The Summit Racing Equipment NHRA Nationals was the halfway point of the 20-race 2024 season and, more importantly, set up the stretch run of four races leading to the end of the regular season and the Countdown to the Championship. Here’s a look at how the points battles shape up in Pro Stock Motorcycle. Fourth and final in a series.

THE POINTS LEADER

Gaige Herrera hasn’t lost a round since last September, and the RevZilla/Vance & Hines rider is rewriting the history books in the process. Heading into this weeknend’s NHRA Northwest Nationals in Seattle, Herrera is riding a streak of 11 straight wins and 43 consecutive rounds.

After winning the 2023 world title in his first season with the Vance & Hines team, Herrera hasn’t let off the throttle for one second with wins in Gainesville, Charlotte, Chicago, Bristol, Richmond, and Norwalk. Herrera’s Suzuki, tuned by six-time world champion Andrew Hines, has been the quickest bike in the field, but Herrera is also doing his part with extremely competitive reaction times. Since the start of the 2023 season, Herrera has 17 wins in 21 events and boasts a record of 73-4 on race day.

PUSHING FOR THE FRONT

Herrera has a huge 271-point lead in the NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series Pro Stock Motorcycle standings, so he’s not likely to get bumped from the top spot. That being said, there are still plenty of opportunities for someone else to get on the scoreboard, and the most likely candidates include the Matt Smith Racing team of Matt and Angie Smith and John Hall, as well as Herrera’s own teammate, Richard Gadson.  

Matt Smith hasn’t given up hopes for a seventh world title, and he might just get it as he’s significantly closed the gap between himself and Hererra in recent events. Smith, who made the switch from Suzuki to Buell this season, has been to a pair of finals, and perhaps more importantly, he’s qualified No. 1 at three of the first six races, a certain indicator that he has the power to contend for the title.

Matt’s wife, Angie, who has remained faithful to the Buell brand, has benefitted from the rest of the MSR team’s switch to the V-Twin platform. Angie has appeared in two semifinals, and her qualifying results have been solid as she’s been in the top half of the field in five of six races with a best of No. 2.

John Hall is in his second stint at MSR, and so far, he’s delivered impressive results, including a runner-up finish in Charlotte and semifinals in Richmond and Norwalk. Hall, a past NHRA U.S. Nationals winner, is one of the few NHRA Pros without a round-one loss, and he’s also carded a career-best 6.728 this season. Hall’s steady results have allowed him to climb to fourth in the standings.

While Richard Gadson hasn’t been able to match the pace of his teammate Herrera, he’s come close on occasion, and improvements have been obvious in his first year with the Vance & Hines team. In the last three races, Gadson has a pair of semifinals and a runner-up, and he’s also recorded his first win in the Mission Foods #2Fast2Tasty NHRA Challenge. Gadson has also qualified second behind Herrera in two of the last three races and has 11 round-wins on the season.

LOOKING FOR TRACTION

After winning the 2023 NHRA Rookie of the Year award, Chase Van Sant is on track to become NHRA’s next new Pro winner. Van Sant went to the final in Chicago and gave Herrera a run for his money. Van Sant joined with crew chief Tim Kulungian this season to purchase Jerry Savoie's White Alligator Racing team, and so far, the alliance has yielded positive results. Van Sant also had to recover from injuries he sustained last year in an on-track accident.

Hector Arana Jr. won a pair of races last season, and that was enough to help him land GETTRX as a sponsor for the full 2024 season. Arana has been a solid top-half qualifier and recently logged his best race with a semifinal at the PlayNHRA Virginia Nationals in Richmond. Arana is also likely to benefit from a recent rules revision that allowed Buell racers to remove 10 pounds of ballast from their bikes.  

Jianna Evaristo has plenty of reasons to be optimistic as the second half of the 2024 season begins. As a member of Matt Smith’s team, Evaristo also made the switch to a Buell V-Twin this season, and her development appears to be right on schedule. In addition to her runner-up finish in Bristol, Evaristo also rode her Scrappers Buell to a career-best 6.75 in Norwalk, an event where conditions were not likely to yield those sort of numbers.

Speaking of numbers, veteran Steve Johnson is about to go where no other Pro Stock Motorcycle racer has been as he’ll participate in his 500th event later this month in Sonoma. Johnson, who has appeared in 32 final rounds with 12 victories, is far and away the most tenured rider in the class. So far this year, he’s struggled a bit with just a single quarterfinal finish to his credit, yet he’s managed to remain in the top 10 thanks largely to solid qualifying performances.

IN OTHER NEWS…

LE Tonglet briefly made a return to the class aboard a Vance & Hines-powered Suzuki that was branded with Kenny Koretsky’s companies, including Maple Grove Raceway, Nitro Fish, and KPK Development. The former world champ went to the semifinals of the first three events but hasn’t races at the last three, and it’s unsure if he will return this season.

Marc Ingwersen remains within striking distance of the top 10 even though he hasn’t quite had the results he’s expected this season. Ingwersen has qualified for every race this season, and he scored a big win over Van Sant in Gainesville, but he’s also been on the wrong end of some of the closest races of the season.

Chris Bostick made a major investment in his program this season when he joined Van Sant and Tim Kulungian in the former WAR stable. Bostick has made progress but has also qualified in the bottom half of the field, which usually means a tough draw in round one.

Kelly Clontz was headed for a likely top-10 finish but opted out of the events in Chicago and Norwalk. Clontz made headlines last season with a career-best 6.70 but hasn’t been able to duplicate that this season.  

Ryan Oehler is also regrouping as he’s decided to park his El Bandito Yankee Tequila Buell for a few events after a tough start to the season.

Two riders that made their return to the class recently are Japanese rider Eiji Kawakami, who purchased a Suzuki from Matt Smith, and 2003 world champ Geno Scali, who raced at his home event in Chicago and recently announced that he’d finish the season on a Suzuki leased from the Vance & Hines team.

After missing the Gainesville opener, Ron “the Rat” Tornow has been at every event along with his popular rat mascot. Tornow’s best result came in Richmond, where he qualified No. 11.

Eighteen-year-old Brandon Litten, who races a small-tire, no-wheelie-bar bike, recently obtained his NHRA Pro Stock Motorcycle license and is scheduled to make his competition debut this week at the NHRA Northwest Nationals in Seattle. California-based Clayton Howey, who has ridden a variety of bikes, will also try his hand at the Pro Stock Motorcycle class beginning in Sonoma.