COUNTDOWN: ROUND 3/SEPTEMBER 29, 2013
ST. LOUIS RACEWAY/MADISON, ILLINOIS
DRAG RACING
P94
NHRA PRO STOCK CHAMPIONSHIP
NEW LEADER
BY KEVIN MCKENNA
PHOTOGRAPHY BY MATT POLITO
T
he tide turned in the battle
for the NHRA Pro Stock
Motorcycle Championship
in St. Louis this weekend when
Viper Motorcycle Co. Buell's Matt
Smith clocked his second win of
the season and in the process
took over the championship lead
from Hector Arana Jr., who has
held the top spot since the first
race of the season. Smith has
had one of the best bikes in the
class all year, but has had little to
show for it until recently. His fortunes improved greatly in St. Louis, where he claimed his second
win of the season and the 15th
of his career following a 6.88 to
6.95 win over Nitro Fish Suzuki's
LE Tonglet in the final round.
Smith was able to accomplish all
this despite an illness, later diagnosed as severe dehydration,
Matt Smith take
NHRA points lea
his second win o
which nearly kept him out of Sunday's eliminations.
"I started to get sick yesterday
and had an IV in me last night,"
said Smith. "I have to say thanks
to the doctors here or I wouldn't
be here today. I was hurting pretty bad and I went to see NHRA's
[on-site] doctor. He wanted me to
go to the hospital and I refused.
My blood pressure was really low
and they told me that if it didn't
improve I wasn't going to race
