DENSO NHRA Sonoma Nationals <\/a>weekend and marked Herrera\u2019s first Callout triumph since capturing the inaugural Pro Stock Motorcycle edition in 2023.<\/p>\nA New Engine Sparks A Dominant Performance<\/p>\n
From the opening round through the championship finale, Herrera was simply in a class of his own.<\/p>\n
After two time trial sessions on Friday, the Vance & Hines team rolled out a brand-new engine that immediately transformed Herrera\u2019s Suzuki into the quickest motorcycle in the field. Following an opening-round issue that burned up the clutch, the team made the necessary adjustments and never looked back.<\/p>\n
Herrera ripped off three consecutive passes in the 6.60-second zone, proving he had the quickest bike on the property.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt felt like I was back in 2023, you know,\u201d Herrera said. \u201cWe burned the clutch up on the first run, but after that, it was like 2023, when we had the fastest bike in the field. Previously, I had not had good luck at this racetrack, so this is a big win.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe came here with a brand new motor, broke it in, and everything just clicked. I came to the track this morning, and I said, \u2018I\u2019m going to win today\u2019. That\u2019s just the mentality you come here with and it worked out in my favor. I haven\u2019t had that feeling in a long time, and to come out here and get the win, that\u2019s what means the most to all of us.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Herrera Leaves Little Doubt<\/p>\n
As the top qualifier for the Callout selection process, Herrera had first choice of his opening-round opponent and selected veteran Steve Johnson.<\/p>\n
That decision quickly paid off.<\/p>\n
Herrera blasted to a stellar 6.665-second pass at 202.76 mph to eliminate Johnson and immediately establish himself as the rider to beat.<\/p>\n
The semifinals featured another tough matchup against Maryland event winner Angie Smith, but Herrera remained nearly flawless. His 6.687-second run at 202.45 mph advanced him to the championship round while once again posting one of the quickest runs of the event.<\/p>\n
In the final, teammate Richard Gadson cut an excellent .028-second reaction time, but Herrera\u2019s superior horsepower quickly erased the starting-line advantage. He powered past Gadson with a 6.689-second run at 202.15 mph to secure the victory.<\/p>\n
A Little Friendly Team Rivalry<\/p>\n
Herrera admitted there was extra motivation lining up against his Vance & Hines teammate in the final round.<\/p>\n
After falling to Gadson in each of their previous two championship-round meetings, Herrera wasn\u2019t interested in making it three in a row.<\/p>\n
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\u201cWe were really quick, so I felt like I was the only one who could screw it up, but that didn\u2019t happen. I gave away the last two finals to Richard, so I wasn\u2019t about to give him a third,\u201d Herrera said.<\/p>\n
Gadson earned his spot in the final by defeating Chase Van Sant and Jianna Evaristo, reaching the GETTRX Pro Stock Motorcycle All-Star Callout championship round for the second consecutive season.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After showing flashes of brilliance throughout the 2026 season, Herrera put together one of his most dominant performances…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":813345,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[572],"tags":[64,63,166750,166761,806,805,803,804,388229,98000,166759,388230,166760,16180,85,166758,19646],"class_list":["post-813344","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-motosport","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-drag-racing","tag-funny-car","tag-motor","tag-motor-sports","tag-motosport","tag-motosports","tag-national-hot-rod-association","tag-nhra","tag-pro-mod","tag-pro-modified","tag-pro-stock","tag-race-car","tag-sports","tag-top-fuel","tag-turbo"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/813344","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=813344"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/813344\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/813345"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=813344"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=813344"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=813344"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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