As if the stakes in the NHRA Pro Stock Motorcycle Countdown to the Championship playoffs weren’t high enough, they got even bigger when dangerously high winds in Las Vegas on Sunday forced the final round matchup between RevZilla/Motul/Vance & Hines Suzuki teammates Richard Gadson and Gaige Herrera to be postponed until the season finale in Pomona, CA, in two weeks.
The penultimate round of the NHRA season and fifth of six races in the Countdown for the Championship playoffs was held at the MOPAR NHRA Las Vegas Nationals at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. The race was marked by gusty winds that forced a brief halt to all racing on Sunday afternoon and ultimately the postponement of the Pro Stock Motorcycle final round.
Fittingly for a race held just a few miles from the world-famous Las Vegas Strip, the event also featured a few lucky breaks for both RevZilla/Motul/Vance & Hines Suzuki riders that allowed them to advance to face each other in the now-delayed final round and virtually clinch the 2026 Pro Stock Motorcycle world championship for the team.
The season finale in Pomona will now feature head-to-head battles between Richard Gadson and Gaige Herrera to determine both the Las Vegas race winner and the season champion.
Reigning world champion Richard Gadson qualified second on Saturday with a 6.836-second/196.10 mph run, marking the third time this season the Vance & Hines team has locked out the top two spots in the starting order.
Portending events to come, Gadson survived his first scare of the day in round one on Sunday against John Hall when a strong side wind forced his motorcycle to drift towards the centerline. The championship leader hung off the side of his Hayabusa trying to keep it inside the line and held onto the throttle just long enough to run 7.158 seconds at 186.33 mph. Fortunately for Gadson, Hall had problems of his own in the other lane, coasting to a losing 7.860-second/123.93 mph run.
In round two, Gadson again had to fight the wind to keep his motorcycle in the racing groove, hanging on to claim a narrow 6.857-second/194.72 mph victory over Angie Smith (6.865 seconds/199.08 mph).
Gadson’s string of wild rides continued in the semi-final round, when number three qualifier Ryan Oehler also struggled in the crosswind, lifting and slowing to 8.484 seconds at 107.81 mph. Gadson held onto his run longer, posting a 6.933-second/174.48 mph run to advance to his ninth final round appearance of the season and fifth against Herrera.
“Everybody was fighting the same issues with the wind today, but I was able to find a way to beat them to the finish line even though there were some wild rides. It was more about willing myself to the finish line than luck. I definitely caught some breaks today, but when you’re dealt a set of cards, you play them,” said Gadson, who agreed with the decision to postpone the final round.
“At the end of the day, the competitor in me wants to race, but I have a three-year-old girl back home who’s waiting for me to walk back through the door, so it was the right decision by the NHRA. I’m happy they took it out of our hands because we’re maybe stupid enough to try to race anyways. My number one priority is to make it back home to my family,” he said.
Gadson currently leads Herrera by 55 points in the Countdown standings. Depending on the outcome of the Las Vegas final round, which will be contested during the third round of qualifying in Pomona, Gadson will enter eliminations for the finale with at least a 35-point lead over Herrera, which he can extend to 75 points if he wins the delayed final. Third place Matt Smith, who lost in the second round in Las Vegas, sits 133 points behind Gadson, and with the available points remaining, is all but mathematically eliminated from contention.
“It’ll be a doubleheader in Pomona with a lot riding on that race. I really want to find a way to survive Gaige’s assault and win it on the track. Hopefully from a performance standpoint I won’t need luck, but I’ll take whatever I can get,” Gadson said.
Gaige Herrera ran 6.799 seconds at 197.91 mph on Saturday, earning his fifth number one qualifier of the season and the 36th of his career.
In round one, Herrera posted a 6.765-second/199.79 mph run, low elapsed time of the round, against Chris Bostick (6.895 seconds/195.11 mph).
Herrera continued to show he was the class of the field in Las Vegas by again posting low ET in round two, running 6.752 seconds at 200.05 mph against Clayton Howey (6.890 seconds/195.73 mph) to advance to the semi-finals.
Herrera caught a break of his own in the semi-final round by barely edging out Joey Gladstone when both racers struggled to hold a straight line and full throttle in the heavy crosswinds. Herrera prevailed with a 7.280-second/181.96 mph run over Gladstone’s 7.332 second/180.09 mph pass, setting up his sixth final round appearance of the season and fifth against Gadson.
“I’ve got the bike to beat right now. Andrew is doing his thing and my Hayabusa is on rails, especially in the 60-foot. The wind just threw us for a big loop today. When you’re next to the big bleachers the wind is going in one direction and then it flip-flops when you pass them and blows you the other way. I was making good runs until the semis, but it was hairy for sure. NHRA made the decision to move the final, which I feel was the safest and best call,” Herrera said.
Helped by grabbing nine of the 12 available qualifying bonus points, Herrera edged three points closer to Gadson and now trails by 55 points after the semi-final round. He can reduce that deficit a further 20 points by winning the delayed Las Vegas final.
With the points-and-a-half format at the season finale, which awards 4 points for the lowest ET of each qualifying round and 30 points for each round win, Herrera will likely need to go at least two rounds farther than Gadson during eliminations in Pomona to add a third world championship to the titles he earned in 2023 and 2024.
“It’s going to make Pomona that much more interesting. I don’t have any room for error if I want to take this championship back,” Herrera said. “I have the mindset to go out there and win. Richard has been on his game going rounds on Sunday. That’s the day that counts. I need to do the same thing and do it better than him in Pomona.”
RevZilla/Motul/Vance & Hines Suzuki crew chief Andrew Hines said the team’s plan for Las Vegas, as it has been throughout the Countdown, was to focus on extracting the best qualifying performance from both riders to set them up to run deep into the elimination rounds.
“Before we left the shop to come here, I told the guys we needed to go out, do our jobs, and qualify one and two, because that gives us the best shot of advancing out of the first round, and then focus on bringing the best two motorcycles to the starting line every run. We did that today. It may not have been the prettiest, but Richard got away with three round wins today because he was better than his opponent in those rounds. Not exactly how we expected it, but mission accomplished by putting both of our Hayabusas in the final,” Hines said.
Similar to the situation heading into last year’s season finale in Pomona, the team’s riders hold the top two positions in the Countdown standings and are poised to battle head-to-head for the championship with no others in realistic contention.
Hines hopes to see the championship settled on track, an outcome that fans were denied last season by unprecedented rain storms that forced the cancellation of racing and resulted in the awarding of championships based on points.
“It’s going to be a grudge match in Pomona. Gaige is out for vengeance, and Richard is out to prove a point. It’s going to be an all-out dog fight and no matter what happens in the ‘Vegas final’ on Saturday, it’s going to come down to what happens on Sunday,” Hines said.
With one round remaining in the Countdown to the Championship, Gadson and Herrera sit first and second in the standings, with 2,579 and 2,524 points, respectively.
The RevZilla/Motul/Vance & Hines team returns to action Nov. 13-15 for the NHRA season finale at the In-N-Out Burger NHRA Finals at In-N-Out Burger Pomona Dragstrip in Pomona, CA
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