Andrew Hines won the POWERade world championship title in Pro Stock Motorcycle Sunday at Pomona Raceway with a first round victory at the Auto Club NHRA Finals.

Hines earned the championship following his first round victory over Chris Rivas combined with a first round loss for closest points challenger GT Tonglet. Hines earned $50,000 for the series crown from NHRA and POWERade.

“Winning this year is definitely better than last year,” said Hines, who rides the Screamin’ Eagle Vance & Hines Harley-Davidson. “It was certainly a lot tougher to win this year because there were about 10 bikes that could win races. I’m just happy to be able to do this for Harley-Davidson and the Vance & Hines team.”

Hines raced to two victories in five final rounds and posted 10 No. 1 qualifying positions en route to his championship. His season was highlighted by becoming the first rider to post a six-second run (6.991 seconds) at Gainesville, Fla., and followed that up with a national record performance of 6.968 seconds at Infineon Raceway in Sonoma, Calif. in July.

“You always want to win a second championship to prove the first one wasn’t luck,” Hines said. “My dad (Byron) and brother (Matt) and the Vance & Hines crew worked hard all year and gave me an awesome bike and we got it done.”

Hines, who last year became the youngest NHRA POWERade world champion in NHRA history at age 21, joins Dave Schultz, Angelle Sampey and his brother Matt as the only riders in the category to win back-to-back championship titles.