Richard Gadson raced his RevZilla/Motul/Vance & Hines Suzuki Gen 3 Hayabusa to a runner-up finish in his first final-round appearance of the 2025 Pro Stock Motorcycle season at the American Rebel Light NHRA 4-Wide Nationals at zMax Dragway in Concord, NC, on Sunday.
Gadson qualified second with a 6.759-second/200.77 mph run on Friday, matching his best career qualifying performance. He also won the Mission Foods #2Fast2Tasty Challenge, a race within a race contested during qualifications in which semi-finalists from the previous race compete head-to-head for a cash purse and championship bonus points, for the second time in his career.
Under the NHRA’s unique four-wide racing format in Charlotte, the first two riders in each four-motorcycle quad cross the finish line, barring a redlight jumpstart, and advance to the next elimination round. In the final round four-wide quad, the first motorcycle to cross the finish line wins.
Gadson caught a break in his first-round matchup against Kelly Clontz and Jianna Evaristo when his motorcycle suffered a performance issue that caused it to slow at half-track to a 9.393-seconds/89.97 mph run. Clontz (6.891 seconds/197.45 mph) won the round, but Gadson advanced after Evaristo’s motorcycle failed to take the starting light.
In the semi-final round, Gadson was runner-up to Matt Smith (6.737 seconds/203.16 mph), posting a 6.762-second/200.62 mph pass that was good enough to overcome Clontz and Chase Van Sant and advance him to his fourth career final round appearance.
In a final-round matchup against RevZilla/Motul/Vance & Hines Suzuki teammate Gaige Herrera, Matt Smith and Steve Johnson, Gadson posted an excellent .016-second reaction time and ran his quickest elapsed time of the weekend, but his 6.738-second/201.37 mph pass came up just four-thousandths of a second short of Smith’s winning 6.736-second/202.91 mph run.
Finishing runner-up for the fourth time since joining the Vance & Hines team last season, Gadson is still searching for his first career NHRA victory.
“It’s so tough to win at this level. There were four riders on the starting line who badly wanted to win that drag race. Most days you’ve got to be perfect out there to win, but even if you are, sometimes the person in the other lane is just a little bit more perfect. You’ve got to do everything right and it needs to be your day. Today wasn’t mine, but I’ll get him next time,” Gadson said. “I’m really excited about my performance this weekend regardless. I think it was the best one I’ve had since joining the team. The total performance package of my Hayabusa powering me through the rounds, qualifying second and winning the #2Fast2Tasty Challenge, makes me very happy. The team has worked hard to bridge the gap between Gaige’s motorcycle and mine. The competition is thick this season and the other teams know there are two of us coming for them now.”
Reigning Pro Stock Motorcycle champion Gaige Herrera took the top qualifying spot for the 25th time in his career with a 6.680-second/202.97 mph pass on Friday evening.
Herrera advanced out of the first-round quad with a 6.728-second/201.70 mph victory over Hector Arana Jr. and John Hall, both of whom fouled on the starting line. Arana also advanced due to his lesser red-light foul. In round two, Herrera ran 6.762-seconds at 200.17 mph to defeat runner-up Steve Johnson (6.806 seconds/196.19 mph), knocking out Marc Ingwerson and Arana to advance to his 26th career final round appearance.
In the final round quad matchup Herrera ran 6.747-seconds at 201.13 mph to finish a close third behind Gadson and Smith and ahead of Johnson.
“With our race weight being heavier than some of the other bikes out there, we need to get everything we can out of our 60-foot times, but today the track was just a little bit greasier compared to when we ran in qualifying on Friday night. That cost us some performance today, but that final was one of those races you can’t be too mad about losing,” Herrera said. “The field is tight, and that’s how it should be. We’ll take some momentum into Chicago and try to do some damage. It’s going to make for some interesting racing.”
RevZilla/Motul/Vance & Hines Suzuki crew chief Andrew Hines noted that the four-wide format makes his job more challenging than usual when it comes to tuning for track conditions.
“Trying to analyze four different lanes and figuring out which one you want to run on is probably the toughest thing for a crew chief in four-wide racing. The track conditions were phenomenal on Friday, but they went away from us over the course of the race with the sun beating down all weekend long. Every lane had its own personality, and they were not very grippy.” Hines said. “With our motorcycles running at a heavier mandated weight compared to the rest of the class, we need to accelerate them very hard in the first 10 feet to get them moving, and with the lack of traction that was tricky today. But I’m excited that Richard’s motorcycle has turned the corner. He’s riding it to its full ability to turn on win lights. It gives us a one-two punch going into the next race in Chicago and the rest of the season.”
After the second of 15 rounds in the 2025 Pro Stock Motorcycle season, Herrera and Gadson sit second and third in the Pro Stock Motorcycle standings with 217 and 158 points, respectively.
The RevZilla/Motul/Vance & Hines team returns to action May 15-18 at the Gerber Collision & Glass NHRA Route 66 Nationals at Route 66 Raceway in Joliet, IL.
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