For a man of faith, Chris Rivas didn’t have much confidence in his chances of contending for a championship after his bike failed to start in the first round of the NHRA Carolinas Nationals in Concord, N.C., the first race in the 2008 Countdown to the Championship.

Then he won the next national event.

He kept on winning and in Las Vegas, scored his third national victory of 2008 – effectively pulling him within 39 points of point leader Matt Smith.

“Charlotte was so disappointing,” Rivas recalled. “That’s why we had that turn of events in Dallas. It was so disappointing in Charlotte, that’s when we really thought we were out of it. I told them the only way we’re going to do this is if we make drastic changes. We have to start winning events back to back and we have to keep winning events. I don’t know if I can answer why we have been able to do this but I just feel like my season has been blessed. I just feel blessed; I don’t know how to explain it I just feel like God has had his hand on me.

“I’m blessed for the season I have had because it’s not anything extraordinary we haven’t put a lot of time or effort into our bike or our own program. The team is based out of Georgia and I’m living in California. I have a business that I’m running and my own shop in Fresno. It’s 12 hour days long days, the past three weeks I was able to get to get my shop in order.”

Rivas was quicker than final round opponent Eddie Krawiec on both ends of the Strip at the Las Vegas quarter-mile. He pulled within one round of Krawiec with the victory.

Had Rivas lost, Krawiec would be the point leader.

Rivas actually helped Matt Smith by winning the round and in an ironic twist the victory opened up a potential showdown with Smith, who unceremoniously fired Rivas mid-race in last season’s NHRA Championship finale in Pomona, Ca.

Rivas holds no ill-will towards Smith. Instead, he credits the experience for opening up what he considers to be the opportunity of a lifetime in riding the G-Squared Buell for George Smith and George Bryce.

“I didn’t feel like I was treated right in those days and I didn’t really say anything about it but the past is the past and today I’ve really been given a better opportunity and I really believe that,” Rivas said. “Whatever I did with Matt Smith’s team, I learned some things and it was a necessary step in life to go through to get to where I’m at today. Because if I would have still been with the Mohegan Sun team and not ventured out to the Torco deal I wouldn’t have been able to do the thing with G2 that I was at the end of that season. I think it was very uncomfortable for me at the time, that’s a situation where hindsight’s always 20/20 or better and looking back at it that was definitely the turning point of my career where I was blessed enough to be available for this team and build a fantastic relationship with George Smith.”