Gary Burgin. Randy Humphrey. Chase Van Sant.

These are three racers who did the unthinkable. They stopped the unstoppable. 

When Gary Burgin ended Don Prudhomme’s winning streak at Indy in 1976, Van Sant was -21 years old. Randy Humphrey ended Bob Glidden’s incredible calendar year streak when Van Sant was at the unripe age of -18.

After winning 46 consecutive round wins and scoring 12 consecutive national event wins, Hererra found the one race he couldn’t bully his way through. 

Van Sant didn’t wait for Herrera to make a mistake or for his bike to fail; he took it to him by winning on both ends of the drag strip in the Pro Stock Motorcycle final round at the NHRA Northwest Nationals outside of Seattle. He left the line first by .008, and this was as close as Herrera would get the entire quarter-mile. Van Sant’s historic win came in 6.720 seconds, at over 201.30 miles per hour. Herrera finished runner-up with a 6.754.

“I don’t know if it’s really set in yet,” Van Sant admitted shortly after the victory. “Honestly. I got down to the big end and saw my win light on and I was just shaking my head. We were down in the shutdown and Gaige yelled something at me. I don’t know what, but we were side-by-side slowing down, and he was yelling at me, and I looked over, and he pointed, and I was like, man, I don’t know if this is real or not. Is the win light real? Is it broken? That’s what I was thinking.

“I’ve gone up against Gaige, five times and lost all five times, so to cut a light and get away early and outrun man, it just speaks volumes to how hard this team’s been working kind of silently in the midst of all the drama in Pro Stock Motorcycle at the moment.”

Knowing the friendship cultivated between Van Sant and Herrera, the defending world champion Herrera was likely congratulating him on the achievement. They knew each other long before they ended up racing NHRA Pro Stock Motorcycle. 

Nine months ago, when Van Sant suffered a knee injury on the same bike he rode Sunday, he spent time on the sidelines with Herrera and reveled in his rookie championship season. When Van Sant rode for the first time since the accident in Q1 at Gainesville, he couldn’t have envisioned what transpired at Pacific Raceways. Herrera has been largely an immovable force since moving into the Vance & Hines camp. 

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However, Herrera has shown moments of vulnerability this season, but that certainly was not the case in Seattle, where he entered race day as the No. 1 qualifier. It wouldn’t have mattered to Van Sant, who admitted he raced all day with the aid of proverbial blinders.

“I [really] wasn’t paying too close of attention to anybody else,” Van Sant said. “Honestly, I rolled up into the staging lanes and didn’t even know I was running Matt [Smith] in the semis. So, I was really trying to stay focused and stay in our own lane. I knew we had been close in a lot of the incrementals to Gaige, but mostly, I was looking at our camp and what we had going on, and we were searching for faster speeds. So when we found that, I knew, and we were running in the low 70s. I just knew we might have a legit shot at this.

“I have no idea what Gaige went in the semis or anything like that, but for me, it’s like I rolled into the final round, and I was like, ‘I just have to do what I know how to do.’ I know it’s Gaige, and I know the history that’s going on there, but I was just like, if I can focus on myself and get this bike down the track, that’s going to be the best shot we have, regardless of what else is going on around.”

As much as he might claim he was focused on winning just another race, racing Herrera and winning is not like grabbing a round win over a third-tier racer. Herrera is the racer to beat.

“I don’t know if it makes it more special or not. I think me and Gaige have known each other for a while. We haven’t really raced against each other until we got to Pro Stock, but it’s just been cool,” Van Sant explained. “Every time we’ve raced, it’s been a lot of fun, and I’ve enjoyed it. I like him breaking the record. I was super happy for him, honestly. I think not every competitor out there can say that about people, especially in other classes and stuff like that, but he’s a friend of mine, and I was super, super happy for him, but I told him too, if I can end