In less than 24 hours at Auto Club Raceway at Pomona, Pro Stock Motorcycle rookie Jianna Salinas went from fighting to qualify for the field of 16 at the NHRA Finals to holding her first Wally trophy.

The emotional 22-year-old from San Jose celebrated her winning 7.464-second, 180.81-mph victory Sunday on the fabled quarter-mile California dragstrip, saying, “I never would have thought that I would be able to pull this off. I came into today saying, 'you know, whatever happens, happens. Win or lose, I get to end the season on a high note. But just to be here right now in this moment . . . it's just, it's not something I ever thought would happen too soon."  

Salinas never would have predicted that she would play such a key role in the championship results. She triggered some drama with her first-round victory. She won over points leader Andrew Hines, who had a foul start but sweated out the rest of the day, worrying about closest challengers Matt Smith and Jerry Savoie swooping in to claim the championship that appeared to be his with an eight-victory domination.

Ironically, Salinas robbed Hines of a chance to compete deep into the afternoon. But she ended up preserving his sixth championship by knocking off both Smith and Savoie – after eliminating Countdown-strong but Countdown-unqualified Steve Johnson in the quarterfinals.

If either Smith or Savoie had won the event, he would have claimed the title.

Neither pulled off the ambush, as Salinas – who had slogged through a season fraught with only two round-wins, six failures to qualify, and a pride-bruising fall from her motorcycle in June during eliminations at Chicago – defeated them both.

She won against Smith in the semifinal as his engine went kaput at about half-track to end his bid for a second straight and fourth overall title. Then Savoie’s season and quest for a second championship ended at the starting line – his Suzuki broke. He staged it anyway, in case Salinas fouled out on the launch. She didn’t, and that allowed Hines to earn another championship.

Facing Hines was a bit intimidating for the No. 13 starter on the Scrappers Racing Suzuki.

"It's race day, and I know I'm new at this, and I'm so fresh,” she said. “He's an amazing racer, but it's race day. You can never go against anybody and think anything can happen, and just it happened."

Salinas called her defeat of Smith “insane.” She said, “Not a single run I made this today was a spectacular run. The final round, that was probably one of the worst runs I've made all weekend, but it got the job done. And sometimes consistency is all you need to win."
 

Smith had given her some incentives to help him get to his second consecutive title. And she took it. He had said he would pay her $1,000 if she defeated Hines.

"He paid me in cash. I'm going to pay some bills," she said.

Before her run against him, she said Smith told her, “You know what you need to do to get five grand." But she said, “And in my head I was thinking, ‘Well, is $5,000 really beating you? And at the end of the day it's not. I'd do anything for that run. And I made it happen."

Salinas said, "I'll be very honest. It's never really bothered me who's in the other lane, and a lot of that's because I'm so new at this, so the worst that can happen is I lose. But to me, just to be able to qualify is a big deal. I've never really been bothered by who's in the other lane. I'm just there to race my race and focus.

"I felt very lucky for sure. not a single run I made this today was a spectacular run. So, and when it's your day, it's your day. And I mean that a lot of that just goes out to my crew and Mr. Underdahl [Greg], Gary [Stoffer], Karen [Stoffer], Scrappers Racing, my sponsor, True Disruption, just them taking a chance on me and supporting me through this whole process. It's just, it's good to be able to give something back to them."  

She did.

And Matt Smith gave her something back.

But more importantly, she gave herself something:  integrity, satisfaction, and the proof that she can begin 2020 with confidence.