Matt Smith Dominates Sonoma NHRA
O
ne week after Gaige Herrera's
historic 11-race win streak
ended in Seattle, it was his big-
gest rival, Denso Buell's Matt
Smith, who put on a dominant
performance in winning the lat-
est NHRA Pro Stock Motorcycle
round at Sonoma Raceway, July
26-28.
Smith, winless this season,
dominated from start to finish.
He qualified in the number-one
spot with a 6.655, one of the
best runs of his long career, and
won Sunday's final round over
MSR teammate John Hall. In
between, Smith also won Satur
-
day's GETTRX Pro Stock Motor-
cycle All-Star Callout, a bonus
race featuring the top eight
riders in the class based on their
qualifying results in the past year
with a $25,000 prize.
Smith may still feel that the
current NHRA rules package
favors the Suzuki brand, but his
results suggest otherwise, as he
was never seriously challenged
throughout the weekend. In the
final round, Smith easily took
care of Hall, running a 6.700 to
Hall's 6.746. Smith also routinely
topped 200 mph, including a
203.77 run in the final.
"They all talked crap about
me when I couldn't get my bike
to sixty-foot [the first 60 feet of
the quarter-mile], but we went
to work and got it fixed and
they [the Vance & Hines team]
seemed to have lost it," said
Smith. "Maybe it's time they got
back to work to get their [perfor
-
mance] back.
"This doesn't wipe away the
first half of the season," said
Smith. "They [the Vance & Hines
team] say it's Gaige, but it's not.
He's a great rider, but it's that
bike. I blame [V&H crew chief]
Andrew Hines for throwing the
whole class under the bus. When
Angelle [Sampey] rode that bike,
she was stupid fast. It's got
nothing to do with Gaige. He's
not better than me or Chase Van
Sant or Richard Gadson. Andrew
WIND
IN THE
P42
Winner Matt Smith (near lane) went
up against John Hall in the NHRA
Pro Stock Motorcycle Final at
Sonoma.
PHOTOS: MATT POLITO
