Drag Illustrated Issue 152, January 2020 | Page 69

The Champions of 2019
[ NHRA PRO STOCK MOTORCYCLE ]
A ndrew H ines
S
crolling the 2019 NHRA Pro
Stock Motorcycle stats, one would
never dream that the last race of
the season could generate such an
unfathomable scenario. Andrew Hines was ridic-
ulous all season aboard his Vance & Hines Har-
ley-Davidson, and except for a painful first-round
loss at Chicago’s Route 66 Nationals, he appeared
to be well on his way to a sixth championship.
“The new chassis we built for this year was
probably the No. 1 key to our success,” says Hines.
“It put up my career-best numbers in [pre-sea-
son] testing almost every lap, and it went right
to Gainesville and was flawless.”
Hines reached 10 of 16 final rounds and won
eight times, so come Sunday at the Auto Club
NHRA Finals, his job did not appear complicated.
In the first round, though, he rolled backward
out of the beams at the starting line. The result
was a red light that plucked fate from his grasp.
“That was a situation of taking yourself out
of your element and doing
everything you shouldn’t
do,” says Hines. “I should
have treated it like any oth-
er race, but I raced scared.
As soon as I went by the
Tree, I thought the day was
done. I knew the bikes Matt
[Smith] and Jerry [Savoie]
had, and I thought we might
as well pack up and leave.”
Rookie rider Jianna Sa-
linas was in the other lane
for that match, and her Cin-
derella story was ultimately
what put the championship back in Hines’ hands.
Salinas locked in a second-round victory over
a troubled Steve Johnson, then got past Smith,
who had problems in the semifinals. The young
rider earned her first victory when Savoie broke
on the starting line.
“It was crazy to see what
happened at the Finals,”
says Hines, who tied Hall of
Fame rider Dave Schultz for
his sixth title. “I don’t know
if we’ll ever see something
like that again. It kind of set
the new standard for ‘crazy
things can happen.’”
The challenge for Hines
until the NHRA Finals had
mostly been mental.
“It was just trying to
maintain that same drive
all season long,” he admits.
“I struggled in 2018 and didn’t win a race, so
I worked hard to keep the right mindset and
stay hungry. I really have to give credit to my
team; those guys were my motivation. This year,
I learned how to be more even-keeled and not ride
the highs and sink into the lows.” – KELLY WADE
DI DI DI
DI DI DI DI
DI DI DI
Ray Miller I I I
Ja n u a r y 2 0 2 0
NHRA SUPER COMP
//
Jeremy Mason
NHRA SUPER GAS
DragIllustrated.com
| D r a g I l l u s t r a t e d | 69