The NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series’ two-wheel class makes its debut this weekend at the Amalie Oil NHRA Gatornationals, taking place Thursday through Sunday, March 14th through 17th. Eddie Krawiec comes to Auto Plus Raceway at Gainesville as the defending Pro Stock Motorcycle champ, coming off an impressive season with nine wins, two runner-up finishes and five No. 1 qualifiers – but with changes to the Harley-Davidsons made during the off-season, he and Vance & Hines Screamin’ Eagles teammate Andrew Hines may have to play catch-up.
“As a rider, I feel like I have it together mentally,” said Krawiec. “Obviously after the rule changes this past season, we had to go back and do pretty much a whole redesign of the top half of the motor. It's going to be a long road from here. There are a lot of great bikes out there. It will be interesting to see how we stack up and see how competitive we are off the hit. It’s exciting just to be able to make Gainesville at this point.”
As a three-time and defending Gatornationals champ, Krawiec is eager to get back on track, and knows he’ll have plenty of competition looking to take over his title. “We’re excited, looking forward to Gainesville,” said Krawiec. “Hopefully the performance side of it will steadily increase throughout the season. For me, I know the target is on my back and everybody’s after me. They want my No. 1 plate. The hardest thing is to maintain it. When you’re in the No. 1 spot, the only place to go is backwards. From two on up, you can improve. From one, the only way to go is down.”
Pro qualifying for the NHRA Gatornationals gets underway on Friday, March 15th at noon and 2:15 p.m. ET, and continues on Saturday, March 16th at noon and 2:15 p.m. ET; eliminations begin Sunday, March 17th at 11 a.m. ET. Stay up-to-date with the NHRA Gatornationals at www.nhra.com.
Quotes in this piece provided by the NHRA.
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