OH BROTHER!
As a competitor, Matt Hines had very few peers.
The California native was the first NHRA Pro Stock Motorcycle rider to
earn three consecutive class championships and his 30 national event
victories ranks 18th on the all-time win list.
His resume behind the scenes is just as impressive. Hines, who stepped off the bike prior to the 2003 season, has played a major role in the recent dominance of the Screamin' Eagle Harley-Davidson V-Rod that his younger brother, Andrew, has rode to the past three POWERade Series titles. And Hines, who helps tune both his sibling's V-Rod and the team bike driven by GT Tonglet, isn't sure what the bigger thrill is: Winning while on the back of drag bike in just over seven seconds, or from behind the starting line, watching the bike he tuned score another round victory.
The
Hines behind the Hines
As a competitor, Matt Hines had very few peers.
The California native was the first NHRA Pro Stock Motorcycle rider to earn three consecutive class championships and his 30 national event victories ranks 18th on the all-time win list.
His resume behind the scenes is just as impressive. Hines, who stepped off the bike prior to the 2003 season, has played a major role in the recent dominance of the Screamin' Eagle Harley-Davidson V-Rod that his younger brother, Andrew, has rode to the past three POWERade Series titles.
And Hines, who helps tune both his sibling's V-Rod and the team bike driven by GT Tonglet, isn't sure what the bigger thrill is: Winning while on the back of drag bike in just over seven seconds, or from behind the starting line, watching the bike he tuned score another round victory.
"It's pretty close to the same," Hines said. "It was really exciting when I was winning races. But we work so hard on this team, sometimes when you are standing on the starting line your heart is racing. It's just as exciting to be on the starting line and watching the bikes win, as it is to be on the bike and winning."
And Hines has a lot of experience on the latter.
He was the king of the class during the late 1990s, winning three consecutive NHRA class titles from 1997-99, including sitting atop the PSM standings for 24 consecutive events. The former NHRA Rookie of the Year also advanced to 47 final rounds with 44 top qualifier awards, and he still owns a pro-class best .781-win percentage.
But prior to the 2003 season, Hines stepped away from the riding side of the sport. One reason for the move was that the team, which had been so dominant, was without a sponsor commitment. But he also was intrigued about getting the new Harley-Davidson program off the ground.
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"It was a difficult decision," said Hines, whose riding resume also included a 96-race qualifying streak at the time of his last ride at the end of the 2002 season. "But at the time, I didn't have anything going (sponsorship-wise), and we were trying to amp up Andrew's program. At that point, the Harleys hadn't qualified for a single event. So here it was: It was going to be my livelihood to tune a Harley, and we couldn't even make it competitive. Luckily, after that we started qualifying and have won races. It took everything, all the manpower we had to get these bikes competitive."But there was another reason Hines decided to make what appeared to some a drastic change in his career path.
"The way I looked at, when I started racing, Dave Schultz and John Myers were beating up on everybody, and that was the big challenge when I started (riding). I just wanted to be able to compete against them, and hopefully beat them. Then after a few years (of winning), it wasn't quite a challenge anymore.
"It kind of brought all that excitement back when I started on the (Harley-Davidson) program. It was such a big challenge...I was up for it."
The results have been short of phenomenal.
After failing to qualifying in its first seven national events, the Harley-Davidson V-Rod has been the dominant bike the past two seasons. Andrew Hines has won eight races in 15 final rounds since 2004 and also was the first PSM rider to eclipse the seven-second barrier. Teammate Tonglet, meanwhile, won two events last season to give the V-Rods a one-two finish in the PSM points standings.
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The younger Hines, who would like nothing better than to eclipse some of his older brother's racing records, credits Matt with his success, both on and off the track."My brother has helped me a lot in my riding," Andrew said. "I watched him make over a 1000 passes before I ever jumped on a bike, so I probably knew exactly what to expect. He always put in the back of my mind of what I needed to do.
"Now that he's part of the crew, and not racing any more, I think he's helped me a little more. When I first came out, I think he wanted to show his little brother what he could do. I think my first race out he won, and the last race he won, he beat me along the way. So he's definitely opened the door for me. As far as a crew chief, he's able to critique my skills and show me what I needed to do to become a champion."
And that includes making just minor adjustments over a course of a season when his brother or Tonglet get just a little off track. It's similar to what a baseball hitting coach might offer to a hitter who might be in a minor slump.
"They are two pretty good riders, and I don't have to critique them too much," Matt Hines said. "They know what to do. I'll point out a thing or two. Over the course of a season, it's not like I'm in their ear after every pass. I just say something to them every couple events or so, like, 'Make sure you're hitting your shift points, tuck in a little better there, make the bike go a little straighter here...' I point out things that our different at particular tracks and stuff like that."
Now, his attention is trying to help his brother match his mark of three consecutive championships. During this weekend's Auto Club Finals at Auto Club Raceway at Pomona (Calif.), Andrew became just the third PSM rider to achieve the milestone, joining his older sibling and Angelle Sampey (2000-02).
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"This year has been pretty exciting," said Matt Hines, whose brother can clinched his third consecutive title by stopping second-place Antron Brown this weekend. "It's been an uphill battle. We've won the last two championships, and our goal is to win three in a row. We've had some success, and struggles, but we knew we were going to have our hands full. We try to just keep it all 100 percent, so we can possibly win as many rounds as possible without making mistakes.
(NHRA) gave the Suzukis bigger engines and more fuel injection (this season). But we knew we could still be competitive after the first couple of races. I think the Suzukis stepped up at the beginning of the season. Then we were able to continue our development and catch back up. We're in a good position (now). The bike is running really well and Andrew's doing a good job riding. We just have to keep it going."
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