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ENNIS, Tex. -- Chris Rivas had a good feeling about the outcome of Sunday's O'Reilly Super Start Batteries Fall Nationals Pro Stock Motorcycle outcome at the Texas Motorplex. And he was right. Rivas rode the G2 Motorsports Drag Specialties S&S Cycle V-Twin Pro Stock Buell to his second NHRA POWERade Series victory in three final rounds. The outstanding performance - he had the quickest elapsed time in each of the last three rounds of eliminations - was made more remarkable because the team changed all of the Buell's key components Friday night. "We tried some new stuff with fuel injection, clutch tuning and ignition and it worked. It made the bike run good but it doesn't work as well off the starting line," said Rivas, who defeated reigning motorcycle champion Matt Smith in the finale - 7.024 second at 183.97 mph to 7.098 at 187.00 mph. The victory also moved Rivas back into title contention. He leaped from eighth to third with the impressive outing. He has 2,183 points, one behind second place and he's now just 60 points out of the top spot. The team had been plagued by gremlins for the past two months. A week ago Sunday, the Buell refused to start prior to the first round at Charlotte. "We had been struggling and we didn't know if we were going to be in contention after the Charlotte race," said Rivas, who qualified third for this event with a 6.990-second Friday night run. Even so, Smith and the team opted to shake things up. They changed everything - the engine, tune-up, fuel system and rear tire. "It is a whole new system and we still have to learn everything about it," he continued, "and it worked. The bike started perfectly every time. All we needed all day long was a little bit of data (from the new combination) so we could tune it." Rivas opened eliminations with a 7.014 at 184.04 mph decision over Junior Pippin's 7.169 and followed with a 7.036-7.213 win over Hector Arena. Angie McBride fell to Rivas, 7.075 to 8.532, in the semifinals, setting up the decider against Smith. Rivas wasn't proud of his slow reaction times - although the bike's performance enabled him to come from behind every time. "It was one of my worst days on the 'tree," he admitted. "I won with .176, .117 and .091 (second) reaction times. You normally don't win races with times like that." Rivas notched career win No. 1 at Joliet, Ill., in June and was runner-up at Englishtown, N.J., in the next race. "We have been beating ourselves," said Smith, "so we decided to make those changes. We were making enough good old S&S power to beat everyone. We do want to thank the sponsors who help us and have stuck with us." This was the 77th race win for G2 (George Bryce and George Smith) and Star Racing in their storied NHRA Pro Stock Motorcycle career. The team will be back in action Friday, when the O'Reilly Mid-South Nationals gets underway at Memphis Motorsports Park. It is the third of five Countdown to 1 races.
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