Matt Smith Takes Over NHRA Points Lead
M
att Smith has made it
known that he'll do almost
anything to become the first
NHRA Pro Stock Motorcycle
racer to win seven champion
-
ships, and he showed it at Maple
Grove Raceway, in Mohnton,
Pennsylvania, September 18,
when he defeated his teammate,
Chip Ellis in the final round.
Smith didn't have the quick
-
est bike, in fact, Ellis outran him
by a lot in the final, but he had
enough to get the job done.
Smith ran a 6.807 in Monday's
rain-delayed final round to a
6.727 by Ellis, who was inexpli
-
cably late off the starting line.
Smith also knocked off Chris
Bostick, Marc Ingwersen and
teammate Jianna Evaristo to
reach the final round and picked
up his 38th career victory a
round later. With five races
remaining, Smith now holds
a 17-point lead over Vance &
Hines' Suzuki's Gaige Herrera.
"Today was exciting. We've
won races on Monday before,
and we pulled it off today," Smith
said. "All in all, we had a great
weekend. Personally, my bike
still isn't the bike I need out here
to win a seventh championship.
We just have to get my bike
better. My bike isn't 60-footing
the way it needs to. We know
we have really good power, even
though we qualified fourth, we're
still way behind.
"We've won six champion
-
ships because we play our cards
right and we're smart and we do
what we need to do. We brought
a fourth bike [to this race] and
that was our goal. When you
don't have the best stuff, you
have to bring other stuff in to try
to learn. All in all, that's why we
brought that bike to Reading and
Chip knocked out some people
that we needed him to knock
out."
Ellis, long known as one of
the most technical riders in the
class, was hired by Smith to ride
his Buell bike during the six-race
NHRA Countdown, the playoffs
to determine season champions.
Ellis did his part with wins over
Cory Reed, Eddie Krawiec and
GETTRX Buell's Hector Arana Jr.
to reach the final round.
Incoming points leader Her
-
rera was nearly untouchable in
qualifying with a 6.672-second
elapsed time and a speed of
203.00 mph to lead the way, but
his shot at the victory ended
early when his bike slowed
against Evaristo's Scrappers Su-
zuki. Many had expected Herrera
to waltz to the championship
after he won seven of the first
ten events, but Smith apparently
has other ideas.
The Camping World NHRA
Series will now head to zMax
Dragway in Concord, North Caro-
lina, for this weekend's Carolina
Nationals, and event that hap-
pens to be in Smith's backyard.
Kevin McKenna
WIND
IN THE
P60
Matt Smith moved into the NHRA
Pro Stock Motorcycle points lead
after winning in Pennsylvania.
PHOTO: MATT POLITO
