![\"NHRA](\"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Tonglet-vs-Arana-Jr-at-Denver-min.jpg\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
For the second consecutive year, Pro Stock Motorcycle will hold its Mickey Thompson Tires Pro Bike Battle, a race within a race during the Toyota Sonoma Nationals, held this weekend on the dragstrip at Sonoma Raceway north of San Francisco. 2018 marks the second year of sponsorship for Mickey Thompson Tires.<\/p>\n
The second race in NHRA\u2019s tough Western Swing, the Toyota Sonoma Nationals includes the Pro Stock Bike Battle, which rewards one of eight riders with a $25,000 winner\u2019s bonus. The eight riders eligible to compete include reigning world champion Eddie Krawiec, who secured the top spot in this special event. He\u2019ll put his Harley-Davidson Screamin\u2019 Eagle bike against Angie Smith and her Buell, the first-time No. 8 qualifier for this race.<\/p>\n
WAR Racing Suzuki rider LE Tonglet, who won this competition and the race at Sonoma last year, lines up No. 2 and will compete against last week\u2019s winner at Denver, Hector Arana Jr. on his Buell. Krawiec\u2019s teammate, 2016 Pro Bike Battle winner Andrew Hines, lines up against Matt Smith\u2019s Victory, while Suzuki riders Jerry Savoie and Scotty Pollacheck are the final two entrants for this year\u2019s Pro Bike Battle.<\/p>\n
![\"NHRA](\"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Hector-Arana-Jr-action-min.jpg\")
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Tonglet is hoping to \u201cdouble up\u201d as he did in 2017, even against the tough riders eligible for this race. Arana Jr. in particular will be a hard barrier to eclipse, as the second-generation rider knows his motorcycle is \u201crunning great, and we\u2019ve got a great setup when we come back to sea level,\u201d Arana said.<\/p>\n
Tonglet\u2019s ready for the challenge: \u201cIt gives you a little extra confidence when you have had good success last year; we\u2019re definitely confident going back down to sea level with our bike. We seem to run well at Sonoma every year.\u201d<\/p>\n
This blockbuster pairing will get plenty of competition from the other three duos eligible to compete for the winner\u2019s $25,000. All three rounds of the Mickey Thompson Tires Pro Bike Battle on Sonoma\u2019s near-sea-level dragstrip take place on Saturday, normally reserved for the second day of qualifying. The first round is set for 1PM, while semifinals follow at 4:15PM. The final round is slated for 5:30PM.<\/p>\n
![\"NHRA](\"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/LE-Tonglet-min.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Tonglet, the 2010 rookie NHRA Pro Stock Motorcycle champion, believes a raceday mindset is necessary to compete in the Pro Bike Battle. \u201cIt\u2019s basically just staying calm and trying to make the perfect run three more times on Saturday,\u201d he said. \u201cYou have to be perfect. That\u2019s the only way you can double up (winning both the Pro Bike Battle and Sunday\u2019s eliminations). You have to go up there like it\u2019s raceday, and hopefully we can put ourselves in position to do it again.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
For the second consecutive year, Pro Stock Motorcycle will hold its Mickey Thompson Tires Pro Bike Battle, a race within a race during the Toyota Sonoma Nationals.<\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":65,"featured_media":53692,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3465,4802,3470,5029,3399],"tags":[5614,4743,2284,41,7,74,1632],"class_list":["post-53689","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-drag-racing","category-motorcycles-and-powersports","category-news","category-racing","category-nhra","tag-anne-proffit","tag-le-tonglet","tag-motorcycles","tag-news","tag-nhra","tag-pro-stock-motorcycle","tag-racing"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Tonglet-vs-Arana-Jr-at-Denver-min.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p42YSK-dXX","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53689","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/65"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=53689"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53689\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":53693,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53689\/revisions\/53693"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/53692"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=53689"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=53689"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=53689"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}