NHRA - National Hot Rod Association

Reigning world champ Matt Smith flexed the muscles of his Denso-backed EBR, cracking off the first 200-mph Pro Stock Motorcycle pass at Texas Motorplex en route to grabbing the No. 1 qualifying spot. Smith improved by a tenth on his opening pass of 6.87 with a 6.777 at 200.26 mph to take over the No. 1 spot. the previous best speed in track history was 198.99, set four years ago by Jerry Savoie.

“The run was pretty awesome,” said smith. “We struggled last week in Charlotte and went home and did a lot of work and found that the frame was broken. We got that fixed and tested at a little eighth-mile track down the road [from Texas Motorplex] and made four runs and the problem was fixed. I was too conservative the first run because the track was really good and I bogged the motor and slipped the clutch, so we decided to shoot for the moon on the next run. We got after it and she held.”

Indy champ Savoie, still reeling from back-to-back first-round losses at the last two events, crushed it on his second pass aboard the White Alligator Racing Suzuki, improving from a 6.87 to a 6.790 to take the No. 2 spot as both bumped first-session leader Angelle Sampey’s 6/847 from the top spot; Sampey’s Harley could only manage a 6.854 on its evening pass.

Scotty Pollacheck picked up four-hundredths off his opening pass, rocketing his Strutmasters.com EBR to a 6.850 that momentarily had him in the lofty No. 2 spot before sliding down two spots to fourth, just ahead of Andrew Hines’ Q1 pass of 6.851.

Recent St. Louis winner Karen Stoffer recovered from an aborted nine-second pass in Q1 with a 6.853 in the second session to grab the No. 6 spot, a number matched by Eddie Krawiec, who also struggled in Q1 with a 6.90, more than a half-tenth off the quick early pace then ran 6.857 for No. 7.

The top half of the field is rounded out by Ryan Oehler, who improved two-hundredths from his opening lap with a 6.866.