NHRA U.S. NATIONALS - PRO STOCK MOTORCYCLE NOTEBOOK
Keep up with this weekend's Pro Stock action in Indianapolis by reading
our behind-the-scenes event notebook. CompetitionPlus.com will bring
you the stories behind the numbers and win-lights throughout the course of the
weekend. Tune in daily for the latest news from the pits.
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MONDAY FINAL - JOHNSON SCORES BIG WIN AT THE BIG GO
RIGHT THIS TIME - Steve Johnson finally did it right this time. The veteran rider finally won Indy and managed to celebrate on 
the same day.
He’s even got the tape to prove that he won this time.
The 2008 U.S. Nationals victory marked his fourth career victory in thirteen final rounds.
“There’s a lot that motivates people, and then I saw Michael Phelps win those medals in the Olympics and I asked myself, ‘What inspires a person to win like that?,” Johnson pointed out.
Then he cheated on his diet while racing at the last NHRA POWERade event in Reading, Pa. As a way of making amends, the Snap-on Tools-sponsored rider went to the gym closest to his hotel and who would he run into pumping iron?
John Force was there. At 10:30 PM, the fourteen-time champion was working out.
“You gotta work out,” Force instructed. “I have to because I’ve been beat up a little bit.”
That was all the motivation that Johnson needed to go for the Indy title.
“The guy is like a human dynamo,” Johnson said. “We are not all born winners, even Tiger Woods wasn’t born with a golf club in his hand. We have that motivation inside of us and for me; John Force spiked it that evening.”
There’s no bigger race to win than Indy and for Johnson the time to find his motivation couldn’t have come at a better time.
So motivated was Johnson that he enabled final round opponent Andrew Hines to leave on him and then chase the two-time champion down in the lights. Johnson attributed that ability to hitting his shift points on cue and utilizing his Mark Peiser tune-up to his advantage.
“All I did was do my job, I just believe they slowed down,” Johnson said. “My job is to make sure the fans are entertained and I have a certain place I shift at on the track each time.”
That’s when he revealed his innermost racing secret.
“When I get to high gear, I let go of the steering wheel and let the bike do what it wants to do,” Johnson said. “That’s why my bike sometimes does what it does in the lights.”
Johnson said he learned the trick from the late John Myers.
On the one day when he won his second Indy title, Johnson put all of his tricks towards winning. Just to think it started with a blown diet.
Out of morbid curiosity, why would a rider whose stature already mirrors a pencil need to diet?
“No one is ever going to tell me that a lightweight person with all the lead on the front of their motorcycle down low doesn’t have an advantage,” Johnson contended. “They’re smoking crack. That’s the facts. When you look at riders like Chip Ellis, who is 135 pounds and some as light as 105, I’m a fat person. I’m the biggest person in the class.”
But weight didn’t matter on this day because Johnson was determined.
He was determined to win Indy and leave no doubt.
A HELPING HAND - Don Schumacher Racing conducted a raffle in their hospitality area this weekend to aid Lilly Kulungian, the six-month old daughter of Steve Johnson Racing general manager and crew mechanic, Tim Kulungian. Lily was diagnosed with osteopetrosis, an extremely rare bone disease that affects 1 in 250,000 people. Only 30 people have been operated on by the doctor who writes the protocol on the disease, 10 of whom have been children.
“The DSR drivers have donated different memorabilia and the fans can buy raffle tickets throughout the weekend in the DSR pit area,” said Johnson, who competes in NHRA’s Pro Stock Motorcycle category (but not for DSR). At the end of the weekend, numbers were drawn that corresponded with the particular memorabilia.
"Obviously, we're dealing with human life and it is very expensive research," added Johnson. "The Kulungian family does not have the means to pay for all of this, so the motorsports community has come together to support the family in many different ways.”
The total money raised was $1800.
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SUNDAY - MATT SMITH STAKES CLAIM, FIRST ROUND COUNTDOWN BATTLE
INDY BEEN VERY, VERY GOOD TO ME – Matt Smith claimed the top qualifying spot in his hunt to win a third, no make that 
second, race at Indy.
“This has been a good track for me; three final rounds. Actually won it twice here, but got one taken away. We're going to try to win us another one tomorrow,” Smith said.
Smith is running a motor the team had saved just for this event, but one that until today had not been very cooperative.
“It kinda threw us a curve ball for a couple days, but we finally got it,” said Smith of the motor. “We've been tuning on it for a couple days and we've finally got it.”
Smith has a penchant from winning from the pole, having won every time this year when he has started from the pole.
“When we've won the pole, we've had a fast bike, a consistent bike.”
THE SHOWDOWN – First round has never been more important for Hector Arana and Karen Stoffer than Monday’s will be.
The winner of the match will advance to the Countdown to One championship phase. The loser might as well end their season.
This early showdown is something Stoffer’s crew chief/husband admitted to Arana wanted to happen so they could get the pressure out of the way.
“I guess his wish came true,” Arana said, pausing for a chuckle.
Did he want the same thing?
“No,” a smiling Arana admitted. “I’d rather her race someone else. I guess it really doesn’t matter.”
Arana might not rest too soundly on Sunday evening. Stoffer is pitted next to him, a direct reminder of the challenge he faces.
Stoffer, on the other hand, is prepared for the impending battle.
Nevermind the fact she was plagued with engine woes and switched engines multiple times over the course of qualifying.
“If you look at our record, we generally have a good record when it comes to racing from the bottom half of the field,” Stoffer said. “I’m not worried about it, we just have to find out what our problem is.”
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SATURDAY - HARLEY-DAVIDSON DOMINATES THE BATTLE, HECTOR HAMMERS THE COMPETITION
EDDIE’S SHOWING OFF AGAIN - For the fifth straight year, a Screamin' Eagle Harley-Davidson V-Rod claimed the $25,000 
top prize in the Ringers Gloves Pro Bike Battle as Eddie Krawiec earned his first victory in NHRA competition with a final-round victory against his Vance & Hines teammate Andrew Hines, who fouled.
"Two years ago, I was an unknown and [team owners] Terry Vance and Byron Hines took a chance on me," said Krawiec. "They've made me feel like family, and I'm so glad that I was finally able to pay them back with a victory. This is huge for our team. Harley-Davidson is celebrating its 105th anniversary this weekend, so this couldn't have come at a better time.
"I know that I still haven't won a national event, but I'm not disappointed," Krawiec continued. "I'm good friends with [fellow rider] Reggie Showers, and he's been a big inspiration to me. He had never won a race, and then a few years ago, he came here to Indy and won this [Ringers Battle] and then won the U.S. Nationals on Monday. If I can do that, I'll be really happy. I'm getting married at the end of November, and my fiancée really likes to shop, so this money will really come in handy."
Krawiec, appearing in the specialty race for the first time, had a relatively easy path to the final. He got a single in the opening round after Angelle Sampey's Rush Racing Buell broke, and then got another free pass in the semi's after low qualifier Chip Ellis red-lighted on his Schumacher Electric Suzuki. In both rounds, Krawiec would have been difficult to beat with back-to-back 6.99-second runs.
Hines was also in the sixes on his first two runs with a 6.98 win against Karen Stoffer in round one and a 6.98 to 6.97 holeshot win against reigning POWERade champ Matt Smith in the semi's. With the sun setting, Hines knew he was in danger of red-lighting, but he also acknowledged that there was very little he could do about it.
"I knew when we were rolling up to the starting line that I was probably going to red-light," said Hines, who has reached the Ringers final for the fifth-straight year. "We've done all we can do to the bike, but it still reacts too fast to keep the light green. Sure, I wanted to win, but after I beat Matt Smith in the semi's and realized that no matter what we'd continue our streak, I was pretty happy."
Krawiec's' $25,000 payday gives him the lion's share of the $61,000 race-day purse; Hines received $10,000 for his runner-up. Should Krawiec win the 54th annual Mac Tools U.S. Nationals Monday, he'll receive a $10,000 double-up bonus from NHRA for sweeping both of this weekend's races. Semifinalists Ellis and Smith each earned $6,000 for their efforts, and Matt Guidera, Sampey, Chris Rivas, and Stoffer received $3,500 each for making the field. Overall, Ringers Gloves, the official glove of NHRA, puts up $76,000 in prize money each year for the Pro Bike Battle. The low qualifier at each national event is awarded $1,000.
PLEASE HAMMER, DON’T HURT ‘EM – Hector Arana was concerned when his Lucas Oil-sponsored Pro Stock Motorcycle didn’t 
make a full run during Friday’s qualifying session. He did some thinking overnight and found enough of a solution to vault himself into the top qualifying position on Saturday.
“I have red-lighted so much lately and had problems with the clutch,” said Arana. “I was compensating and doing things differently. At Brainerd, I couldn’t catch a light, so I decided to change my style of riding. I knew that wasn’t any good because I was sitting in the staging lanes thinking about it.
“I kept looking at the tree and thinking about what I had to do,” Arana continued. “I didn’t do so good, the bike left without me.”
Yes, you read that correctly. The bike left without Arana.
“It threw me back and my hand came off of the clutch,” Arana admitted. “I was trying to shift but the button kept getting away from me. Finally, the bike got on the rev-limiter, and I was able to gather myself in.”
Arana decided as bad as the red-light was, it was still a better proposition than what happened yesterday.
“I just went back to my regular routine,” Arana said.
The regular routine isn’t such a bad one considering he scored his first career national event victory several races ago and sits on the cusp of scoring his first career pole at the most prestigious drag race in the world.
“We’ll see what happens,” Arana admitted, in a Saturday’s press conference. “This has been a season of unbelievable accomplishments. Winning in Norwalk was something incredible and having my kids there to see it made it even better.”
Arana said for them to be there and watch the effort it took to win taught a valuable lesson by example.
“They’ve seen how hard I had to fight to get to this point,” Arana said. “They got to see that if you want something bad enough, and you never give up, you can make it.”
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FRIDAY -KRAWIEC SHOWS OFF FOR SPONSOR AGAIN, RINGERS BATTLE SCHEDULED FOR SATURDAY
SPECIAL PRESENT – Here’s a clue to the Pro Stock Motorcycle fraternity.
If Harley-Davidson is celebrating a milestone, then Eddie Krawiec is going to qualify No. 1 as a value addition.
At least that’s what the trend has proven to be.
“When Harley’s got something going on, we are usually the top guy,” Krawiec said. “I hope it translates over into the Ringers Battle tomorrow.”
The Brownsburg, Indiana-based rider for the Screamin’ Eagle/Harley-Davidson team was .04 quicker than Matt Smith to lead Friday’s provisional qualifying. This accolade comes on the 105th anniversary of the manufacturer.
“I think I made a really clean and straight run,” Krawiec said. “I don’t know how much I have left. It was pretty humid. I think we raised the bar pretty high today.”
FIRST TIME A DOOZIE - Craig Treble's opening session on his new DSR Suzuki was literally his first lap.
"That was my maiden voyage and the first time I ever released the
clutch on that bike. I had brand-new leathers and a brand-new helmet on
so there was a little bit of pressure," said Treble, the defending U.S.
Nationals Pro Stock Motorcycle champion.
Treble recorded an elapsed time of 7.256 at 178.68 mph on his opening
run to end the first day of qualifying No. 10.
"We still had a .109-second 60-foot time, which was OK, but there's a lot left in the Albrecht's Fast Track Suzuki," Treble said. "I could have done a lot better job in low gear but after that I did OK. I hit my shift points good and the bike went nice and straight and it was easy to ride. It accelerated through the gears real nice and it definitely had some steam and there's a lot more left in the bike. But we got that monkey off our back and now it's time to get down to business. I hope to make a nice clean hit during the first session on Saturday."
THE CALM BEFORE THE STORM - Chip Ellis will headline Saturday’s Ringers Gloves Pro Bike Battle from the No. 1 seed.
The total race day purse for the 18th annual Ringers Gloves Pro Bike Battle is $61,000. The winner will earn a $25,000 bonus from Ringers Gloves. Any rider who can win the Battle and the Mac Tools U.S. Nationals will earn a $10,000 ‘Double-Up’ bonus from the NHRA.
The Battle runner-up will earn $10,000. The two semifinalists will earn $6,000 each, while the four first-round finishers will earn $3,500 apiece.
Drivers accumulated points for the Ringers Gloves Pro Bike Battle at 16 NHRA national events between last year’s Mac Tools U.S. Nationals up to the 2008 Toyo Tires NHRA Nationals at Maple Grove Raceway near Reading, Pa. A $1,000 bonus was awarded to the No. 1 qualifier at each of those races.
Ellis claimed the No. 1 seed by earning four No. 1 qualifying positions during the Battle series.
Ellis, runner-up at the last three Battle events, will meet Matt Guidera in the opening round. In other first round meetings, Matt Smith will face Chris Rivas, while defending and three-time winner Andrew Hines will race Karen Stoffer, who is making her second appearance in the bonus event. Eddie Krawiec, who is making his first start in the Battle, will meet Angelle Sampey, a three-time runner-up in the event, in the first round.
Other past winners include GT Tonglet, Reggie Showers, Craig Treble, Shawn Gann, Antron Brown, Matt Hines, John Myers and James Bernard.
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THURSDAY - NEWS OF THE WIERD KIND, CIRCA 2005
EYES DON'T LIE - NHRA Pro Stock Motorcycle racer Steve Johnson is well practiced in the
grueling five-day adventure known as the NHRA U.S. Nationals in
Indianapolis. The veteran rider from Irondale, Ala., knows how to win
the marquee event, then have it mistakenly taken away only to be
returned days later in a hailstorm of controversy.
A glitch in the timing system first gave the victory to his opponent in
a race that Johnson was confident he’d won. As he turned off the track,
he turned to the assembled media and plaintively asked, “I lost?” It
was a bitter pill to swallow, but less than 24 hours later, after
careful examination of the race video it was apparent to all that
Johnson had won by almost a wheel width.
“Yeah, I was crushed when I thought I lost,” Johnson said from his shop
in Irondale as his team prepared for the trip to Indiana. “Getting that
close to winning the most important race of the year only to come up
short is incredibly depressing. I had a real tough night that Labor Day
Monday, but the next morning everything changed.”
Johnson didn’t get to celebrate in the hallowed U.S. Nationals winner’s
circle, but he didn’t mind. He just saved up the energy for the next
event in Reading, Pa.
“When all was said and done, our team had won the NHRA U.S. Nationals,”
he recalls. “No one can ever take that away from us, but right now I’m
packing that away in my memory banks. Right now, here in 2008, the
object is to win it all again, and believe me, there’s a lot at stake
here.”
Johnson is one of two riders provisionally in the NHRA’s Countdown to
One program and while he’s presently ranked ninth going into the final
event, it appears unlikely that he’ll be knocked out of the Top 10 by
the time it’s over. However, he knows that in racing, anything can
happen.
“We’re pretty confident right now,” he says, “but we can’t let up, not
for a single second. The U.S. Nationals is the only race in which we
get five rather than four qualifying attempts. We can’t afford to blow
a single opportunity.”
Nor can he afford an electrical glitch.
GO GET 'EM PEGGY - Given an opportunity to compete in the Mac Tools U.S. Nationals, Peggy Llewellyn wants to make the most of it.
The race is billed as NHRA’s premier event and, for a Pro Stock Motorcycle rider searching for a 2009 marketing partner, it provides an excellent stage.
Llewellyn finished fourth in points a year ago but did not
have a permanent ride when the 2008 season began. In fact, this is just
her third race. She is making a one-race appearance at O’Reilly Raceway
Park aboard a Rocklin Motorsports Buell with sponsorship from Roger
Burgess’ R2B2 Motors at O’Reilly Raceway Park at
“It feels like it has been a long time since I’ve raced,” said the San Antonio, Texas-based rider. “Even though it’s been only three months, it seems like a year. We can’t thank Roger Burgess enough for this opportunity.”
Llewellyn finished 2007 in grand style, winning the Countdown race at
In 2008, her only racing appearances have come at
“Because I had been off the motorcycle for three or four months, the races and testing gave me a chance to get back into my rhythm so I can do a good job at the U.S. Nationals,” Llewellyn said. “That’s the biggest race of the year and you always want to do well at it.
“The first 60 feet of the run are very important. I rode a Buell last year so I know the Buell’s characteristics, and that helps.”
Buell rider Matt Guidera’s Rocklin Motorsports team prepares Llewellyn’s motorcycle. “They have been a tremendous help,” added Llewellyn. “They make sure the bike is comfortable. When the rider’s comfortable they are able to make the right tune-up adjustments and we go from there.
“Matt’s team has been a tremendous help. I didn’t know if I was going to be able to race this year, but things are starting to come together. We are making progress.”
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