Hector Arana, Matt Smith, Angelle Sampey, Geno Scali, L.E. Tonglet, and Jerry Savoie have combined for a noteworthy accomplishment.
 
They’re the only ones in the past 21 years to prevent the NHRA Pro Stock Motorcycle champions list from becoming a Vance & Hines exclusive.
 
Matt Hines reeled off three series titles from 1997-99, and younger brother Andrew followed suit in 2004-06 but added back-to-back crowns in 2014-15. Eddie Krawiec added four more (2008, 2011-12, and 2017). So that means 12 championships for the Brownsburg, Ind.-based team in the past 21 years and nine in the past 14.
 
Krawiec secured his latest championship last Saturday on a late-blooming Harley-Davidson Street Rod that had the organization scratching its head through the middle of the season.
 
The year, at least for a while, appeared to belong to the White Alligator Racing tandem of L.E. Tonglet and Jerry Savoie. Krawiec and Hines were 1-2 in the class’ season-opener at Gainesville, Fla., and fans wouldn’t have been shocked to see another Vance & Hines / Harley-Davidson runaway.
 
Then Vance & Hines, at its manufacturer’s direction, shelved the trusty V-Rod and introduced the Street Rod in June. And the Pro Stock Motorcycle world started spinning out of its normal orbit. From April 30, at the Charlotte Four-Wides, through the July 9 Chicago race, Krawiec and Hines were silent. Krawiec broke back into the championship conversation with a victory at Denver. But the White Alligator Racing team punched back with victories at Sonoma, Calif., and Brainerd, Minn., gaining momentum as the U.S. Nationals – the deadline for Countdown seeding - loomed.
 
“We ran real strong early on, then went to a new bike,” Krawiec said. “We debuted the Harley-Davidson Street Rod at Englishtown. And we thought, ‘Heck, this should make us better.’ It ended up being worse, and we went backward. We actually stuck with it longer than most people would’ve, because we believed what we had was better. We just couldn’t get it to show [in] the results. We stuck with it, and finally, leaving Brainerd, we needed to go back to Plan B. And Plan B was going back to our old bikes with our new Street Rod bodywork on and go from there.
 
“We rolled into Indy untested, went down the track, Andrew and I” he said, “and we basically had [identical] E.T.s [elapsed times]. We were 1-2 qualifiers. We looked at each other and said, ‘We’ve got bikes that can win.’ And we knew it, right from that point forward. That was the vote of confidence that gave me the push. I knew I had a motorcycle under me that can win the championship – IF I did my job.”
 
Kraweic did his job. He said, “I raised the level of my riding.”
 
Consequently, he lowered the hopes of even his closest rivals.
 
Krawiec went on a tear that ended with a stunning 41-9 eliminations record. He won the NHRA’s premier U.S. Nationals, then opened the six-race playoffs with back-to-back victories at Charlotte and Reading, Pa. (Tonglet reminded everyone he was in the hunt, defeating Hines in the St. Louis final.) Krawiec won at Dallas and Las Vegas before Hines denied him the honor of tying Dave Schultz for second place on the all-time Pro Stock Motorcycle victories list. (Hines leads the category with 48.)
 
Just about the only thing Krawiec left unaccomplished at the NHRA Finals was winning the season’s last race in the same year in which he has earned a championship. It’s a tiny blemish – one that’s arguably a “blemish” only to himself – on a stellar career. Who would remember such an esoteric statistic? What people will remember is that in 2017, Krawiec broke out of an R&D-induced coma, regained his performance strength, and won five of the final seven races, the U.S. Nationals and four Countdown events.
 
So when the 2018 Pro Stock Motorcycle season dawns, it’s likely the rest of the class again will be trying to figure out how to stop the Harley-Davidson duo. Will they be ordered to compete wearing “Snuggie” wraps, or maybe blindfolded – something to give the competition a level playing field? That’s highly doubtful. Are they unbeatable? No. They have an intense desire to beat each other, just as much as the field wants to beat the both of them.
 
But for one more winter, for one more whole season at least, Eddie Krawiec is the champion.
 
His pals at Old Bridge Township Raceway Park at Englishtown, where for years he was the dragstrip manager, teased him: “What do you think E-Town stands for – Eddie Town?” Maybe it ought to.