| ROMINE CLAIMS ANOTHER NITRO
HARLEY-DAVIDSON VICTORY IN THUNDER VALLEY Bristol Dragway
Surface Aides Ultra-Quick Final Round Finish
BRISTOL, Tenn. (May 1, 2006) – Mike Romine just got better as the day
wore on using his quickest pass of the weekend to earn the Nitro
Harley-Davidson victory Sunday at the sixth annual O'Reilly NHRA Thunder
Valley Nationals at Bristol Motor Speedway.
Romine beat Tommy Grimes in the final round of the Nitro Harley-Davidson
exhibition series at the NHRA POWERade national event. It was the second
of three exhibitions for the nitro-burning motorcycles this season as
the AHDRA Screamin' Eagle championship chase had the weekend off.
Romine rode his nitro-burning Salt Lake City Harley to a 6.360-second
pass at 220.15 mph to beat Grimes' 6.388 at 219.65 on the Ray
Price-owned Harley entry.
"I think we all underestimated how good the track could get and it was
even better than we anticipated," Romine said. "We didn't have a lot of
time between the semifinal and final round, which just got us more hyped
up to race. The track cooled off a bit and it helped us run even
quicker. It was very exciting to be able to run quicker each round."
Going back to the fall event in Chicago last season, Grimes had won the
last two NHRA events for the nitro Harleys. Romine, however, has won the
last three consecutive events at Bristol Dragway including last season's
exhibition event at this track last year, followed by the AHDRA event
victory in August.
"It's a great facility and the fans are knowledgeable about drag racing
and they are always glad to have us race here," Romine said. "We come
back here in August (12-13 for the AHDRA event) and hopefully we can win
that one too. They have great fans in Bristol and they were already
talking about coming back for the AHDRA event."
Romine has already posted a victory in AHDRA action this season, earning
the win at the Screamin' Eagle Bike Week Nationals at Gainesville (Fla.)
Raceway in March.
"It's important that we were here this weekend because we made some good
runs and we didn't get to the first NHRA event (in Phoenix) earlier this
season," Romine said. "It's important for our team and our sponsors like
Salt Lake City Harley-Davidson to be able to run well in front of these
great crowds. We've won at least one NHRA event for four consecutive
years now. It's nice to have a win this season with one race left. We'll
be in Virginia in the fall and try to go after that win too."
Grimes earned the top qualifying position going into final eliminations,
posting a 6.428 pass at 221.63 for the No. 1 qualifier spot. Doug Vancil
was second in qualifying with a 6.448 at 213.77 while Romine was third
with a 6.478 at 216.00.
"We weren't sure if we were even going to race today because when we
looked up in the sky the weather didn't look like it was going to stay
dry long enough for the entire race," Harley-Davidson Racing Manager
Anne Paluso said. "Given the way the day started out, we couldn't be
happier with the performance of these nitro Harley-Davidsons. They put
on a great show for the Bristol fans and we capped the day with a quick
side-by-side race to the finish line."
Romine beat Dean Comunal (6.450 at 217.07 to 26.707 at 113.54) in the
first round before topping Vancil in Round Two (6.391 at 224.62 over
6.962 at 156.90).
Grimes posted a 6.484 at 215.48 in his bye run in the first round before
beating Takeshi Shigematsu in the second round (6.433 at 220.33 over
6.493 at 210.11).
The final exhibition event for the nitro-burning entries will take place
during the Virginia NHRA Nationals at Virginia Motorsports Park outside
of Richmond, Va., Oct. 6-8.
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www.harley-davidson.com for more information. |
