NHRA Countdown: Pro Stock Motorcycle Dominator Out to Preserve Andrew Hines’ Legacy

• Pro Stock Motorcycle favorite Gaige Herrera's crew chief is Andrew Hines.

• Hines is the class’ most successful rider with 56 victories and six championships.

• Matt Smith enters this year's NHRA Countdown with six championships, and Herrera doesn't want Smith to eclipse Hines' mark.

Gaige Herrera, the NHRA Pro Stock Motorcycle phenom who in less than two full seasons has won a series title and rewritten the record book in several class categories, has one overriding goal as the six-race Countdown to the Championship begins this weekend at Pennsylvania’s Maple Grove Raceway, near Reading.

It’s to ensure that on-track rival Matt Smith doesn’t claim the 2024 championship—but not for the obvious reason.

Herrera, the current champion and top seed heading into the playoffs, races the Mission Foods RevZilla Vance & Hines Suzuki Hayabusa, along with rookie teammate Richard Gadson. His crew chief is Andrew Hines, who became the class’ most successful rider with an unmatched 56 victories before stepping aside to tune the bikes.

Hines leads the class with six series championships—just like Matt Smith. (The late Dave Schultz rang up six titles between 1987 and 1996, before Andrew Hines’ older brother Matt reeled off three in a row, from 1997-1999).

So it isn’t especially personal—although he said he could do without the recent name-calling (“sandbagging”) that has “caused a lot of drama, a lot of, I would say, B.S. about our Vance & Hines crankshafts and this and that” and “kind of puts a little thorn in my side.” He simply has a sense of loyalty—of duty, even—to preserve the Vance & Hines supremacy.

“My biggest goal is to try to keep Matt Smith from winning the seventh championship. Ultimately, that was my goal from the day I signed up at Vance & Hines,” Herrera said. “I mean, Andrew, none of them, ever mentioned that to me, but that's been my ultimate goal for my crew chief, Andrew Hines, from me to try to keep him them all level at six.”

Eddie Krawiec, who works alongside Andrew Hines on the prep side, is a four-time champion who has helped the team record 14 titles in the past 28 seasons.

After joining Vance & Hines for the 2023 season, Herrera won the championship, earned a class-record 11 victories and 14 No. 1 qualifying positions. This year he has extended his No. 1 starts to 19 in the past 24 bike-category appearances on the Mission Foods Drag Racing Series tour. He has seven victories and one runner-up finish in nine Pro Stock Motorcycle events this year and takes a 31-2 race-day record into the Countdown.

Herrera also owns the class records for most consecutive round-wins (46), most final rounds in a single season (12, tied with Matt Hines), and most consecutive final round (12). He won’t turn 31 until Sept. 28 and has been in NHRA competition for just 30 races. But already he’s tied for ninth on the class’ all-time victories list and easily could close the year at No. 8.

Even so, Herrera said he’s less dedicated to moving up on that list than he is preserving Andrew Hines’ legacy and that of the entire organization.

Herrera said of Smith, “I don't want to see him surpass Andrew Hines and Dave Schultz, because I feel– I wouldn't say Matt Smith doesn't deserve it. He works very hard. He does it all. He puts in the time and effort to get those [four and sometimes five Matt Smith Racing] Buells running good.

"But I just feel like me and Richard, me for sure, personally, I feel like I got to go out there and defend Andrew's titles and try to keep him up on top for him, for his dad former racer Byron Hines], for the whole Vance & Hines team. So that's kind of what drives me or pushes me towards trying to achieve.”

Naturally, he said winning a second crown in a row is his primary goal. But on a personal-growth basis, he said, “My biggest goal is just to maintain my consistency and to try to maintain trying to be on top. As a rider, it's definitely to never take nothing for granted and go out there and try to be as consistent as I can.

"No matter how dominant I am, I want to, as a personal goal, never take my own weight off of my shoulders. It’s hard to say what other goals I got, because I've accomplished so much so quick. So it is just not taking any of this for granted and having fun with it.”