Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

Smith Takes U.S. Nationals Pro Stock Win Matt Smith and the G-Squared MaIorsparts team claimed the U.S. Nationals win In Indianapalis during Labor Day weekend. att Smith is the son of Pro Stock car racer Rickie Smith, so it was a given that he'd grow up to be a racer, but he chose to race on two wheels instead of four. It's obvious that he made a wise choice following his first career victory, which came at NHRA's biggest event, the Mac Tools U.S. Nationals at Indianapolis Raceway Park. M Smith, who was running his first race aboard George Bryce's G-Squared/S&S Buell, overcame a big starting line disadvantage to beat Steve johnson in the final round, 7.11 to johnson's 7.20, but the final was accompanied by controversy as stop-action photos showed that johnson was clearly ahead at the stripe. The timing system, which displays elapsed times down to the Hayes And Hurricane Katrina A week after Hurricane Katrina hit his hometown of Gulfport, Mississippi, Attack Kawasaki's josh Hayes still doesn't know if one of his houses survived. The house he's living in came through; the one he recently went to contract on, he hasn't heard about. "I wish I could go home," Hayes said in the Attack team transporter on Friday, September 2 at Road Atlanta in Braselton, Georgia. "I feel terrible. They're all struck there. None of them have had a shower in days. They're all camped out upstairs in the houses, just trying to protect their stuff and figure out what they're going to do for food and stuff. I just feel like I'm an ablebodied person. I should be there helping:' Most of his family on his father's side still lives in Gulfport, including his grandmother. "Everybody's okay," Hayes said. "Most of them had more damage than I did. Most of them lost all the shingles off their roofs, their roofs are leaking. Stuff like that. But everybody seems safe. They're all kind of trying to huddle up together. My grandmother, she's 8 pretty stubborn. She's trying to go home, and they don't want her to go home. Her home's okay, but with all the looting going on, they'd rather keep her close by, so she's kind of fighting them on that." The family was able to evacuate her to her sister's house in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, several days after the hurricane. Hayes said he can't sleep. "I'm glued to the TY," he said. "I'm just waiting for phone calls all the time. I can't callout, but they can get in touch with me. just waiting all the time to hear from somebody. Every time the phone rings, I'm running for it. I don't want to miss any calls. Uke I said, several of them have been text messaging. They can get it touch with me because I have an Atlanta phone that I've had for 10 years." Sheer luck and geographical orientation allowed Hayes' current house to survive. "Luckily, my house is okay," he said. ':-\II the doors, all the garage, everything's there SEPTEMBER 14,2005 • CYCLE NEWS ten-thousandth of a second, turned on the win light in Smith's lane by a slim .00'] margin. After a review by NHRA OffICials, the win was allowed to stand. "The first time I rode this bike was on Friday, but after my first couple of runs, I knew I could win with it," Smith said. '" was going to race my Suzuki this weekend, but the G-Squared team had a new Buell for Chip Ellis to ride, so they asked me to race their old bike. Hopefully, they will ask me to ride it again." The event, which is the 12th of IS on the NHRA Powerade Pro Stock Motorcycle tour, was filled with upsets. Screamin' Eagle Harley-Davidson teammates Andrew Hines and G.T. Tongle!, who entered the race ranked first and second in the points battle, both lost in the first round. Tonglet, who won $1 S,OOO during Saturday's Ringers Gloves Pro Bike Battle specialty race, lost when his bike broke against Matt Guidera's Rocklin Motorsports Buell. A few moments later, Hines joined Tonglet on the sidelines after red-lighting against number-I 6 and locked up. All the winds that we got were north winds coming in with the swell, because it went into Bay St. Louis about ]0 to ]S miles from us. My street runs north and south and I'm the middle house on my block, so mine was protected by all the other houses. It just kind of blew along the houses, so I got lucky. I've seen the aerial photos that stop two streets before you get to my house, so I haven't been able to get any closer than that, other than talking to friends. I had a couple of buddies who said, you know, they're watching for looters at the house and things like that and trying to watch out for everybody, but it's pretty crazy down there right now." Hayes recently went to contract on another home nearby, but he has no idea what's left of it, if anything. "I don't know anything about it," he said. "Nobody can get out there right now that I can get in touch with." Hayes' manager, Gina Nadeau, wasn't as lucky. She's living in the top of her house that was inundated with floodwaters. "She's camped out upstairs right now," Hayes said of Nadeau, who left VIR last weekend to be home before the storm hit. "When she called me last night she said they don't even know what time it is. They just know when it gets darks, so she can call me a qualifler joe DeSantis. U.S. Army Suzuki's Antron Brown, the number-four qualifier, also lost in the first round, helping to open the door for Smith. "Having those guys lose early helped, but I think I could have run with them anyway," Smith said. "I ran a 7.09 and qualified second, so I knew that if I did my job, we'd have a chance no matter who was in the other lane." Smith rode to wins over Chris Rivas, Ellis and Guidera before racing johnson in the final. He got progressively quicker on race day, going from a 7.20 in round one to a 7.11 in the final, which was the thirdqUickest run of the day. johnson, who opened the season with a win at the first race in Gainesville, Florida, turned in one of the best performances of his career as he downed Craig Treble, DeSantis, and former three-time World champ Angelle Sampey to reach his first U.S. Nationals final. '" wanted to win this race more than anything, but I guess it wasn't to be: johnson said. "I thought I made a decent run. I was trying to be careful not to give it away. , feel bad for myself, but I also hate it for my crew chief, Shane Maloney. He wants to win just as bad as I do." With just three rounds remaining, Hines remains the points leader by just 17 points over Tongle!. Brown is third, 107 points behind, and Sampey is fourth but trails leader Hines by a nearly insurmountable 186 markers. Kerin McKenna couple hours after dark, just to kind of, you know, let me know what's going on, that they're safe and stuff like that. She said they're staying upstairs with a gun trying to protect what they have left. They have very little left." Hayes said that both of Nadeau's homes and her business, Competition Marine, were under water. As to when he might return home, Hayes said, "I don't know. Gina [Nadeau1 told me don't plan on coming home for three to four weeks. Right now, it's almost too dangerous to go down there without National Guard. I've heard of carjackings. They're stuck there with no food, no gas, no way to leave. Somehow they're finding guns here and there. But then I talked to her a little while ago. You talk about needs, what they need the most is fuel, because the few people who do have generators don't have enough gas to run them for long. So fuel, food and water are the most important things right now. I'm supposed to be at a trade show next weekend after this event, so there's talk of me trying to rent a truck, get as much fuel and water and food as I can, and at least make a trip down there and back. I'm going to kind of wait till later." Henny Ray Abrams

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