Chip Ellis dipped into the 6.7-second range and leapfrogged both of his Vance & Hines Harley-Davidson Street Rod teammates early Saturday in Pro Stock Motorcycle to lead qualifying for the AAA Insurance NHRA Midwest Nationals at Madison Ill.

He held on through the final session, and his 6.764-second elapsed time at 196.76 mph on the Gateway Motorsports Park quarter-mile gave him the 17th No. 1 start of his career and his first since the September 2015 U.S. Nationals at Indianapolis.  

Eddie Krawiec, the points leader and the class-leading four-time winner so far this season, opened the day atop the leaderboard, with improving teammate Andrew Hines just .015 of a second behind him. No one but a Vance & Hines Harley-Davidson racer has led the standings all year, with Krawiec and Hines alternating the honors.

But Ellis – who had gobbled up 12 qualifying bonus points in brief cameo appearances this year before this weekend – earned eight more Saturday.

“It’s every Pro Stock Motorcycle racer’s dreams to ride one of those Harleys. It’s a real honor for me, a privilege,” he said. “I worked at Vance & Hines for five years, and those guys have a good relationship with me. I have good relationship with them. They needed somebody to do some testing. They called me, so here I am.”

Evidently some followers of the two-wheeled class complained that a third Harley-Davidson was unwelcome. But that criticism didn’t bother Krawiec, who might have had more to lose than most with another teammate on a strong bike he helped build.

Krawiec defiantly said, “If I had another bike sitting in our shop, I’d bring it out here and it’d be racin’. We’re allowed four bikes as a pro team, and I’d be out here with four motorcycles. It is what it is. If people don’t like it, so be it. We’re here to race. Come here and race. Don’t talk about it on the Internet or at home. Be here. Qualify. If you want to qualify, beat the best.”

Ellis said the data sharing has worked well since he rejoined the Vance & Hines team – on the bike he also rode at Pomona, Calif., last year and at Indianapolis this past Labor Day weekend.

“We’re trying some different stuff on the bike that I’m riding – I like it call it Ol’ No. 3,” he said. “It’s working, so I think you’ll see at the next race [at the Texas Motorplex, near Dallas] they’ll take some of the stuff they’ve learned and apply it.

“I just want to thank Harley-Davidson and Vance & Hines for giving me this opportunity. It’s great. And to be able to put this thing on the pole is pretty awesome, especially when we’re in test mode. I hope this helps those guys out, and I’m sure it does. Hopefully they can go on and win the championship, because I can’t,” Ellis said.   

Friday leader Krawiec predicted the conditions would play with the tentative lineup.

“I really do believe the field’s going to tighten up come tomorrow,” he said, sure that cooler weather was “going to give the opportunity for everybody else to kind of crunch it up a little more.”

The bump spot was 6.982 at the end of Friday, and by the first Saturday session (third of four overall), the bump spot was slightly quicker, at 6.979. But a trio of series champions – Hector Arana, Angelle Sampey, and L.E. Tonglet – made significant gains to reshape the top half of the ladder. Arana vaulted from 16th to eighth, Sampey from 15th to seventh, and Tonglet from eight to fifth.

In the end the Harley-Davidson contingent was 1-2-4, with Andrew Hines and White Alligator Racing interloper Tonglet also jumping ahead of Krawiec. Matt Smith will begin eliminations for the fifth position and Steve Johnson climbed from 10th to sixth in his last chance. The father-son tandem of Hector Arana and Hector Arana Jr. round out the top half of the order.

Karen Stoffer, who struggled during the entire qualifying process, missed the cut, along with Kelly Clontz.