Hector Arana Sr. and Jr. had the distinction of both losing their semifinal matchups. (Ron Lewis photo)

A rejuvenated LE Tonglet gave a reminder to the Route 66 Nationals fans of what his drive to the 2010 Full Throttle series championship resembled when he reached the Pro Stock Motorcycle finals for the first time this season.

Taking advantage of a new tune-up on the Nitro Fish/Tonglet Racing Suzuki GSXR, Tonglet combined two red-light wins with a holeshot victory over reigning series champion Eddie Krawiec to set up a meeting with Andrew Hines.

The big news at Joliet was the first appearance by a Triumph motorcycle. Kieth Burley will compete at four NHRA events this season, but didn’t make the field this first time. Best qualifying numbers were 7.117 at 189.10 mph. (Michael Fischbeck photo)

“Our combination is definitely there now,” said Tonglet, who jumped into the fourth qualifying position on his last run. “We made one more change before racing Hines and I left four-thousands of a second too soon. We know we are going in the right direction. We ran pretty consistently all day.

“There was nothing for me to do in the finals but shut it off. We didn’t want to hurt the motor.” Hines was timed in 6.940 seconds at 192.69 mph.

Angie Smith fouled out in the first round and Tonglet motored down the quarter-mile track in 6.984 seconds at 190.22 mph. He was ready for Krawiec, leaving with a .022-second light and finishing with a 6.993 at 190.75 to Krawiec’s .048, 6.971 at 192.03. The winning margin was four-thousandths of a second.

In the semifinal, Hector Arana went red and Tonglet went 6.855 at 188.65.