AMERICUS, Ga. - The Sovereign-Star Racing team will aim for safer ways of attracting media attention at this weekend's AAA Insurance NHRA Midwest Nationals in St. Louis, Mo., after racer Scotty Pollacheck nearly lost control of his motorcycle during qualifying at the Dallas AAA Texas Fall Nationals.

"No more trick riding this weekend! Once was enough. We'll have to 'Wow' everyone with ET and speed this weekend instead," Pollacheck said.

At the end of his final qualifying round in Dallas on Saturday, Pollacheck's Buell motorcycle began fishtailing back and forth at 190 mph after his rear tire became flat. The 27-year veteran drag racer was able to keep calm and kept his motorcycle under control as it crossed to the other lane behind competitor Karen Stoffer.

"It was a little more excitement than I needed! I was fine, though," Pollacheck said. "If it had been the morning session and we'd had another run that day I would've been ready to go."

"It was really scary for Scotty, but he was pretty busy afterward and didn't have time to be shaken up about it. He switched channels pretty quickly to get the bike back to the trailer and get ready for Sunday. Luckily, we had enough spare parts to fix it for eliminations. I've been carrying spare wheelie bars in the trailer since 2005 and it's the first time I've gotten to use them," Star Racing owner George Bryce said.

As soon as his team knew he was unharmed, Pollacheck's Sovereign-Star Racing crew got busy repairing the motorcycle for Round 1 eliminations the next day. The team only had one motorcycle running on Sunday after Pollacheck's teammate, John Hall, had bike and driving trouble during qualifying.

"It was just an off weekend for me, I guess. It wasn't my best performance and was hopefully my worst,'" Hall said. "I'm hoping to go into St. Louis this weekend with a fresh attitude so that I can run some interference for my teammate. Scotty is in the points countdown and obviously that's the main focal point for us. We need to get him up front in qualifying so he can get a decent first round matchup on Sunday."

Pollacheck, who according to Bryce made his best five runs in a row since he started with the team, also suffered another red light start during Round 1eliminations against Michael Ray, who went on to win the event.

"We were sorry to see him go red against Michael Ray in the first run, but we were excited that the bike ran its best time on Sunday and that he wasn't too shaken up to drive well," Bryce said. "We went backwards in the points, but everybody got really tight after switching positions, so they're all closer together now. All you have to do is have one good weekend like Michael (Ray) did and it all turns around. Thank goodness we have four more times to try it."