Herrera Routs Route 66 NHRA
F
or the last year and a half,
RevZilla/Vance & Hines Su-
zuki's Gaige Herrera has rewrit-
ten the NHRA history books
with one of the most dominant
performances in the Pro Stock
Motorcycle class history.
Following a year in which he
won 11 of 15 races and coasted
to the World title, Herrera re-
mains unbeaten in 2024 follow-
ing his latest victory at Route
66 Raceway near Chicago, May
17-19. After defeating Trick
Tools Suzuki's Chase Van Sant
in the final, Herrera has now won
eight straight events, breaking a
30-year-old record held by late
Hall of Fame rider Dave Schultz.
Herrera left the starting line
first in the final and never trailed.
He rode to a 6.713-second
elapsed time to easily cover Van
Sant's 6.797. Herrera now has
won 14 of the last 18 Pro Stock
Motorcycle events.
"First, congrats to Chase Van
Sant. He did a great job today
and he's on his way," Herrera
said. "As far as tying Dave Schul
-
tz, I'm honored. I wish I'd had
a chance to meet him, but I've
heard a lot of great stories, and
I know what he did for this Pro
Stock Motorcycle class. It's still
hard to believe I'm mentioned in
the same sentence as him.
"We qualified second behind
Matt [Smith], but today was a
different day," Herrera said. "The
weather was consistent, and that
let us really work on our tune-up.
I honestly thought it would be
Matt and me in the final round. I
was consistent, and my bike was
on rails."
Herrera's record-setting per
-
formances include a string of im-
pressive qualifying performanc-
es, but this weekend, he yielded
the top spot to Denso Buell's
Matt Smith, who sent a message
with a 6.708 that clearly shows
that Herrera's days of dominance
WIND
IN THE
P48
Gaige Herrera continued
to dominate the NHRA
Pro Stock Motorcycle
Championship. His latest
victory came in Chicago.
PHOTOS: MATT POLITO
