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NEWS
V-Rod champion continues domination of Pro Stock Drag Racing
Andrew Hines endured a nerve-wracking wait at California’s Pomona racetrack before clinching his third consecutive NHRA Pro Stock Motorcycle title.
The 23 year-old champion made life hard for himself during the crucial season-closing race with a potentially expensive false start in the elimination rounds and had to watch from the pit area as his nearest competitors tried to overhaul his championship points lead.
The main threat came from Suzuki’s Antron Brown and Angelle Sampey and although both challengers produced some blisteringly quick performances on the quarter mile Californian drag strip they were unable to secure enough points to overhaul the defending champion.
Hines, who in partnership with his team-mate Gary Tonglet has made the Vance & Hines Screamin’ Eagle V-Rod professional motorcycle drag racing’s pre-eminent machine, confirmed the long wait was less than easy:
“A crucial part of our sport is to react quickly to the lights and unfortunately my hand responded too fast. It is a risk you face at this level of racing but sitting around and waiting to find out if you are the champion again, knowing you can’t influence things out there on the track, was not my idea of fun.”
Despite a tense end to the season, Hines becomes only the third racer to have secured three titles and during his reign he has propelled the V-Rod to 19 top qualifying places and is the only man to have seriously threatened the 200mph top speed milestone.
Harley-Davidson’s Racing Manager Anne Paluso paid tribute to the team and underlined how quickly they had evolved into a championship winning crew.
“When Harley-Davidson entered this racing programme our goals were to qualify and then start winning races. Since Andrew joined the team in 2003 we have collected three championships in succession and we know this young team is still getting better.”
First launched in 2001, the road-going Harley-Davidson VRSC family has won over 30 major awards from the design industry and international motorcycle press. Harley-Davidson’s prestigious VRSC motorcycles offer a compelling combination of performance from their powerful, liquid cooled Revolution V-twin engines and the head-turning custom cruiser styling developed by Willie G. Davidson and Louis Netz.
2006 NHRA Pro Stock Motorcycle championship standings (15 Rounds)
1. Andrew Hines – 1,099 points – Champion (Harley-Davidson)
2. Antron Brown – 1,076 points – Runner-up (Suzuki)
3. Angelle Sampey – 999 points – Third place (Suzuki)
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