NEW LEADER IN NHRA CLUBHOUSE
A
week after a frustrating loss
in the final match of the
Reading round, Smith Racing
EBR's Matt Smith quickly made
up for a lost opportunity by win-
ning his second NHRA Pro Stock
Motorcycle event of the season,
the latest at Gateway Motorsports
Park in Madison, Illinois, Septem-
ber 21-23. Smith was dominant
all weekend and won the final
round against Nitro Fish Suzuki's
LE Tonglet and more importantly,
he took over the lead in the battle
for the 2018 Mello Yello Cham-
pionship with just four events re-
maining. The final round was one
of the closest races of the year
with Smith getting a slight starting
line holeshot against Tonglet and
holding on for a 6.877 to 6.867
victory. Traveling over 195-mph,
the two bikes were separated by
just .0006 of a second at the fin-
ish line. For Smith, it was another
chapter in a season that has had
its fair share of highs and lows.
"We started the year on a Su-
zuki and it was part of a partner-
ship that fell apart," Smith said. "I
still don't know what happened,
but I found myself without a ride
after the first race of the year.
I had to pull my old bike out in
Charlotte; we qualified well and
went to semifinals there. Some-
times that [adversity] makes you
work harder. It's been one thing
after another, but we don't give
up.
"The final was something
else," Smith said. "I have blind-
ers on my helmet so I don't get
distracted. It's too easy to look at
what's going on in the other lane
and short-shift the bike or some-
thing. I never saw LE—I heard
him, so I know he was close, but
I never saw him. That would have
been too close to tell anyway."
Smith was fortunate to avoid
the bad luck that sidelined
several of the championship
favorites in the first round of elimi-
IN
THE
WIND
P32
Matt Smith scored a
big win in St. Louis and
is now the new NHRA
Pro Stock Motorcycle
points leader with four
rounds left to go.
