Reigning world champion Richard Gadson clinched the NHRA Pro Stock Motorcycle regular season championship and will head into the upcoming Countdown to the Championship playoffs as the top seed after racing his RevZilla/Motul/Vance & Hines Suzuki Gen 3 Hayabusa to the semi-final round at the Cornwell Quality Tools NHRA U.S. Nationals at Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park in Indianapolis, on Monday.
After a break of nearly two months since the last race in Norwalk, championship leader Richard Gadson was eager to get back in the saddle of his Hayabusa at the U.S. Nationals in the RevZilla/Motul/Vance & Hines team’s hometown. Historically one of the most prestigious races on the NHRA calendar, Indy also crucially sets the 10-rider field that will contest the six-race Countdown to the Championship to crown the 2026 Pro Stock Motorcycle world champion.
Gadson opened the extended four-day event, which features five qualification rounds spread over three days, by qualifying fourth with a 6.818-second/197.86 mph run on Sunday.
In round one, Gadson caught a break after a sluggish 7.073-second/196.50 mph pass left him vulnerable when his opponent Marc Ingwersen fouled on the starting line, negating what would otherwise have been a winning elapsed time.
Gadson’s magic ran out in in the semi-final round when his 6.878-second/197.25 mph run came up short against Matt Smith (6.773 seconds/200.26 mph), but not before he’d earned enough points to clinch the regular season title plus the purse money and top seed in the Countdown that comes with it.
“We’ve been in a little bit of a performance funk since the race in Norwalk and the All-Star Callout in Sonoma. I haven’t been able to run big numbers, but I’ve been racing my way through rounds and getting wins one way or another, sometimes with luck like today. I want to be both lucky and good. This weekend proved why,” Gadson said. “We’re heading into an intense part of the season with three races in the next month and there’s no room for error, so we’re going to do some testing here tomorrow to see what we can learn and keep plugging away.”
Gaige Herrera came to Indy as a back-to-back U.S. Nationals winner hoping to make it three in a row. He qualified second with a 6.781-second/198.79 mph run and won the Mission #2Fast2Tasty Challenge, the specialty race-within-a-race held during qualifying sessions that carries a cash purse and championship bonus points, for the third time this year and 13th in his career.
Herrera advanced to the semi-finals with runs of 6.781 seconds at 199.29 mph and 6.809 seconds at 197.83 mph in rounds one and two over Hector Arana Jr. (foul) and Michael Ray (6.886 seconds/196.93 mph), respectively.
“We were missing a little performance this weekend, but I can’t be too mad about losing that one to Angie. That’s racing. Having a close race like that makes it fun for us racers and the fans,” Herrera said.
Herrera’s attention now turns to the Countdown, where he hopes to take back the championship from Gadson and add a third crown to the titles he earned in 2023 and 2024.
“I definitely feel mentally and physically prepared for the Countdown. It’s going to be a tight one between me, Matt, Angie and Richard, especially if it’s anything like this weekend. I’m going to put my head down and have fun with it,” he said. “I’m excited to go to Martin for the first race in the Countdown. It’s a new one for the NHRA but I’ve done a lot of testing there and I really love the track. Hopefully it gives me better luck than Maple Grove ever did.”
RevZilla/Motul/Vance & Hines Suzuki crew chief Andrew Hines said the team’s performance was affected negatively by recent competition adjustments imposed by the NHRA, but their focus now switches to preparing for success over the remaining races.
“The Buells have a little bit of a performance advantage on us right now. There was a rule change coming into this race that gave us back a five-pound weight increase after NHRA had removed it earlier in the season. Hopefully they’ll take another look at it, because we were getting destroyed [in top speed] from the eighth-mile mark to the end of the track before the weight change and now we’re getting destroyed even more, so obviously it was the wrong thing to do,” Hines said.
Looking ahead, Hines said the team used the long break to perform engine maintenance and dyno testing in preparation for the Countdown, which will pack six races into the next ten weeks on the calendar.
“We have a week off and then three back-to-back events to start the Countdown. It’s going to be fast and furious, so we need everything to be ready to go for Sunday from the time we unload the trailer,” he said. “It’s going to be intense, and preparation and experience will definitely have an effect on the how the rest of the season shakes out, so we think that gives us an advantage.”
At the conclusion of the eight-race regular season, Gadson topped the standings with 795 points, followed by Herrera in third with 723 points. Championship points for the top ten riders in the Countdown will be reset ahead of the six-race playoffs, with Gadson on top of the standings and Herrera starting in third position.
The RevZilla/Motul/Vance & Hines team returns to action September 18-20 for the opening round of the Countdown to the Championship at the Dodge NHRA Great Lakes Nationals at US 131 Motorsports Park in Martin, MI.
