“We had our strongest qualifying effort in Commerce (Ga.) and the bike was running great through the first round,” said the 41-year-old Fresno, Calif. native. “I thought we could go even further, but then something broke at the start of the second-round pass and our race was over.
“These things happen all the time in drag racing, but the real story is we are making strong, steady progress, both on the track and in the standings. The way the G2 Motorsports/Drag Specialties/S&S Cycle V-Twin was running, we were right there with the top of the pack.”
The first round win and fourth qualifying position pushed Rivas into seventh place in the standings with 139 points, 160 behind the leader. He qualified fourth on the strength of a 7.008-second elapsed time at 189.10 miles per hour third-qualifying session. Rivas then used a 6.984-second E.T. at 191.54 mph lap to defeat Eddie Murphy (7.179-second E.T., 186.19 mph) in the first round.
“And being solidly in the top 10 by Indianapolis is crucial,” he said.
A rider must be in the top 10 at the conclusion of the 12th race of the season to qualify for the five-race Countdown to the Championship, essentially the NHRA POWERade playoffs.
Last year, the G2 Motorsports/Drag Specialties/S&S Cycle team won the Full Throttle Pit Crew Championship award at the O’Reilly NHRA Midwest Nationals. Based on a points system, the program will award event payouts to the team in each class with the top-performing pit crew. In addition, results will be tabulated throughout the season to determine a championship crew in each class, which will earn a sizable year-end bonus.