VOL. 50 ISSUE 50 DECEMBER 17, 2013
a big deal.' I talked to Angie, she
said she would sit out to work on
Scotty's bike. We accomplished
what we needed to do and then we
put Angie back on her bike for the
last two races. All in all, it turned
out to be a good win-win situation
for Scotty and for our team."
In Smith's case, having three
other teammates may have
proved to be an advantage since
it provided him with four times as
much data as a single bike team
and helped make his tuning decisions easier. He was also able to
avoid much of the drama that usually goes with multi-bike teams by
racing straight up whenever the
Viper bikes were paired against
each other.
"There is no drama inside our
pit area," said Smith. "We have a
good time and we race heads up.
If this was a one-man show John
wouldn't have won any time he
raced against me but he beat me
three of the six times we raced.
I think that shows that when we
race each other the best man
wins. When we race, you have
to let the clutch out on time, get
tucked, and hit all the shift points.
I'm happy to have a team that races like that."
Smith's championship run in
2013 represented a far cry from
the 2012 season, when Screamin' Eagle Harley-Davidson teammates Eddie Krawiec and Andrew Hines nearly ran the table
with 15 wins in 16 races en route
to a 1-2 finish in the points. A major rules revision, which cost the
Vance & Hines team its exclusive
four-valve V-twin engine package, was designed to level the
P119
playing field. Heading into the
season, Smith, like many other
Pro Stock Motorcycle racers,
was well aware that the new rules
represented perhaps his best
chance to contend for another
title. Ultimately, parity reigned in
the class as seven different riders
claimed victories and 13 reached
at least one final round.
"When we went to the first
race in Gainesville and I was the
number-one qualifier, I knew right
at that point we were going to be
really good for the year." Smith
said. "You don't start thinking
about the championship til you
get five or six races in. After the
third race I was 10th in the points
and I realized that we had a lot of
work to do if we even wanted a
shot at being in contention, but
we knew we had the power and
Smith launches his
Viper Motorcycle Co.backed Buell.