HINES RIDES SCREAMIN’ EAGLE V-ROD TO NHRA WIN IN ATLANTA

COMMERCE, Ga. (April 27, 2008) - Screamin’ Eagle/Vance & Hines rider Andrew Hines won the Pro Stock Motorcycle eliminations aboard a Harley-Davidson V-Rod at the 28th Annual Summit Racing Equipment NHRA Southern Nationals at Atlanta Dragway. Hines set a new track record as top qualifier for the event, and defeated Chip Ellis in the final round of eliminations to take his 14th career victory and assume the Pro Stock Motorcycle season points lead.

“We used the three-week break since the last race to do a lot of dyno work and it really paid off for the Screamin’ Eagle/Vance & Hines team,” said Hines. “My V-Rod was making consistent power all weekend. Each run was perfect and we were really having fun at the track today.”

The three-time world champion took control of the class in Friday qualifying with run of 6.95 seconds that set a new track record, and backed that up with another 6.95 pass on Saturday to claim the top spot in eliminations for the 22nd time in his career.

On Sunday, Hines charged through the elimination rounds, beating Michael Phillips, Matt Guidera, and Craig Treble with runs under seven seconds. In the final, Hines had a tremendous .009-second reaction time on the lights and ran his quickest pass of the event with a 6.946 to beat Ellis, who ran 6.958 on the Schumacher Electric Suzuki.

“That light in the final was a little bit of an accident, I wanted to go in the teens,” said Hines. “I knew we would need a quick start to run with Chip but that was cutting it a little close.”

Eddie Krawiec rode the other Screamin’ Eagle/Vance & Hines V-Rod into the sixth qualifying spot with a 7.012 in the final Saturday qualifying round. Krawiec (0.33, 6.989) lost to Angelle Sampey (.015, 6.992) on reaction time in the first round of eliminations

The win by Hines and early exits of Guidera and Matt Smith, who went out to Sampey in round two, moves Hines past those riders and into the season points lead after three rounds in the 2008 NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series. Hines has 289 points, Guidera is second with 264 points, followed by Smith with 251 and Chip Ellis with 248. Krawiec drops to sixth spot with 145 points. NHRA Pro Stock Motorcycles will race next at the O'Reilly NHRA Midwest Nationals presented by Castrol, May 2-4 at Gateway International Raceway in Madison, Ill.

Used with permission from H-D®.