Stock Motorcycle class con-
tenders to improve their perfor-
mance during eliminations, and
no one took better advantage of
the conditions than Herrera, who
opened with a 6.639 in his win
against Joey Gladstone. Herrera
later dropped a 6.629-second
run against John Hall, record
-
ing the second-quickest run in
the history of the class, next
to his own 6.627 run from last
October's Dallas event. Herrera
reached the final by beating
Angie Smith, who had earlier
posted her career-best run with
a 6.69 on her Denso Buell.
"It might look like we have
an advantage, but you can tell
the rest of the field is catch
-
ing up to us," Herrera said. "We
worked hard in the off-season,
but obviously the other teams
did as well. Even in the first
round, I was nervous to have to
race Joey [Gladstone] because
I know he's a great rider. They
struggled a bit in qualifying, but
they're going to figure it out. I
just didn't want that to happen
against me."
Herrera's career record for
round wins is 54-8 in just 22
events. He also has nine of the
top 10 elapsed times in the
class's history and six of the top
10 speeds.
Although he lost the final, the
news wasn't all bad for Smith,
who reached the final round
for the 76th time in his career
thanks to wins against Chris
Bostick, Marc Ingwersen and LE
Tonglet, who made his return to
the series aboard a new Suzuki
that is part of a Vance & Hines
lease program.
Smith made a major change
to his MSR team this winter
when he abandoned his Suzuki
program in favor of a Buell V-
twin. Smith, his wife, Angie, and
teammates Jianna Evaristo and
John Hall will all race the Buell
brand this season.
The next event for the Pro
Stock Motorcycle class will be
the Four-Wide Nationals at zMax
Dragway in Concord, North
Carolina, April 25-28.
Kevin McKenna
VOLUME ISSUE MARCH , P41
Herrera picked up where
he left off last year and
that's winning, but he
admitted the other teams
are closing in.
