Harley-Davidson is making tracks in the world of performance motorcycle racing.

Screamin’ Eagle/Vance & Hines rider Eddie Krawiec grabbed his first career number-one qualifying berth and raced a Harley-Davidson V-Rod into the semi-final round of the NHRA Pro Stock Motorcycle eliminations at the Summit Racing Equipment NHRA Nationals at Summit Motorsports Park. Screamin’ Eagle/Vance & Hines rider Andrew Hines qualified second and was eliminated in the second round, but still leads the NHRA Pro Stock Motorcycle season standings by 81 points.

The top qualifying position is a milestone for Krawiec, now in his second season of NHRA Pro Stock Motorcycle competition with the Screamin’ Eagle/Vance & Hines team. His 7.011-second pass bumped his teammate Hines (7.045) from the top position just before a rain storm put a 90-minute hold on the action on Saturday.

“We’ve been struggling a bit, so (crew chief) Matt Hines and the Screamin’ Eagle team threw a lot at that run,” said Krawiec. “I’m glad the weather cleared and everyone else got to run so it would count. And now I know how hard it is to be the number one, because the last thing you want to do is come out and lose in the first round. I was trying not to think about it too much.”

Krawiec defeated Joe DeSantis and Chris Rivas in the first two rounds and faced Hector Arana on a Buell in the semi-final when a 7.070 run by Arana just nipped the 7.077 pass made by Krawiec. Arana went on to defeat Team Tegue Suzuki rider Craig Treble in the final.

“That was just a good drag race I lost in the semi-final,” said Krawiec. “I did everything I wanted to do, got a good start in the 30s and made a clean pass, but Arana got by me at the end.”

Hines survived a 0.128-second reaction time at the start in the first round to defeat Paul Gast, but then had a 0.131 start in the second round and lost on hole-shot to Treble, who had a 0.029 start and a run of 7.066 to 7.056 to Hines.

“I just had a bad day of racing,” said Hines. “I was not comfortable on the bike, and we had some issues during staging in the second round that led to my late start. We’ve been getting a handle on some fuel injections problems, and we ran better than we did last week at Englishtown. But we didn’t lose any ground to the racers right behind us in the points, and Eddie moves up to fifth place, so that’s good news.”

After seven rounds in the 2008 NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series, Hines has 613 points to lead the Pro Stock Motorcycle class. Chip Ellis is second with 532 points, followed by Matt Smith with 514, and Rivas 459. Krawiec moves from seventh to fifth place with 403 points. NHRA Pro Stock Motorcycles will race next July 11-13 at the Mopar Mile-High NHRA Nationals at Bandimere Speedway, Morrison, Colo.