Less than a week after his historic NHRA record 11-race win streak ended in Seattle, Gaige Herrera arrived in Sonoma planning to rebound from his first competition loss in nearly a year. Facing mechanical issues in three of the four qualifying rounds on Friday and Saturday, Herrera posted a strong 6.688-second/202.55 mph run to qualify in the third starting position.
In round one on Sunday, Herrera ran 6.795-seconds at 200.26 mph to defeat veteran Suzuki racer Steve Johnson (6.886 seconds/196.67 mph), who was competing in his 500th Pro Stock Motorcycle national event at Sonoma. In round two, despite having a near-perfect .001-second starting line reaction time, Herrera’s weekend came to an early end with a 6.847-second/200.41 mph loss to John Hall (6.741 seconds/201.94 mph).
“It was a rough weekend performance-wise, fighting a couple of gremlins in qualifying, and then we spun the tire a little bit in round two. I probably could have squeezed by John in that round if it hadn’t lost traction,” Herrera said, who continues to hold a commanding lead in the championship standings ahead of the break before the final race of the regular season in Indianapolis. “There’s almost a month off now before the U.S. Nationals, and then the start of the Countdown to the Championship. As a whole team, we’re going to put our heads down and try to figure this new fuel out, do some testing, and get our motorcycles back to being consistent on every pass,” added Herrera.
Richard Gadson posted a 6.761-second/199.82 mph run on Saturday to claim the number seven starting spot after also struggling to make consistent runs in qualifying.
Gadson fell short in round one to Seattle race winner Chase Van Sant, running 6.770 seconds at 198.09 mph against Van Sant’s 6.751-second/199.88 mph pass. It was Gadson’s first loss in the opening round of competition this season.
“On Friday, between our four attempts to go down the racetrack with two motorcycles, we only got one timeslip. We’re trying to be smarter than the motorcycles, but sometimes you take a swing at trying to go faster and you miss. It’s one of those weekends that lets you know you need to go back to the drawing board. We’ll try again at the US Nationals,” Gadson said. “It’s time to get serious because the competition is getting tighter. My focus over the next few weeks will be working on my physical and mental preparation and getting ready to take my best shot at the U.S. Nationals, the team’s hometown race.”
RevZilla/Motul/Vance & Hines Suzuki crew chief Andrew Hines said it continues to be challenging to tune the team’s motorcycles using the new mandatory fuel the class has used since the Charlotte race in April.
“It’s been a tough couple of races in a row here on the west coast. Our motorcycles are not responding well in these weather conditions with the spec fuel we’re running, which according to the manufacturer is not designed for the higher RPMs we’re turning with our Suzuki engines. We’ve performed better in hotter conditions than in the good weather we’ve had out here, which is something to scratch our heads about. We experimented in qualifying, trying to find the next performance area to exploit but nothing worked. We took a licking this weekend, but we’ll start working now to come back stronger at Indy,” Hines said. “There’s a lot of preparation that will happen between now and the beginning of the Countdown. We have some R&D things in the works, and we’ll do more testing on the track and in the dyno room. Our goal is getting back to where our riders are confident in our consistency and performance in all conditions.”
After the eighth of 15 races in the 2024 season, Herrera and Gadson sit first and fourth in the Pro Stock Motorcycle NHRA Championship standings with 902 and 533 points, respectively.
The RevZilla/Motul/Vance & Hines Suzuki team returns to action Aug. 28-Sept. 2 at the NHRA U.S. Nationals at Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park in Indianapolis, IN.
