“We talked a bit in Dallas when he was riding the Stoffers’ rental bike. Then, in Las Vegas, I asked his father (Augustine) if Gaige would be around on Monday, because we wanted to try some different things with Ed’s (teammate Eddie Krawiec’s) bike. He jumped all over that, since it was an option to ride one of the best bikes in the class,” Hines added.
“When we tested with him after Las Vegas 2 last year, he rode Ed’s bike, and he did everything asked. It was a tough day to ride — we had crosswinds that would come and go — and he navigated the bike safely down the track, shifting on time. And the same time each run has opened up the availability of finding performance from run to run,” Hines said. “The way he trained himself to leave with the motorcycle has really showcased the chassis and clutch setup. We were consistently the quickest to 60 feet, and that added up to easier runs through testing and the race weekend.”
Herrera said, “I started with Gary Stoffer and Karen Stoffer and then, getting the ride for Vance & Hines, that’s the biggest dream come true. When I test rode for them in Vegas, it didn’t feel real. I was just looking at it as an opportunity: I get to ride one of the best machines out there.
“So, to get that phone call from Andrew to join the team, I was speechless. Just going from out there with the Stoffers and I’m just having fun, getting my feet wet, not knowing what was going to be in the future, if I was going to continue with it, get some sponsors and stuff. And then get that phone call to ride for them, it was definitely a surreal moment, for sure.”
Hines made a push for Herrera to join the operation.
“I talked to him in late November to get a feel of what his plans were for ’23,” Hines recalled. “We set up a meeting for the week of the PRI show, and Terry (Vance) also came to see who this kid was.”
By March at the season-opening Gatornationals, the entire NHRA world knew who “this kid” was.
“Honestly, it didn’t surprise me,” Hines, a six-time champion, said. “He has been in pressure situations outside of NHRA racing. I knew if I gave him a great motorcycle that he would be capable of what we accomplished. When I watched him through the later part of the ’22 season, he showed the traits that he was ready to win.”
Early on, Hines called Herrera “flawless” and “a phenom” and said he’s proud to see Herrera “rise to the occasion.”
Krawiec, himself a four-time Pro Stock Motorcycle champion with 49 victories, said he “knew after seeing him his first weekend that he was going to be good. He has confidence when he rides, and it shows. I believe it’s very rare to see. It’s kind of hard to explain, but he just knows he can do it, and confidence is one of the key things.”
That, Krawiec said, is evidence Herrera will mesh similarly to how he and Hines blended their skills and personalities when he joined the legendary team in 2004.
“That is how Andrew and I pushed each other over the years to be better. It’s not that we picked on each other. It’s more so we talked about our flaws to help each other be better. Each weekend I’d pick one thing to fix. I wouldn’t move on until I could make it the rest of the weekend without thinking about having to fix it. It just had to happen from muscle memory or naturally happen. When it was fixed, I would work on the next thing. I just wanted to be better,” Krawiec said. “We have that with Gaige now, and he’s only going to get better.”
Herrera is an asset on the mechanical side.
“Gaige is a skilled welder/fabricator, engine builder, wiring guy and mechanic,” Hines noted. “With those attributes, we gained a crewman also. He is able to do just about anything we ask on the bike between rounds or in a thrash to change engines.”
Herrera also has a strong self-awareness.
“I’m definitely very competitive and I put 120 percent into everything I do, whether it’s riding a bike, building a bike, whatever I’m doing,” he said. “So I think they’ve seen that side of me, definitely, especially on race day.
“I kind of flip a switch — and I still have fun, joke around, because I think that’s my way of relaxing, I guess, and being focused. So I think they saw that when I was riding the Stoffers’ bike,” he said. “Andrew was helping us out with the Stoffers’ bike here and there. So was Eddie. And I think they’ve seen that part of me. I think that’s what kind of drew them toward me.”
Herrera has passed perhaps the biggest test of all: not reveling in his early success. Every time he credits the motorcycle and his crew for his nearly perfect record.
“It gives me a whole lot of confidence having a bike like this,” Herrera said. “This whole Vance & Hines team has this bike on rails, and it takes a lot of weight off my shoulders. You couldn’t draw it up any better than this. It’s just a dream right now for us.”
This story appeared in the Sept 13, 2023 edition of the SPEED SPORT Insider.
