Aboard a Matt Smith Racing (MSR) V-Twin Buell adorned with Johnson\u2019s Horsepowered Garage branding alongside that of Scrappers Racing and DENSO, Evaristo is proud of her successes, but she\u2019s also eager to continue her education on two wheels.<\/p>\n
\u201cI recently had this realization, oh my gosh, this is my sixth year of racing professionally \u2013 but it doesn\u2019t feel like I\u2019ve been racing that long,\u201d admits Evaristo, who claimed victory at the 2019 NHRA Finals during her debut season. \u201cIt\u2019s crazy, I\u2019m not a rookie anymore, and I\u2019ve gained a lot of really good experience. I\u2019ve come a long way, but I still feel like I have so much to learn.\u201d<\/p>\n
There have been a number of setbacks in her still-early career, including a pair of crashes \u2013 one in 2022 which took a good deal of recovery \u2013 and she\u2019s had to adjust to riding a different style of motorcycle when she made the move from a Suzuki to a V-Twin last year. Through it all, she\u2019s only become stronger, smarter, and more determined.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe year I started working with Matt and Angie [Smith], that felt like my first year learning how to ride correctly and really race a motorcycle,\u201d she says. \u201cThe following year was really good, and we finished fifth in points. Then we made the decision to switch to V-Twin and it was almost like starting over again. Yes, both motorcycles run relatively the same elapsed time and speed, but they are very different to ride. It felt like starting over again.\u201d<\/p>\n
But she leaned in and made up ground quickly.<\/p>\n
\u201cLast year was one of my most successful in racing, and I genuinely felt like I had a very competitive motorcycle,\u201d she shares. \u201cI lost a lot of rounds being late on the tree and things like that, and that showed me how much more I needed to work on being a racer and not just a rider. It\u2019s definitely been a journey, but now, six years in, I can really take all of the skills I\u2019ve learned and put them together. It\u2019s very difficult to win races when you\u2019re still trying to focus on learning to ride, but now I feel like I have a good bike, I\u2019m riding good, and I\u2019m getting more and more comfortable. This is the first year I can really focus on being a true racer and doing everything I can to be competitive.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/dragillustrated.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/infri-47-2-1201x800.jpg\")
\nNHRA photo<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
One of the most important pieces to the puzzle has been finding the right fit with her team. Initially, Evaristo wasn\u2019t sure MSR was for her. The landscape within Pro Stock Motorcycle can be contentious, and the Smith family is known for standing up and speaking out when they believe change needs to be made. The bold vocalization of perceived injustices or seemingly obvious disparity initially made sweetly natured Evaristo a bit uncomfortable.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019d never had a full conversation with either Matt or Angie,\u201d says Evaristo. \u201cBut I had heard a lot of negative things. I didn\u2019t want to work with them, originally, but I have never been so happy to be so wrong about people. Everything people say about them is wrong. Anyone who really knows them will tell you that they are some of the most honest and hard-working people you\u2019ll ever meet. I genuinely believe that it was the right decision to work with them, and I do not believe that I would be as successful as I am now if I hadn\u2019t made the transition to this team.\u201d<\/p>\n
Evaristo said that along with the power provided by MSR, she found a support system. With her father and sister, Top Fuel racer Jasmine, both out of full-time racing at the moment, she has deeply benefitted from the built-in support and friendship.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s been difficult without my family because I feel like that\u2019s our thing; we\u2019ve always raced together,\u201d says Evaristo. \u201cI felt weird, almost like I didn\u2019t have my safety blanket of support anymore, but they check in with me constantly and Jasmine still makes it to some races. Having such a supportive team has made it easier. I can talk to Matt and Angie, and I\u2019m lucky to have a relationship with them that we can sit down and have hard conversations when I\u2019m going through something. I\u2019m an emotional person, and they understand that and don\u2019t expect me to be anyone other than who I am. I know I can rely on them and that they have my back, the same way my family would.\u201d<\/p>\n
While the \u201cFastest Woman in Pro Stock Motorcycle\u201d badge is a great honor, Evaristo still feels as though she has much work to do. What she\u2019s most proud of is her overall journey as a rider and now a racer.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith what I\u2019ve been through, I think lot of people probably would have given up,\u201d she says. \u201cI\u2019m not saying I\u2019m special in any way, but if anything, that\u2019s what sets a racer apart from a non-racer: seeing failure and struggle as an opportunity. Showing up weekend after weekend, continuing to learn, and putting in the effort to become successful. I have a lot more to learn and so much more I want to achieve, but hard work does pay off. You just have to be willing to make the sacrifices. That\u2019s something I\u2019m able to apply to life in general; if you truly want something bad enough, you have to be willing to repeatedly fail and block out what anyone else says. Keep pushing because you know your goal, and you know it\u2019s worth it.\u201d<\/p>\n
The post WOMEN OF POWER 2025: Jianna Evaristo Is Fast And Focused<\/a> first appeared on Drag Illustrated<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Youthful and quietly feisty between moments of intense focus, Jianna Evaristo is in the midst of her sixth season as a competitor in the formidable Pro Stock Motorcycle ranks. One of four daughters of Top Fuel racer Mike Salinas and wife Monica, Evaristo has steadily displayed a keen commitment to becoming her best self, both […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-102224","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102224","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=102224"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102224\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=102224"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=102224"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=102224"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}