PRO STOCK MOTORCYCLE
(Tim Marshall photo)
Chris Rivas took advantage of some good luck at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway Sunday and hit the ACDelco Las Vegas Nationals Pro Stock Motorcycle jackpot.
Rivas rode the G2 Motorsports Drag Specialties S&S Cycle V-Twin Pro Stock Motorcycle into the winner’s circle for the second time in the last three NHRA POWERade Series’ Countdown to the Championship races to become a solid title contender. A near-perfect .012-second reaction time launched Rivas on his final-round triumph against a slow-starting Eddie Krawiec. Rivas’ time was 7.052 seconds at 185.79 mph to a 7.307 at 152.31.
This was his third win of the season and his career and it pushed his point total to 2,354. He now trails pacesetter Matt Smith by 39 points and No. 2 Krawiec by 20 points with only the Auto Club Finals at Pomona, Calif., remaining.
Starting from the No. 5 qualifying position, Rivas defeated Michael Phillips (7.044 to 7.114) and Chip Ellis, (7.052 to 7.150) before Andrew Hines fouled out in the semifinals.
”I’ve always had good luck at Las Vegas,” said Rivas. “I won a lot of races here when I was racing AHDRA and I sealed up the AHDRA championship here. It’s always been a very good track for me.
“If someone had told me at the beginning of the year that I would be within a couple rounds of being the champion, I wouldn’t have believed them, and I’m a lot closer to the championship now. It feels pretty incredible.
“We didn’t expect it,” Rivas continued. “The team is so strong with George Smith leading the way and Ken Johnson working on the bike the way he does is so solid and meticulous. That’s why the bike doesn’t have any mechanical problems.”
He pointed to his win over Hines as the luckiest of the day. “I definitely had a lucky round in the semifinals. I didn’t know that I red-lit but Andrew red-lit by three-thousandths more so that was my gift right there. I just relaxed and ran the finals and it worked out for me.”
Smith praised the team. “When we come together, we are hard to beat,” he said. “This class is so competitive that it gets down to the team that can execute and be consistent with the tune-up. We did a great job doing those things. And Ken did another great job. He’s the glue that holds the team together.”
The team fought its way through a spate of mechanical malfunctions – including a first-round loss in the first Countdown to One race at Charlotte when the motor didn’t start – but they didn’t give up and that’s why they have an opportunity to win the title on Nov. 16 in Pomona.
Steve Johnson (Joe McHugh photo)
Snap-on Tools Suzuki Pro Stock Motorcycle racer Steve Johnson of Irondale, Ala., acknowledges that he’s had a heck of an exciting season on the NHRA POWERade Series trail, but with his second round loss at the AC Delco Nationals his chances for this year’s POWERade championship have all but evaporated.
Johnson qualified for this year’s NHRA Countdown to 1 championship program with a stellar qualifying effort at the year’s most prestigious event, the NHRA U.S. Nationals in Indianapolis on the first weekend in September. He capitalized on that qualifying effort by marching through the field on Labor Day Monday to win his second U.S. Nationals title, and then followed up that impressive victory by winning the inaugural NHRA Carolinas Nationals at the new zMax Dragway in Concord, North Carolina two weeks later.
“Those two races exceeded our wildest expectations,” Johnson said as his team began loading up their Snap-on Tools/WyoTech Technical Schools Suzuki and its related equipment in Las Vegas. “But after those highs we stumbled into some very deep valleys in the next couple of races, and we’ve just never been able to climb all the way out since then.
“We were a little down on power here in Las Vegas, which is considered a high altitude track, and the thinner air definitely puts us at a disadvantage against the V-Twin Harley-Davidsons and Buels.
“Even though it looks like this won’t be our year, I’m kind of like that politician who refuses to concede until the last vote is counted. Our team is going to head out to California for the NHRA Finals in two weeks, and we’d like nothing better than to close out the season with our third victory of the year.
“And who knows? Anything can happen in California!”