Gaige Herrera won the prestigious NHRA U.S. Nationals for the second year in a row and clinched his third straight Pro Stock Motorcycle regular-season championship aboard his RevZilla/Motul/Vance & Hines Suzuki Gen 3 Hayabusa at the Cornwell Quality Tools NHRA U.S. Nationals at Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park in Indianapolis on Sunday.
After a five-week layoff following the penultimate regular season race in Sonoma, Gaige Herrera broke his own existing elapsed time track record with a 6.738-second/201.16 mph run on Sunday during the expanded five-round qualifying format at the U.S. Nationals to claim the top qualifying position for the fourth time this year and 27th time in his career.
Herrera also clinched the season championship in the Mission #2Fast2Tasty Challenge, earning a cash purse and bonus points in the specialty race contested during qualification rounds throughout the NHRA regular season.
In round one of eliminations on Monday, Herrera defeated Chris Bostick (6.895 seconds/195.00 mph) with a 6.744-second/200.65 mph run to earn his 39th straight first round victory, which ties Dave Shultz for the second-longest streak in the Pro Stock Motorcycle class. Angelle Sampey currently holds the record with 46 first round victories in a row.
Herrera defeated Angie Smith (6.853 seconds/197.33 mph) with a 6.778-second/199.79 mph run in round two before knocking off championship rival Matt Smith (foul) in the semi-final round with a 6.825-second/199.02 mph pass.
In the final round, Herrera faced off against rookie standout Brayden Davis, who in four starts this season riding a Vance & Hines rental Hayabusa, has qualified number one twice and advanced to at least the semi-final round three times.
But as Herrera has done against the rest of the Pro Stock Motorcycle class for the past three seasons, the defending world champion asserted his dominance on the starting line by posting a near-perfect 0.003 reaction time combined with a 6.834-second/199.32 mph pass to produce a hole shot win that scuttled the hopes of the young rookie, who ran 6.799-seconds at 198.93 mph. Herrera’s back-to-back Indy victory is his fifth this season and the 26th of his career.
Herrera now heads into the six-race Countdown to the Championship playoffs with the boost of confidence and momentum that comes from winning the coveted U.S. Nationals and a $15,000 bonus as the regular season champion.
“I felt like I was in the groove all weekend. My Hayabusa was running great, and even though I didn’t have the elapsed time in the final round to match Brayden, I did my job on the starting line, and it paid off. Brayden is young and hungry and he’s going to be a force to be reckoned with in the future, but after he beat my teammate in the semis, I felt I needed to redeem our team, even though he is running one of our bikes,” Herrera said. “Winning here at the ‘Big Go’ gives us a lot of momentum going into the Countdown. Having Richard and Matt on my heels throughout the regular season has prepared me well for the Countdown, and I feel like I’m more locked in than I have been the last two seasons. It’s going to be a dog fight to the end, but I know I have the machine and team behind me to get it done.”
Richard Gadson qualified second with a 6.744-second/201.01 mph run on Sunday and won the season’s final Mission #2Fast2Tasty Challenge race, which is contested during qualification rounds between semi-finalists from the most recent national event. It was Gadson’s second Challenge win this season and the third of his career.
In round one, Gadson posted a 6.774-second/200.80 mph to defeat Malcolm Phillips Jr. (6.905 seconds/196.33 mph), then advanced to the semi-finals with a 6.824-second/199.70 mph victory over Chase Van Sant (foul).
Although Gadson left the starting line in the semi-finals ahead of Brayden Davis (6.813 seconds/199.11 mph), his 6.867-second/198.64 mph run wasn’t quick enough to advance to what would have been a fourth straight final round appearance. Despite the loss, Gadson finished the regular season in second place behind Herrera and starts the Countdown as a strong contender for a championship run.
“I qualified well, won the Mission Challenge and solidified second place in the points. The only thing that could have made my weekend better was to win the U.S. Nationals, which I knew was going to be tough. I did my job in the semi, but we spun the tire a good bit because the track conditions were going away from us. That’s racing. There’s no guarantees here, but at least we lost to another Vance & Hines Suzuki,” Gadson said. “I had a blast this weekend and I’m ready to rock for the Countdown. I feel like I have as much a shot at the championship as anybody right now. It’s going to be a tough fight over the next six races, but I’ll be in it to win it.”
RevZilla/Motul/Vance & Hines Suzuki crew chief Andrew Hines said the five-day format of the U.S. Nationals, which features many additional Sportsman racing classes in addition to the four regular professional classes, means track conditions constantly change as the NHRA safety crew frequently grooms and preps the track throughout the weekend to keep up with heavy usage.
“Towards the end we got stuck with track conditions that were deteriorating faster than our tuning could keep up with, but Gaige ultimately saved us. He races smart and doesn’t take chances trying to cut a great light when he doesn’t have to, but when it came down to the final, I told him, ‘You better hit that tree hard because you’ll need everything you can get against our other bike.’ It proves why Gaige is the champion he is. When you win Indy by five-thousands of a second, that will go down in the annals of class history,” Hines said. “We feel good as a team going into the Countdown. We put 200 mph runs on the board with all three of our motorcycles this weekend, so I think we’ll see three strong Vance & Hines Suzukis out here all through the Countdown.”
At the conclusion of the nine-race regular season, Herrera topped the regular season championship standings with 988 points. Championship points for the top ten riders in the Countdown are reset ahead of the six-race playoffs. Herrera opens the Countdown as the top seed with 2,113 points. Gadson is second with 2,090 points.
The RevZilla/Motul/Vance & Hines Suzuki team returns to action September 11-14 at the 40th NHRA Reading Nationals Presented by Nitro Fish at Maple Grove Raceway in Mohnton, PA.
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