A week ago Chris Rivas and his Drag Specialties/G2 crew couldn’t get their potent S&S-powered Buell started.

At the NHRA Fallnationals in Dallas, Tex., they couldn’t get it to stop – winning that is.

It’s not like they tried either.

Rivas scored his second career victory and second of 2008 by outrunning former employer Matt Smith in the final round. The victory vaulted him all the way to the third place position, just one point behind last week’s winner Steve Johnson.

“This is a huge jump for us in the points,” Rivas said. “We didn’t know if we were still going to be in the hunt after the no-start in Charlotte.” A week ago Chris Rivas and his Drag Specialties/G2 crew couldn’t get their potent S&S-powered Buell started.

At the NHRA Fallnationals in Dallas, Tex., they couldn’t get it to stop – winning that is.

It’s not like they tried either.

Rivas scored his second career victory and second of 2008 by outrunning former employer Matt Smith in the final round. The victory vaulted him all the way to the third place position, just one point behind last week’s winner Steve Johnson.

“This is a huge jump for us in the points,” Rivas said. “We didn’t know if we were still going to be in the hunt after the no-start in Charlotte.”

The Charlotte miscue was enough to warrant a talk with S&S’s George Smith.

“I told him, ‘This is stupid,” Rivas said, recalling that conversation.

“I told him we looked like fools out there. I said if we’re going to look like fools with a no-start situation, then let’s at least make a huge change and struggle for a while. At least we’ll be learning something.”

Smith took the conversation to heart.

On Friday, after they got solidly qualified in the field, the team made wholesale changes.

“We changed everything,” Rivas admitted. “We changed the engine, the fuel-injection, wiring harness and even a tire. We knew we were starting from square one.”

The first run on Saturday yielded a 7.16 elapsed time, no exactly a run to set the class on fire but more than enough to draw valuable tuning data. The second was the second quickest in the final session.

“All we needed was that little bit of data and we had the No. 1 bike all day long,” Rivas said. “We rode it to the finals with a new system that we are still learning.”

Rivas, also a Racer’s for Christ chaplain, learned a valuable lesson this weekend – a bike must start in order to win a race.

“The bike started perfectly every time so we feel like we don’t have to worry about that anymore,” Rivas said, cracking a smile. “That’s why I give God the glory because you can’t win races on the lights I cut all weekend.

“I just had the faith we could win this weekend.”

He also had the faith that the bike would start too.