For two years, Gaige Herrera seemingly could do no wrong aboard his RevZilla/Mission/Vance & Hines Suzuki.
Herrera won an incredible 21 national events – 11 in 2023 and 10 in 2024 – and claimed two NHRA Pro Stock Motorcycle world championships.
Herrera set the record for most consecutive wins in NHRA history, ending a remarkable run with 11 consecutive victories and 46 straight round wins.
Well, 2025 was a little bit of a different story.
Herrera won just seven races – out of 14 – and saw his chance to win a third world championship in a row vanish when NHRA officials made the decision on Nov. 16 to cancel the In-N-Out Burger NHRA Finals in Pomona, Calif., due to persistent adverse weather and unsafe track conditions.
The rest of the 2025 NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series world champions were determined by the points standings prior to the event.
That meant Herrera finished second in the world championship race – 21 points behind his teammate, first-time world champion Richard Gadson.
“It was a good year all-in-all, but it was disappointing when the Finals got canceled. But nobody can control Mother Nature, so it is what it is,” Herrera said. “I feel like the way last year ended just makes me hungrier and more determined to go out this year (2026) and try to get a third championship. I feel like I kind of got cheated a little bit and then I didn’t because that’s what the Countdown to the Championship is for – to mix things up – and that it definitely did.”
Herrera won the regular-season points crown, but when the points were reset for the Countdown – the final six races of the season, which ended up being five – his lead was reduced to 20 points.
“People started catching up to us a little bit, and obviously my teammate won the championship (Gadson) and we are on the same platform and same program, and he found his groove,” Herrera said. “People get their grooves, and when you’re on a solid bike, you’re going to have success, and I was happy for him.”
Herrera’s threepeat opportunity suffered two setbacks when he lost in the second round at Reading, Pa. – the first race of the Countdown – and was upset in the first round of the next race in Charlotte, N.C.
Herrera rallied, winning St. Louis; posting a semifinal finish in Dallas; and then winning in Las Vegas. That set the stage for the Finals in Pomona, but Mother Nature had other plans.
And Herrera was quick to put his journey in perspective.
“It has been really crazy, a surreal deal,” Herrera said. “This is something I always wanted to do, and it is crazy that I got the opportunity to do it out of nowhere, basically. It has been a lot of fun, and I’m just riding the wave while I can.”
In 2021, Vance & Hines launched the company’s long-expected four-valve motor for Suzuki GS-based drag racers. The new powerplant debuted at the NHRA Gatornationals in Gainesville, Fla., that March.
Prior to running Suzukis in 2021, Vance & Hines had a long, successful relationship with Harley-Davidson but switched to Suzukis when Harley-Davidson chose not to field factory racing teams in NHRA after the 2020 season.
The switch to the Suzuki powerplant led to three world championships in a row for Vance & Hines – two by Herrera (2023 and 2024) and one by Gadson (2025).
“I feel like Byron Hines and Terry Vance started with four cylinders, inline-fours back in the day, whether it was Yamahas, Suzukis, and I believe they even did a Honda at one point,” Herrera said. “I feel they just went back to their roots. Byron is still very involved with Andrew Hines, and I just think it is what they know more than anything. It seems like they can make anything go fast. Now, this year they are working with Indian Motorcycle on the road race team. They are very intelligent, and they have a lot of good minds together with Andrew, Eddie Krawiec, and now Richard (Gadson), and I bring our knowledge from other kinds of racing, and I think that’s what has made the whole team good as a whole.”
On Nov. 24, 2025, Indian Motorcycle took a bold first step toward the future, announcing a multi-year agreement with Vance & Hines Motorsports – a partnership that combines the unparalleled history and innovation of America’s first motorcycle company with the performance and racecraft expertise of the motorcycle industry’s most respected aftermarket provider.
The partnership commences with Vance & Hines spearheading the Indian Motorcycle–Vance & Hines factory racing program in the 2026 MotoAmerica King of the Baggers series.
Herrera acknowledged he is anxious to start the 2026 NHRA Pro Stock Motorcycle season, which opens with the Gatornationals, March 6-8, in Gainesville, Fla.
“I’m very excited to get back on the bike,” Herrera said. “It is never fun taking a break, and I’m excited to get back to Gainesville. I feel like I have a little redemption to take care of.”
Herrera has won the Gatornationals three years in a row – 2023, 2024 and 2025.
Although the NHRA season doesn’t begin until the Gatornationals, Herrera has kept himself busy on and off the track.
“I do a lot of other drag racing,” Herrera said. “I just competed in a grudge race (the GRINCHMAS Super Bikefest, Dec. 18-20, in Orlando, Fla.). I actually was a runner-up there. I’m always doing something. Mentally, I still have my normal day job as a pipefitter, and I think that helps me not think about the racing so much. I went to Orlando, and I was actually just out on the West Coast tuning a couple of bikes, so I’m always active doing something motorsports-wise and having fun.”
Herrera has no doubt proved his prowess on motorcycles, and he admitted he would never say never about competing in a race car one day.
“I absolutely have thought about racing cars,” Herrera said. “My family came from racing cars, and I have driven my grandfather’s 1968 Camaro. We used to run A/Gas with it. It is like a high six-second car. I have also run Super Comp Dragster before. I would love to get in a Fuel car or a Funny Car, but those take cubic dollars for sure.”
