NHRA - National Hot Rod Association

First things first. Chase Van Sant knows how to win races. He proved that during the 2024 season when he claimed his first NHRA Pro Stock Motorcycle win in Seattle. He even beat Gaige Herrera in the final, and Herrera didn’t lose many races that year.

Between his Rookie of the Year award in 2023 and Seattle win a year later, Van Sant seemed to be on the fast track to NHRA stardom, but the 2025 season proved to be a bit of a speed bump.

Van Sant went to the semifinals just twice in 14 races and slipped from No. 6 to No. 8 in the Mission Foods standings. Put simply, the issue was performance as the Trick Tools Suzuki qualified in the bottom half of the field seven times and was never ranked higher than fifth on a qualifying sheet. Van Sant did his part with a pair of holeshot wins, but in the end, he had a difficult time duplicating results from the previous season.

“We struggled a bit for a variety of reasons but for the most part, the bike just wouldn’t respond to the changes we were trying to make,” Van Sant said. “We’d work on one area and make some progress and then we’d have to look elsewhere. The problems weren’t super obvious.

“It was tough because everyone wants to win, and we know how to win, we just couldn’t put all the pieces together.”

This year, after the first two events, Van Sant carries himself with a bit more optimism, particularly after a strong showing at last weekend’s 4 Wide race in Charlotte. Following a quarterfinal finish in Gainesville, Van Sant qualified ninth in Charlotte but made it to the final quad where only a -.002 red-light prevented what could have been a storybook ending.

Along the way, Van Sant defeated six-time world champ Matt Smith in the first quad and topped Angie smith and Jianna Evaristo in the semi’s. Perhaps most encouraging, his best of 6.810 on race day was competitive with just about every other bike in the field, save perhaps race winner Gaige Herrera, who ran a pair of 6.75s. He also topped 200-mph, something that was not a regular occurrence last season.

Van Sant is quick to credit the work ethic of crew chief Tim Kulungian for the turnaround.

“We’re definitely closer than we have been, and that’s encouraging,” said Van Sant.  “This winter, Tim worked his butt off to find our issues and correct them. “Our 60-foot times are better, and our back half is good. It’s nice not to be two or three mph behind the top bikes. We’ve got something we can work with now.

Mature beyond his years, Van Sant never once complained about his struggles, he simply did the best he could and trusted that Kulungian would ultimately find the performance they’d been missing.

“Tim is very open with me. We communicate well,” said Van Sant. “I know what we’re doing and why we’re doing it so it’s nice not to be kept in the dark.”

To most NHRA pros, South Georgia Motorsports Park is a complexly new venue, but not to Van Sant and most of the Pro Stock Motorcycle class. SGMP has a long history of motorcycle events including Man Cup, where Van Sant has plenty of experience.

“I really enjoyed racing here,” he says. “I rode a 4.60 [index] bike and I think I won a race and went to three or four finals here, so this track has been good to me. It’s a smooth fast track and that’s something the [Pro Stock Motorcycles] really like.”

As a Charlotte semifinalist, Van Sant has a couple of shots to get a win this weekend as he also gets to take part in Saturday’s Mission Foods #2Fast2Tasty Challenge along with Herrera, Richard Gadson, and Clayton Howey.

“It’s about time I won a race again. It’s been far too long and I want our team to get that feeling again. Thankfully, I think we’re closer than we’ve been in a while.”