Harley Davidson Takes NHRA Pro-Stock Bikes

Rider Ed Krawiec and his Screamin’ Eagle/Vance & Hines Harley
Davidson entered the Automobile Club of Southern California NHRA Finals
trailing reigning class champion Matt Smith by just 19 points.  For
those unfamiliar with the scoring in the NHRA, a driver/rider is
awarded 20 points for each elimination round reached, so Krawiec had to
simply last through one round more than Smith to secure a championship
win.  Krawiec made his way through a first round run against Peggy
Llewellyn, and in the second round he went head to head with Chip
Ellis, and this race marked his second win of the event (and second
convincing win over a Suzuki).

 Smith, riding the Nitro Fish Buell, wouldn’t go down without a fight,
and in the first round he ripped off the only 7-second run in the first
round, taking out Mike Berry. However, the second round run against
Chris Rivas wasn’t so forgiving for Smith, in a run that was especially
interesting to Krawiec.  Rivas entered the event third in points,
trailing Krawiec by just 25 points and staring at a championship of his
own, when Smiths bike broke around half track giving Rivas the easy
win.  This also put Ed Krawiec in sole possession of first place at
that point in the event, with Rivas nipping at his heels.

The third round saw Krawiec head into a match with his teammate Andrew Hines, and although Hines jumped out to a huge lead, Krawiec reeled him in for the win, and the championship, as Rivas wouldn’t be able to overcome the point difference.  Even though the championship had been settled, the finals made for an exciting matchup between Rivas’ Buell and Krawiec’s Harley, and Rivas didn’t leave the event empty handed, beating the Harley by 8 hundredths of a second.  This made Ed Krawiec the second championship winner in the class who didn’t win an event during the season, and it gives Harley Davidson their 4th championship in 5 years.

Ive spent quite a bit of time in the drag racing world, and ive seen plenty of race bikes, but very few have been Harleys.  Based on the recent results, why do you think that so many drag racers buy import bikes when HD’s dominate the professional level? Talk about it here!!