NHRA - National Hot Rod Association

After the first day of qualifying for the NGK NHRA Carolina Nationals, Jerry Savoie leads the Pro Stock Motorcycle field at zMax Dragway. Savoie, the 2016 Mello Yello champion, rode his White Alligator Suzuki to a 6.801 on Friday afternoon and that run held up as the quickest pass of the day. The next quickest bike in the field is Eddie Krawiec’s Harley-Davidson with a 6.818. Savoie, the winner of the Countdown opener in Reading, did not get down the track on the second run of the day, but still managed to bank three additional qualifying points and the qualifying lead heading into Saturday’s final qualifying.

“I’m being a little greedy this weekend. I felt like I didn’t get a fair shake at the last race in St. Louis," said Savoie. "I lost to Hector [Arana] Jr. in the first round and that cost me the points lead. I made the decision to change things. We’ve been testing a lot of things in qualifying and then trying to put it all together on race day. We can’t do that anymore. We have to gather up every point that we can in order to win this thing. You never know what it’s going to take when it gets down to the very end. I think I did a good job and Tim [Kulungian, crew chief] did a great job tuning. I felt like we got everything out of it for the first run.

“The second run, I screwed that up,” he admitted. “I went up there and my glove got caught up in the clutch lever. I just shut it off. It was frustrating because I think conditions were better. I think someone would have run a 6.78 out there. I’m surprised that no one did. That’s one thing about me. I’ll tell you when I do something wrong. I definitely gave one away there.”

Championship leader Andrew Hines also made just one clean pass on Friday. Hines, the runner-up two weeks ago in St. Louis, missed the afternoon session but returned to post a third-best 6.837 on his Harley-Davidson FXDR. Hines has been the championship leader after 11 of the first 12 events this season and has seven wins so far in 2019. Like Savoie, Hines also padded his score with three bonus points on Friday.

Karen Stoffer, the most recent winner on the tour, continued her recent string of strong performances with a 6.842 on her Big St. Charles/Skillman Auto Suzuki. Stoffer, currently ranked No. 2 in the Mello Yello standings, made two consistent runs in the 6.8s and holds down the No. 4 spot. The third Harley-Davidson ridden by Angelle Sampey is fifth-best with a 6.860.

Reigning series champion Matt Smith has also had his share of troubles on the first day of the zMax event. Smith could only muster a 7.07 on his Denso EBR during Q1 and things didn’t get any better on Q2 when he coasted to a stop before the finish line later in the day. Smith is currently in the No. 14 spot, well back of the leaders.