Wed, 24 Mar 2004, 09:47 AM History Made with V-Rod Win

Courtesy of John Potts

GAINESVILLE, Fla. -- Weekends like this certainly don¹t come often. We¹ve dreamt about it, but we didn¹t know it was going to be this great! New records all across the board ­ for the track, the NHRA and Harley. The Screamin¹ Eagle V-Rods® qualified #1 & # 3, setting new track records. Terry Vance from Vance & Hines and Willie G from Harley-Davidson were both on hand to view the historic event. The history was assured when two Screamin¹ Eagle / Vance & Hines V-Rods made it to the finals. It was a win-win situation - we were going to get our first NHRA Screamin¹ Eagle / Vance & Hines V-Rod Pro Stock win on Sunday.

Andrew Hines and GT Tonglet came off the trailer with stout qualifying passes. By the end of Saturday, the track record had been reset two times, with Andrew qualified #1 with a new track record et of 7.097 et / 189.43 mph pass. GT was right behind him in the #3 position with a 7.141 et / 188.16 mph pass.

The eliminations opened up with records continuing to fall. Both V-Rod riders advanced through their three elimination rounds quickly. Andrew ran a 7.051 et /190 mph pass, setting another track record against Josh Helvie. GT stepped up his times as well with a 7.092 et / 189.87 mph run against Chris Bostick to advance in the ladder. Next Andrew faced Joe DeSantis and defeated him with a 7.156 et / 189.15 mph run. With every successful pass in the eliminations, the sold out crowd cheered more and more for the Harley¹s, knowing history could be made. GT made two incredible passes to surpassed U.S. Army rider Antron Brown with a 7.085 et / 190.27 pass and #2 qualifier defending champion Geno Scali with a 7.119 et / 187.93 mph run in his route to bring the first V-Rod into the finals. In the semi-finals, Andrew faced Karen Stoffer. Both had identical reaction times, .077, and the Suzuki jumped away but the V-Rod chased her down with a 7.118 et / 188.63 mph run to make an all V-Rod final.

Entering the finals, it was a record setting first, a Pro Stock Harley vs. a Pro Stock Harley. In the history of the NHRA, a Harley powered pro stock bike had never won an NHRA event. Today, the history books were guaranteed to change. It was Andrew vs. GT. GT took the early lead with a .045 vs. Andrew¹s .055 light, but Hines made up the difference and powered away with his first National win with another great pass of 7.076 et / 189.83 mph vs. GT¹s 7.161 et / 182.96 mph to bring the Screamin¹ Eagle / Vance & Hines team it¹s first win. Yes, it was a dream weekend for the team and both riders. Everything went right in Gainesville. All the hard work of the crew from Harley-Davidson & Vance & Hines is finally starting to pay off. What every one said couldn¹t be done, this Screamin¹ Eagle / Vance & Hines team have done. Andrew Hines is currently ranked 1st and GT Tonglet is 2nd in the Pro Stock Bike ladder.

Stay tuned to see what happens at the next race April 15-18 in Houston, Texas.

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