NHRA: Hines Goes for ET Record at Englishtown
Posted By Terry CallahanMotorsports Editor, The Auto Channel
May 14, 2001
The next great barrier waiting to be broken in the NHRA Winston Drag Racing Series is a sub-seven second run in the Pro Stock Motorcycle class, and the favorite to do is Eagle One Suzuki rider Matt Hines, three-time bike champion. The place to do is, says Hines, is Englishtown, N.J.'s Old Bridge Township Raceway Park, site of this weekend's (May 18-20) Matco Tools Supernationals.
Hines established the current NHRA bike elapsed time record of 7.138 seconds at this event last year.
"Atlanta was a tune-up race for Englishtown, because that's where all the serious numbers come up on the board," explained Hines. "You know everyone's going to run their career best there. There's a possibility that somebody might break into the 7.0s for the first time. I want to be the first one to do it. When the Eagle One Suzuki is working so good, like it is right now, I just can't wait to get to the next race."
Hines has made the final round in all three bike events this season, with a win at Gainesville, Fla., and leads Antron Brown by 59 points.
"That's the ultimate goal right now," he confirmed. "We want to continue winning races and championships and have a performance advantage going into each race. The goal right now, the ultimate goal, is to break the six-second barrier, to break into the 6s. To do that, we need to get into the 7.0s first. I know we have the horsepower to do it. I think we had it last year, but we didn't have the conditions."
Text provided by Michael Knight
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