Chris Rivas had admittedly not gotten off the kind of start he’d preferred for 2008. The rider for G2 Racing Team spent much of the off-team between NHRA events testing their Buell at South Georgia Motorsports Park in Valdosta, Ga.

"As long as we can apply the things we learned last week, we will be dangerous," said the 41-year-old Fresno, Calif., native.  "We should be a top-five motorcycle again, thanks to the work done by the guys from G2 Motorsports.

"And we want to do well here because it is the team's 'hometown' race."

Rivas enters the Atlanta race tied for eighth place in the 2008 NHRA POWERade PSM championship battle. Chris Rivas had admittedly not gotten off the kind of start he’d preferred for 2008. The rider for G2 Racing Team spent much of the off-team between NHRA events testing their Buell at South Georgia Motorsports Park in Valdosta, Ga.

"As long as we can apply the things we learned last week, we will be dangerous," said the 41-year-old Fresno, Calif., native.  "We should be a top-five motorcycle again, thanks to the work done by the guys from G2 Motorsports.

"And we want to do well here because it is the team's 'hometown' race."

Rivas enters the Atlanta race tied for eighth place in the 2008 NHRA POWERade PSM championship battle.

Issues concerning getting off the line and fuel flow plagued the team in the first two races of the season: a second round loss at the season's opener in Gainesville, Fla., and a first-round loss last month in Houston.

Led by Derrell Mullis, G2 Motorsports's chief engineer who will be filling in this weekend as Rivas's crew chief in George Smith's absence, the team made three major adjustments which resulted in consistent six-second, quarter-mile elapsed times and speeds in excess of 190 miles per hour during testing. 

The adjustments, according to Rivas, included changing the rear tire, a new clutch tune up and repairing the fuel system, which had a cavitating fuel pump.

"These are things we could not fix during a race," said Rivas.  "We needed to run a bunch of laps, which we were able to do in Valdosta."

Last year, Rivas qualified 15th and went out in the first round of this race.