Two weeks after coming out on the wrong side of an all- RevZilla/Motul/Vance & Hines Suzuki final round, Richard Gadson turned the tables by racing his Gen 3 Hayabusa to victory over teammate Gaige Herrera in Pro Stock Motorcycle at the Summit Racing Equipment NHRA Nationals at Summit Racing Equipment Motorsports Park in Norwalk, OH, on Sunday.
Reigning world champion Richard Gadson qualified second with a 6.790-second/198.26 mph run, locking out the top two spots in the starting order along with his Vance & Hines teammate for the second race in a row. Gadson was also a repeat winner of the Mission #2Fast2Tasty Challenge, the specialty race-within-a-race held during Saturday’s qualifying sessions that carries a cash purse and championship bonus points, marking his second challenge win this year and fifth of his career.
Gadson cruised through Sunday’s elimination rounds with runs of 6.811 seconds at 198.15 mph and 6.836 seconds at 197.54 mph, respectively, against Odolph Daniels (no time) in round one and Chase Van Sant (7.030 seconds/191.21 mph) in round two.
In the semi-final round, Gadson knocked off Joey Gladstone (foul) with a 6.857-second/196.82 mph run that set up a showdown against Herrera for the second race in a row and fifth time since joining the squad in 2024.
Gadson secured victory with a 6.849-second/197.36 mph run after Herrera committed a rare starting line foul, going red by just 0.004 seconds to hand the points leader his second win of the season and sixth of his career. With the win, Gadson became the third rider after Herrera and rival Matt Smith to record two wins apiece in the first seven races of the 14-race calendar.
The win extended Gadson’s championship lead at the season midpoint to 83 points over Herrera, with one race remaining in the regular season before points reset for the six-race Countdown to the Championship playoffs.
“This revenge feels sweet. I was thinking it would kind of suck to go two races in a row losing in the final to Gaige. Even though it still would have been great for the team with us going one-two in qualifying, me winning the 2Fast2Tasty Challenge and getting the overall win, I definitely didn’t want to lose two in a row,” Gadson said. “Right now, the competition in the class is very tight and there are a lot of people capable of sending you home in any round. I left the door open a couple of times today. The way we were having to tune my bike on the starting line, it wasn’t really reacting great. I had solid lights but not stellar ones. Thankfully they gave me a couple of gifts today and I’m happy to take this Wally home.”
Two-time world champion Gaige Herrera, winner of the most recent race in Bristol, posted his second number one qualifier of the season and 33rd of his career on Saturday with a 6.768-second/199.08 mph run, capturing the top spot on the ladder for the second race in a row.
Herrera ran 6.795 seconds at 198.82 mph in a round one bye run, then defeated Jianna Evaristo (6.906 seconds/196.42 mph) with a 6.816-second, 198.35 mph second-round pass, both low elapsed times of their respective rounds.
In the semi-final round, Herrera topped Angie Smith (6.875 seconds/197.10 mph) with a 6.843-second/197.68 mph run that set up a repeat of Norwalk’s final-round matchup against Gadson.
However, Herrera was denied back-to-back wins when he uncharacteristically left the starting line a split second early, committing a costly foul that handed a healthy dose of bragging rights to his teammate.
On the strength of his performance, Herrera leapfrogged Angie Smith into second in the standings. He now sits 83 points behind Gadson and 28 points ahead of Smith, the third-placed rider.
“I gave Richard a little gift in the final there. We made a bunch of adjustments to the clutch before that last pass and I felt like I left normally to cut a light in the 30s, so when I saw the red light, I was shocked. But I’m happy to leave here with the runner-up,” Herrera said. “I feel like Andrew and I have my bike back to working like I’m used to it being, which has been a big confidence booster for me these last two races. I think Richard’s pretty much got the regular season locked up, so I’m more focused on the start of the Countdown, because that’s when it really matters.”
RevZilla/Motul/Vance & Hines Suzuki crew chief Andrew Hines credited the team’s step up in performance over the past two races in part to their ability to exploit a traction advantage in the early part of the run.
“When we can put three or four hundredths on the other bikes in the first 60 feet, it’s hard for them to overcome that down the track. We’re more efficient in the right spots on the racetrack and taking advantage when the V-Twins aren’t performing as well as they could, so we’re excited about the progress we’ve made. We’re getting these wins, but it’s not by luck or complete dominance,” Hines said.
“We have the marginal weather conditions like we raced in today figured out pretty well. Now we need to figure out how to go fast again in good weather at sea level like we used to. I feel like we’ve been off a little bit there. The V-Twin powered bikes have been running very strong at the lower elevation tracks in good air, so we need to figure out how to get there with them,” he continued. “Sonoma is coming up next for the All-Star Callout. There are no championship points on the line, just money and pride, so we’ll take what we’ve learned so far and use it as an opportunity to work on our sea level tuneups. We get three test runs on Friday to figure out what we can bring on Saturday for the money.”
After the seventh of 14 rounds in the 2026 Pro Stock Motorcycle season, Gadson and Herrera sit first and second in the championship standings with 677 and 594 points, respectively.
The RevZilla/Motul/Vance & Hines team returns to action July 17-18 at the Pro Stock Motorcycle All-Star Callout, a non-points exhibition event held during the DENSO NHRA Sonoma Nationals at Sonoma Raceway in Sonoma, CA.
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