CLERMONT, Ind. — All the National Hot Rod Ass’n Pro Stock Motorcycle riders are playing catch-up with Andrew Hines.
For the second straight year, Hines denied Chip Ellis a victory in the Ringers Gloves Pro Bike Battle, Saturday’s bonus race-within-a-race.
Moreover, while Hines claimed the $25,000 winner’s share of the purse for the third time in four years and gave Harley-Davidson a fourth straight triumph, his victory also meant that the Vance & Hines team has dominated for eight of the past 12 years.
Hines’s brother, Matt, won a record four specialty races at Indianapolis from 1996 through 1999, riding a Suzuki.
Vance & Hines had a four-year drought from 2000-03, when Suzuki riders Antron Brown, Shawn Gann, Craig Treble, and Reggie Showers took the spotlight and the money.
“Man, what a dream. This is more than we could ask for,” Andrew Hines said after defeating Ellis with a 7.005-second elapsed time at 189.31 miles per hour. “Winning this deal, it’s like winning a championship. You’re racing the top eight bikes out there, and at the end of the day the top bike is going to prevail.”
Hines was eyeing NHRA’s $10,000 double-up bonus that goes to the Ringers Gloves Pro Bike Battle champion who also wins the Labor Day classic event.
 “I got close last year,“ he said. “I red-lit in the semifinals. I had the bike that could’ve won the race and threw it away. We’re in position now. We‘ve got a bike that’s running real strong. We’re not the No. 1 qualifier, but we just beat the No. 1 qualifier. That’s a pretty good statement for our V-Rod.”