NHRA addressed the issue of parity in the Pro Stock Motorcycle class Tuesday afternoon by increasing the minimum weight for the Harley Davidson 160-cid, 4-valve combination by 20 pounds, from 640 pounds to 660 pounds.

Glen Gray, NHRA’s Vice President, Technical Operations, believes adding weight to the Screamin’ Eagle Vance & Hines Harley-Davidson motorcycles driven by teammates Andrew Hines and Eddie Krawiec was the right step to take at this time. Krawiec and Hines are the only two NHRA Harley-Davidson riders. Krawiec also is the reigning Pro Stock Motorcycle world champ.

“That was based on the performance data that we looked at and typically what we do is that we do adjust parity with weight,” Gray said Wednesday morning in an interview with Competition Plus. “Most times that is what we have done particularly during the season. We looked at it really hard and that was the best decision at this time. We will continue to monitor performance and make adjustments as necessary if we need to do anything further or if we put too much weight on and we have hurt the Harleys too much from a performance standpoint we would consider taking weight off if that were the case.”

NHRA reviewed the parity in the Pro Stock Motorcycle class as a result of Harley-Davidson’s dominating performance at the Gatornationals which were completed March 12. That was the season-opening race for the Pro Stock Motorcycle class.

At the Gatornationals, Krawiec established new NHRA Pro Stock Motorcycle national records with a 6.750-second elapsed time and a 199.26 mph speed.

The second fastest elapsed time by another manufacturer other than Harley-Davidson at the Gatornationals came from Hector Arana Jr. Arana Jr., clocked a 6.812-second time to qualify second on his Buell.

NHRA’s Pro Stock Motorcycle class does not return to action until April 27-29 at Royal Purple Raceway in Houston.

“We are going to go with the data we have got here, go to Houston see how the bikes run and we will look at the data again,” Gray said. “If it is close we will just keep monitoring it for multiple races, and see if there is anything else we need to do.”

Gray said before NHRA sent out the press release Tuesday afternoon about adding 20 pounds to the Harley-Davidson motorcycles the sanctioning body contacted the Screamin’ Eagle Vance & Hines team by phone.

“I hope that it will (solve the parity problem), that was the intent with the change,” Gray said. “We are early in the season and if it doesn’t make a big enough change we can make another change if we need to.”

The last three NHRA Pro Stock Motorcycle national events, dating back to last year, have been dominated by Krawiec and Hines.

Krawiec beat Hines in the finals of the Las Vegas fall race last season and then at the season-ending NHRA Finals at Pomona, Calif., Hines defeated Krawiec in the final round. At the Gatornationals, Krawiec edged Hines in the finals.