Gaige Herrera battled through sweltering heat and soaring track temperatures to ride his RevZilla/Motul/Vance & Hines Suzuki Gen 3 Hayabusa to a Pro Stock Motorcycle victory for the third time this season at the American Rebel Light Virginia NHRA Nationals at Virginia Motorsports Park in Richmond, VA, on Sunday.
Gaige Herrera qualified fourth with a 6.793-second/199.49 mph run in the Saturday-only three-round qualifying format used in Richmond. For the second race in row, the top starting spot was claimed by rookie sensation Brayden Davis, who also won the Mission #2Fast2Tasty specialty race, riding the Vance & Hines team’s third Suzuki Gen 3 Hayabusa.
In the first round of eliminations on Sunday, Herrera posted low elapsed time of the round and his quickest pass of the weekend with a 6.790-second/199.14 mph victory over Ron Tornow (6.925 seconds/196.50 mph). In round two, Herrera defeated Steve Johnson (6.936 seconds/195.76 mph) with a 6.813-second/199.73 mph run, again going the low ET of the round.
Facing Davis in a rematch of their semi-final contest two weeks ago in Bristol, Herrera posted a 6.818-second/199.11 mph pass to advance to his 28th career final round appearance. Davis, who rode the Vance & Hines rental machine for a two-race stint that concluded in Richmond, slowed on his run to 9.567 seconds at 90.82 mph due to a transmission issue.
In the final round, Herrera defeated Angie Smith (6.853 seconds/196.76 mph) with a 6.826-second/198.79 mph run to claim his third win of the season and 24th of his career.
It was a repeat win at the track where the reigning Pro Stock Motorcycle champion set an all-time NHRA record last year for consecutive national event wins with 10 in a row, a streak he later extended to 11. This year’s victory also extended Herrera’s lead in the championship standings to 100 points over Matt Smith, who exited in round two.
“I almost messed up there in the final. My light wasn’t the greatest, but luckily our Vance & Hines Suzuki horsepower drove me to the win light. It felt like being in a sauna here, and I really need to thank my crew guy Jay Krawiec and the whole team for sweating it out all weekend keeping my bike prepped in this heat,” Herrera said. “At this point in the season, it’s all about preparation, staying focused and being consistent to keep winning rounds and going as far as you can each race, win or lose. After Bristol I had a couple of weeks to go on a hardcore diet to get back down to my preferred race weight, which feels much better. I feel sharper and, in the groove, now.”
Two weeks after collecting his first career NHRA Pro Stock Motorcycle national event win, Richard Gadson qualified sixth with a 6.809-second/199.73 mph run on Saturday, his lowest starting position of the season.
In round one, Gadson defeated Hector Arana Jr. (6.897 seconds/194.86 mph) with a 6.857-second/197.77 mph pass. Gadson ran 6.887 seconds at 197.42 mph in a round two victory over Chris Bostick (7.115 seconds/191.08 mph), setting up a semi-final round appearance for the second race in a row. Despite getting an advantage off the starting line, Gadson’s 6.879-second/197.25 mph run came up just short against Angie Smith’s 6.854-second/197.19 mph pass. Gadson remains third in the championship, closing his gap to within 26 points of second place.
“Something happened to my motorcycle between qualifying and eliminations that caused it to be down on power a little bit. We couldn’t figure out the issue today, so I knew the race against Angie would need to be won at the tree, or I was going home. After Bristol, I said I wanted to keep doing everything right that I did to win my first Wally. I did my part on the tree, but Angie did hers too, and she had a faster motorcycle,” Gadson said. “It wasn’t my day today, but I closed the gap to Matt a little bit and put more distance between myself and the riders behind me in the standings. I’ll go to Norwalk next week looking to keep it going.”
The hot conditions on and off the track in Richmond kept the entire RevZilla/Motul/Vance & Hines Suzuki team on its toes all weekend, crew chief Andrew Hines said.
“This track is very good to race on in normal conditions, and it’s probably better than any other track in temperatures like these, but any surface that gets over 140 degrees is like a cooking surface. You could have fried an egg out there. We had to change our whole tuning mentality with the clutch and tires to make our Suzukis to go down the track fast. The heat was tough, but the consistency of our riders makes it easier to home in on the tuning because you can rely on them to do the same thing every time,” Hines said. “Unfortunately, we had an issue in the semis with Brayden’s transmission shifting from second to fourth, which is a fluke thing to have happen. We had no other failures this weekend, so we’re in good shape to head straight to Norwalk with just a little preventive maintenance.”
After the fifth of 15 rounds in the 2025 Pro Stock Motorcycle season, Herrera and Gadson sit first and third in the Pro Stock Motorcycle standings with 546 and 420 points, respectively.
The RevZilla/Motul/Vance & Hines team returns to action June 26-29 at the Summit Racing Equipment NHRA Nationals at Summit Racing Equipment Motorsports Park in Norwalk, OH.
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