“I’d say this is a great way to start a championship defense,” Krawiec said. “I had a great bike from the time we rolled it off the truck. We had low E.T. of every round except one. It was also a great way to roll out our new re-designed bikes which are based on the 2012 Harley Night Rods. We tested a little this off-season and we worked hard and the results showed.”

Shawn Gann lost in the first round to Karen Stoffer, who then lost in the second round to Hector Arana Jr.  (Adam Cranmer photo)

Hector Arana Jr. was in the hunt until the semifinal, where Hines ran 6.781/197/39 to Arana’s 7.144/155.58.  (Steve Gruenwald photo)

After running unofficially over 200 mph during testing at South Georgia Motorsports Park, there was plenty of speculation that Krawiec might get that magic number -- arguably the last major milestone in drag racing -- at Gainesville. 

“Unfortunately, there was no 200-mph run.” Krawiec added, “If I had done that, I could have retired. I guess I was not meant to retire.”