American Motorcycle Dealer AMD 246 January 2020 | Page 21

Hines claims his record sixth title
and 10th championship for the
Harley-Davidson Screamin'
Eagle/Vance & Hines drag racing
team.
Harley-Davidson Screamin' Eagle/
Vance & Hines rider Andrew Hines was
crowned the 2019 NHRA Mello Yello
Pro Stock Motorcycle drag racing
champion following a day of drama at
the Auto Club NHRA Finals at Auto
Club Raceway in Pomona, California,
in November.
After fouling in the first round of
eliminations, Hines watched from the
pits as the two other contenders for
the championship advanced to the
semi-finals before also being
eliminated, leaving Hines with the
points he needed to wrap up a
dominating season with his sixth
NHRA Pro Stock Motorcycle title and
the 10th championship for the Harley-
Davidson Screamin' Eagle/Vance &
Hines team.
Hines (2004-06, 2014-15, and 2019)
is the second rider to win six NHRA Pro
Stock Motorcycle championships,
matching the record set by the late Hall
of Fame racer Dave Schultz, who won
the title six times between 1987 and
1996. Hines is one of only ten
Andrew Hines celebrates while
being pushed by crewman Mike
Mullaney.
competitors in NHRA history to win six
championships. In 17 seasons racing
for the Harley-Davidson Screamin'
Eagle/Vance & Hines team, Hines has
won 56 finals, also a record for the
class. The 2019 championship caps a
16-race season that saw Hines
dominate the class aboard his Harley-
Davidson FXDR drag bike, taking eight
victories in ten final-round
appearances and earning the number-
one seed for the countdown to the
championship playoffs.
"The Harley-Davidson Screamin'
Eagle/Vance & Hines team races
competition drag bikes inspired by the
Harley-Davidson FXDR 114, a
performance cruiser based on the
Softail platform that combines the
unrelenting power of the Milwaukee-
Eight 114 engine with the liberal use
of alloy and composite components to
maximize acceleration, braking and
handling performance. The FXDR drag
bikes made a dominating mid-season
debut in July at the Dodge Mile-High
NHRA Nationals near Denver, where
Hines and teammate Ed Krawiec
stormed through the Pro Stock
Motorcycle field and staged an all-
Harley final, which was won by Hines.
Hines qualified fourth for the NHRA
Finals in Pomona with an elapsed time
(ET) of 6.845 seconds at 196.22 mph.
Harley-Davidson
Screamin'
Eagle/Vance & Hines riders Krawiec
and Angelle Sampey qualified in
seventh and 10th positions
respectively - Krawiec lost to Sampey
in the first round of eliminations, and
Sampey was eliminated in round two.
For the season, Hines led the Pro Stock
Motorcycle field with 2,599 points and
eight wins in ten final-round
appearances and was the number-one
qualifier two times. Krawiec, a four-
time Pro Stock Motorcycle champion
(2008, 2011-12, 2017) finished in fifth
place with 2,474 points after making
seven final-round appearances and
claiming the top qualifier position
three times. Sampey, a three-time Pro
Stock Motorcycle champion (2000-02)
completed her first season with the
Harley-Davidson
Screamin'
Eagle/Vance & Hines team in seventh
place with 2,381 points and was twice
the top qualifier for a race.
NEWS
BRIEFS
Michelin has signed an
agreement to acquire 80% of PT
Multistrada Arah Sarana TBK
("Multistrada"), a tire
manufacturer based in
Indonesia. Michelin will pay
USD 439m for the controlling
stake. With a production
capacity of more than 180
thousand tons (i.e., 11 million
passenger car tires, 9 million
two-wheel tires and 250
thousand truck tires),
Multistrada generated net sales
of USD 281 million in 2017. With
this transaction, Michelin will
strengthen its presence in the
highly promising but local-
production dominated
Indonesian market by acquiring
a very competitive local plant
with good quality facilities and
immediately available
production capacity.
AMA has announced two new
extreme off-road series - nine events
in two qualifying series "provide
more opportunities to secure a spot
in the 2020 AMA Extreme Off-Road
Grand Championship, the Tennessee
Knockout on Aug. 14-16" - the new
format and additional events open
up 26 more spots at the TKO.
The International Federation of
Robotics (IFR) has announced
that South Korea has doubled
the number of industrial robots
it has in operation within the
past five years to 300,000 and
now ranks third globally behind
Japan and China.
Hines Claims Record Sixth Title
and 10th Championship