Richard Gadson raced his RevZilla/Motul/Vance & Hines Suzuki Gen 3 Hayabusa to his fourth win of the season and extended his lead in the Pro Stock Motorcycle Countdown to the Championship playoffs at the Texas NHRA FallNationals at Texas Motorplex in Ennis, TX, on Sunday.
Richard Gadson qualified number one for the second time this year with a 6.747-second/201.59 mph pass in the second of Friday’s qualifying sessions, which also earned him a $5,000 bonus in the ‘JEGS Friday Nite Live’ Battle for the Saddle, part of the 10-day Stampede of Speed festival that marks the Dallas race as a highlight for NHRA fans.
In the first round of eliminations on Sunday, Gadson defeated Lance Bonham (7.306 seconds/177.15 mph) with a 6.750-second/202.00 mph pass, then ran 6.817 seconds at 199.00 mph in round two against Clayton Howey (6.947 seconds/197.26 mph) to advance to the semi-final round. Gadson laid down a 6.813-second/198.62 mph run in the semis against Matt Smith (6.873 seconds/198.03 mph) to advance to his ninth career final round appearance and sixth of the season.
In the finals, Gadson ran 6.796 seconds at 200.37 mph to defeat Vance & Hines rental rider Brayden Davis (6.817 seconds/200.34 mph), claim his fourth win of the season and career and extend his lead in the Countdown to the Championship playoffs.
By winning his second race since the six-race Countdown began, Gadson extended his lead to 72 points over Herrera in second and 105 points over third-place Matt Smith. Those gaps virtually guarantee Gadson will head into the season finale at Pomona in mid-November as points leader no matter what happens at the penultimate race of the season in Las Vegas in two weeks’ time.
“We’ve been trying some new things with the clutch setup over the past few races. I really trust my crew chief Eddie Krawiec to find the right setup, and from the first run down the race track this weekend, I knew I had the fastest motorcycle that I’ve had all year. I could feel it. I could almost hear the tire biting into the track. This is the best motorcycle I’ve had and it’s coming at the perfect time of the season,” Gadson said.
“Going into the last two races of the Countdown with the performance package I have right now really boosts my confidence. I know I have a great horse; I’ve just got to ride it. It’s go-time and I want to win this championship bad, but it’s not done yet by a long shot. Gaige and Matt are right behind me, and I’m not counting any chickens before they’re hatched,” he continued. “I’ve got to keep my hand on the throttle, so I’m just going to try to have fun these last two races, enjoy the ride and let the chips fall where they may in Vegas and Pomona.”
Defending world champion Gaige Herrera qualified second a tick behind his teammate with a 6.752-second/200.71 mph run in the Friday evening qualifying session.
Herrera opened Sunday eliminations with a 6.749-second/202.52 mph victory in round one over Charles Poskey (foul), then ran a solo 6.780-second/200.95 mph run in round two after his opponent Steve Johnson, who made an unplanned trip into the sand traps in round one, was a no-show.
In the semi-final round, Herrera ran 6.837 seconds at 199.72 mph against NHRA rookie of the year contender Davis on the Vance & Hines team’s third Hayabusa, but a rare red-light foul scuttled Herrera’s bid against Davis’s quicker 6.831-second/199.72 mph run on the starting line.
With rival Matt Smith also falling in the semi-final round, Herrera held station in second place in the Countdown. He now has a 33-point gap to Smith but lost ground to Gadson, who sits 72 points ahead with two races remaining.
“We qualified well and had a fast motorcycle all weekend, but unfortunately, I beat myself today. Every time I’ve run against Brayden I’ve had the slower bike, so I knew I had to push on the tree, but unfortunately, I cut it too close and went double-oh-five red. All three of our Hayabusas are fast, which is awesome and makes us riders push that much harder when we run against each other,” Herrera said. “I’m still second in points but it’s going to be hard to catch Richard at this point. I’ll need a miracle to happen on my side to change things, but all-in-all, I’ll be glad if it’s either me or him at the end of the season.”
RevZilla/Motul/Vance & Hines Suzuki crew chief Andrew Hines said the dominant performance in Dallas of the team’s three Hayabusas, which swept the top three qualifying spots and all advanced to the semi-final round, is the culmination of a series of tuning trials undertaken during race weekends beginning at the two west coast NHRA rounds in July.
“Racing against each other in the late rounds and having three out of the four bikes in the semi-finals is never a bad thing. We’ve been playing around with different tuning variables for each bike from the Western Swing until this weekend. Ed and I started comparing notes, looking at data and asking ourselves what we’ve been doing differently across our three motorcycles. It came down to comparing those notes, figuring out where our shortcomings were and deciding the right direction to go for each one. And it worked on all three motorcycles this weekend,” he said. “We’re trying to give our all as tuners to each motorcycle and may the best rider win. It comes down to desire and execution. Our guys are riding top notch. It’s just a matter of putting the whole run together. A difference of a couple hundredths in elapsed time comes down to the 60-foot time, did they go straight, did they hit their shift points.”
“We feel good about the next two races, especially Vegas. These hot weather races have been challenging but we’ve been able to manage the power and the traction to get our Hayabusas to go,” he said. “Vegas typically has a sticky starting line, which is what we need to get them moving.”
With two races remaining in the Countdown to the Championship, Gadson and Herrera sit first and second in the standings, with 2,507 and 2,435 points, respectively.
The RevZilla/Motul/Vance & Hines Suzuki team returns to action Oct. 30-Nov. 3 at the Dodge NHRA Nevada Nationals powered by Direct Connection at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway in Las Vegas, NV.
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