VOL. 55 ISSUE 41 OCTOBER 16, 2018 P47
ability to get it done.
"We also had to deal with a
little wind this weekend," Smith
said. "If you were in the right
lane, when you got down there
near the finish line the wind
wanted to push you over towards
the wall. In the final against Chip,
I pointed the bike towards the
centerline and just let the wind
push me back into the center of
the lane. That worked. I thought
I saw his red light when I left the
starting line and after I made my
first three shifts I looked up and
saw my scoreboard was lit up.
That was a big relief."
The points battle underwent a
major shake-up after Nitro Fish
Suzuki's LE Tonglet, the incom-
ing points leader, suffered a rare
loss in the first round against
Sampey. Lucas Oil Buell's Hec-
tor Arana Jr., the winner of the
first Countdown event in Read-
ing, also lost early. The shake-up
continued in the quarter final
round when Sampey took out
championship contender Eddie
Krawiec. That opened the door
for Smith to re-claim the lead.
"I didn't see myself taking the
lead coming out of here," Smith
said. "I thought I could get to the
final but I'd probably have to race
LE or Eddie and maybe I'd pick
up a round on them. This was a
gift. I said at the start that if we
can win three races during the
Countdown we could win the
championship and we're prob-
ably going to have to do just that.
Now we need to go to Las Vegas
and make sure we don't make
any mistakes."
Ellis, who joined the Vance &
Hines team as a third rider for
select events during the play-
off phase of the season, was
the number-two qualifier with
a 6.806 and then rode to the
final with wins over Yellow Corn
Buell's Joey Gladstone, Denso
Buell's Angie Smith and White
Alligator Suzuki's Jerry Savoie.
Ellis last won the Charlotte event
in 2016 and now has seven wins
in 13 final-round appearances.
"I gave it all I had but I was
just a little too quick in the final,"
Ellis said. "I have a great oppor-
tunity to ride this bike for Vance
& Hines and do some develop-
ment for them but I also want to
win races. We had an opportu-
nity to do that this weekend but
came up a little short. I would
like to have helped one of my
teammates in the points but
we'll just have to try again in two
weeks in Las Vegas."
Kevin McKenna
1. Matt Smith (EBR)
2. Chip Ellis (H-D)
Smith emerged
victorious in
NC, and the win
put him right
back in the
thick of things
for the 2018
championship.
