elimination set and that was great. We just didn’t finish the job on Sunday.”

All of Saturday’s professional qualifying sessions were lost due to persistent rain showers so the 16-bike field was set with just two rounds of results from Friday. Krawiec said he was more anxious for Sunday at Houston Raceway Park than he was at the season opener in Gainesville (Fla.) Raceway just two weeks ago.

That was before the 30-year-old New Jersey resident had even qualified for his first NHRA event. He not only qualified in Gainesville, but he went to the semifinals in his first appearance with the Screamin’ Eagle drag racing team.

“The rain just forces you to over-think everything,” Krawiec said. “We just sat around all day Saturday, thinking about what we did on Friday and what could happen on Sunday. There was so much going on in Gainesville that I barely had time to think about what was happening. This weekend, that’s all we did.”

The next NHRA POWERade event featuring the Pro Stock Motorcycle category is the 25th annual Summit Racing Equipment NHRA Southern Nationals at Atlanta Motor Speedway, April 26-29.

Krawiec said it was enough time to improve on what went wrong this weekend.

“It’s nice that we have some time between events,” Krawiec said. “We can work on our mental focus and prepare for the next race. There are a lot of things that contribute to making good, clean consistent passes throughout the weekend. We have to focus on what we did well as a team this weekend and build from that.”

Angelle Sampey rode her U.S. Army Suzuki to the event victory, beating Craig Treble and his Team Tigue Suzuki in the final.

Screamin’ Eagle Performance Parts are inspired by and built in the spirit of the raw adrenaline and power of motorcycle racing. Screamin’ Eagle Pro parts are specifically designed for race-use applications, while Screamin’ Eagle parts offer street-use performance options for the Harley-Davidson motorcycle owner. Visit www.harley-davidson.com for more information.

The Screamin’ Eagle/Vance & Hines Pro Stock Motorcycle team is sponsored by Ford Truck, Dunlop, Matco Tools and S100.