HINES REMAINS ATOP FIELD AFTER ONE RUN ON SATURDAY

The Pro Stock Motorcycle riders didn’t get to make their final qualifying runs Saturday night at the U.S. Nationals.

The session was cancelled when it was determined there was too much dew on the top end of the track after eight Pro Stock cars made runs and several of the drivers had handling problems.

Thus, Andrew Hines’ 6.928-second lap at 194.21 mph on Friday left him on the provisional pole heading into Sunday at Lucas Oil Raceway.

“We were in the back of the staging lanes and that was probably a very good call,” said Hines, who pilots one of the Vance & Hines Screamin’ Eagle Harley-Davidson motorcycles. “I watched Pro Stock up there and three cars in the left lane pushed in the clutch well before the finish line. It wasn’t going to be any good for us. We would have just spun all the way down. Luckily with the bikes, they just wiggle back and forth in the rear end. It doesn’t really get out of control with the bikes, but I’m glad to see no more cars went down the track.”

Hines doesn’t know what to expect from Sunday because of rain in the forecast.

“I was just looking at my weatherchannel.com app and it is looking like there’s up to 90 percent chance of rain,” Hines said. “Hopefully we will have a big enough window that we can get one round in if we are lucky. I feel that we have a good enough motorcycle that if we do get a chance to go out there we can improve.”

If rain does wash out Sunday’s qualifying, Hines isn’t going to fret.

“We were going to go out there (Saturday night) and try and 60 foot a little harder, and we have not been able to get my bike to turn the tire enough off the starting line,” Hines said. “We have a newer tire and it has a lot more bite than we had on the last tire. What we were going to put in (Saturday night) would probably work for first round on eliminations. Following Pro Stock car, the track is way different than what we get if we are in front of Pro Stock car. I think what we have now in the bike, I’m confident it will go out there and lay down a good 60-foot number and put a big ET on the board.”    

Eddie Krawiec, Hines’ teammate, and Andrew have combined to win all nine of NHRA’s Pro Stock Motorcycle national events this season. Krawiec has six wins and Hines has three.

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