Smith Gets On The Board
At Route 66 NHRA
A
fter dominating the latter
half of the 2018 season
and winning his third NHRA Pro
Stock Motorcycle Champion-
ship, it was a bit surprising to
see Denso EBR's Matt Smith
go winless for the first five races
of the new year, but he quickly
rectified that problem with one of
the most dominant performances
of his career. Smith made both
the quickest and fastest runs of
the event at 6.796 seconds and
200.00 mph and won the 18th
race of his career by beating
Big St. Charles/Skillman Auto
Suzuki's Karen Stoffer in the final
round of the Route 66 Nationals
in Chicago, May 31-June 2.
"Our red rocket finally showed
up," Smith said following his
6.807-second win in the final.
"This Denso bike was on kill to-
day. We made a little blooper in
the second round but overall we
had the quickest bike in every
round. I just can't say enough
about my crew including my wife,
Angie, and everyone who helps
us. We had a good day. We
needed to get a win so we pulled
out our championship engine
from last season. It needs to be
freshened soon, so we're send-
ing it back to Elite Performance
after this race. It should be even
better when we get it back and
decide to use it again."
Smith was six-hundredths of a
second behind at the start of the
final, but made up the difference
before the finish line to hold off
Stoffer's 6.885-second run.
"Karen did an awesome job
this weekend," Smith said. "She
was just about perfect on every
run in eliminations. We put a new
tire on the bike for the final. I'm
glad we did because we had our
best 60-foot time of the week-
end and that's what got us the
IN
THE
WIND
P50
Matt Smith scored his first win
of the 2019 season.
