Will Tonglet earn his second NHRA Pro Stock Motorcycle title?

The kid who won a championship in his 2010 Mello Yello Drag Racing Series rookie season has now won five of the category’s eight 2017 races, earning his fifth victory of the year at the 30th annual Toyota Sonoma Nationals held this past weekend at Sonoma Raceway.

Until this season, it was just LE, brother GT and father Gary Tonglet traveling from race to race by truck. “Last year we were working on the bike, driving to a lot of places… it was a lot of time involved,” Tonglet said. There was a lot of stress involved in making every race and earning his stripes as a firefighter, Tonglet’s weekday job.

Toward the end of his 2016 championship season, Jerry Savoie of WAR realized the best way to amplify his NHRA program was to add another motorcycle. “My crew chief suggested it,” Savoie said of Timothy Kulungian, who makes the tuning decision for both motorcycles. “When you look at a lot of teams out here that are making eight runs in qualifying when we were making four,” Kulungian said, “it’s a strength to have two bikes. We’re not quite where we need to be, but we’re starting to get to a point where we can reap the benefits of a two-bike team.”

A one-of-a-kind bike

WAR (White Alligator Racing) races a one-of-a-kind Suzuki motorcycle, using bikes and equipment Savoie purchased from Don Schumacher Racing when that team decided to shutter its Pro Stock Motorcycle (PSM) team. Although he’s only been racing for a few years in the PSM class, Savoie has been competing at the local, Louisiana level for years, at one time competing against Tonglet’s dad. “I raced against Gary Tonglet many years ago, before the boys were even born, so it’s kind of a ‘full circle’ thing. I’m very thankful for who’s involved here because it makes this organization what it is,” Savoie stated.

To prep a bike for LE Tonglet, Kulungian and his crew constructed a new chassis, making it as much a clone to the championship bike Savoie has been riding as possible. “Anything that needed a change to fit LE we do for him,” Kulungian acknowledged.

“Here’s the deal,” Savoie explained. “The last couple of years we were strong, but we needed to be stronger because summer is the busiest time for my business.” Savoie owns an alligator farm and yes, summer is busy time. “I have to make a living to be able to do this, so we got backed up a couple of times.” Having to pick and choose races, he couldn’t run for the title, but last year he made the sacrifice and received the payoff of a national championship.

Part of the reason for adding LE Tonglet and his second motorcycle to the WAR squad was to “make sure that the truck was at every race - all 16 of ‘em - especially for the fans out there and the support NHRA has for us,” Savoie said. “To have LE and his dad come onboard was a big plus. We didn’t want to put someone else on that bike. To have the [added] information is a big plus and to have someone here to represent us, whether it be [Tonglet’s sponsor] NitroFish or WAR, it’s a great thing.”

While Kulungian and the hand-picked crew at WAR have their ways and means of conducting a race, they’ve deferred on some items to Gary Tonglet, taking into his account his vast experience in the class. “Yes, some of LE’s responsibilities with his bike have been alleviated,” Kulungian said, “but you’ve also got Gary, who came from a position where he had a lot of input on work and what decisions they were going to make” for each run.

“I defer to him (Gary Tonglet) on many things, especially with regard to LE and we’ve worked together on some things. On other things we don’t work together at all! You’re asking Mr Gary to trust us,” Kulungian continued, “and every decision we’re going to make that he’s a part of, requires a lot of trust on their behalf in who we are and what we can do to help them. There’s two sides to that: I think, because of these efforts they’ve put a lot of trust in us and our program. We want to deliver the best product we possibly can for them as well. I think we’ve illustrated we’re doing that.”

Well, yes they have. On Saturday, during the 30th annual Toyota Sonoma NHRA Nationals, LE Tonglet won the race-within-a-race Mickey Thompson Tires Pro Bike Battle against three-time champion Eddie Krawiec. Seeded third in that eight-rider battle, he beat three-time champ Angelle Sampey, five-time titleholder Andrew Hines and then Krawiec, Hines’ teammate. Tonglet stated his personal goal to join brother GT Tonglet as a winner of this special race; GT performed that accomplishment in 2005.

The involvement of Mickey Thompson Tires in the Pro Bike Battle is a good one for every PSM competitor as the $7,500 prize will go up incrementally next year. In 2018, the purse will go to $25,000 to win and the total to all eight competitors will be “a real purse”, as Kulungian stated, of $75,000. “Just to qualify next year, you’ll get $3,500,” which is a vast improvement for the teams.

Increasing win tally

On Sunday Tonglet, who won this race in 2016, went back-to-back in earning his fifth race win of the season and extending his points lead over Krawiec. To get to the finals from his No. 3 qualifying spot, Tonglet defeated Fred Camarena, Angie Smith and Hector Arana Jr. In the finals he met Matt Smith and the duo staged a photo-finish battle with Tonglet the victor, racing the quarter-mile at 6.783/197.02 to defeat two-time champion Matt Smith’s Victory motorcycle at 6.790/196.67. “I could hear him (Smith) the whole way and knew it was close. I wanted to look over very badly, but I just stayed tucked in and just stared at the win light. It lit, which was exciting.”

As one might expect, LE Tonglet has confidence in his chance to gain a No. 1 seed in NHRA’s 2017 Countdown to the Championship, which starts after the biggest race of the year, the Chevrolet Performance U.S. Nationals at Lucas Oil Raceway outside Indianapolis. There are two more PSM events in the regular season, at Brainerd August 17-20 and in Indianapolis on Labor Day weekend. Tonglet’s points lead over Krawiec, 780-636 is more than an event’s worth, but he still has to worry about Krawiec, Arana Jr and his teammate, Savoie.

The firefighter from Metairie, Louisiana isn’t about to let it faze him. “My riding hasn’t changed at all, coming from our bike to this bike,” Tonglet said. “It is a matter of getting used to everything else that’s happening on the bike,” like electronic fuel injection (EFI). “Last year we had a bike with a lot less computer stuff on it and we were fairly competitive with it, but now that I see what we have on this bike and what we get from each run, I’m pretty proud that we’re able to run with Jerry and with the Harley-Davidson’s. The bike is a lot more consistent and it shows.”