PRO STOCK MOTORCYCLE

Eddie Krawiec rode his Screamin’ Eagle Vance & Hines Harley-Davidson to a 6.880 at 196.36 mph in the Pro Stock Motorcycle final round to cross the finish line before Jerry Savoie, who posted a 6.856 at 196.76 on his White Alligator Racing Suzuki. Krawiec claimed his fifth win of the season, 36th of his career and second at the Texas Motorplex. Krawiec beat Karen Stoffer, Hector Arana and LE Tonglet to appear in his seventh final round of the season.

“Anytime you’ve got to race [Savoie], you’ve got to be focused,” said Krawiec, who now has a 17-point lead over teammate Andrew Hines. “As a matter of fact, you have to be focused for just about anybody out there. When you look at this category as a whole right now, it’s some of the best racing that there could be. You see LE (Tonglet) came up from nowhere and took Andrew out, then I’ve got to run him, and we run almost neck and neck with each other. You have to be on your game every single round here, no matter who you’re racing and who’s in that other lane.”

Savoie, the alligator farmer from Louisiana, beat Krawiec in the final round at Dallas one year ago. Savoie qualified No. 1 and sprinted past Joe DeSantis, Matt Smith and Englishtown, N.J., winner Angelle Sampey before losing to Krawiec.

Matt Smith (photo courtesy Victory Motorcycles)

Victory Motorcycles racer Matt Smith was sharp during final eliminations, but he couldn't get his Gunner past the second round.

Smith had a perfect reaction time in the first round and an excellent light in the second, but No. 1 qualifier Jerry Savoie ended Smith's day in that session with a slightly quicker ET.

In the first round against No. 8 qualifier Cory Reed, Smith ripped off a perfect .000-second reaction time, with Reed posting a terrific .013 light hiumself. Smith then outran Reed with a pass of 6.893 seconds at 194.35 mph, compared to Reed's 6.926-second pass at 190.43 mph.

"I guess I was perfect, but I got lucky on the side of a mistake basically," Smith said with a wry smile. "We've been close all weekend, but a triple-zero is too close. We got away with one there and we won the round."

Like Reed, Savoie had a .013 light in the second round, and his pass of 6.853 seconds at 195.36 mph was enough to beat Smith's 6.958-second pass at 191.05 mph on a respectable .021-second reaction time.

"This Victory Gunner, we're still struggling with it a bit," Smith said. "We're running OK, that's it. We're not running like we should. We've got to make some changes. We've got to change the fuel injection system that we use.

"We've got to do a lot of testing over the winter and get the new fuel injection system we want to put on and get back like we used to when we were winning our races and championships."