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DRAG RACING NHRA MELLO YELLO PRO STOCK SERIES ROUND 5/JUNE 22, 2014 NEW ENGLAND DRAGWAY/EPPING, NEW HAMPSHIRE P94 Matt Smith joined Angie in the fi- nal round after beating Gainesville winner Steve Johnson and the Lu- cas Oil Buell's of Adam Arana and his older brother, Hector Jr. As soon as both Smith's reached the final, it didn't take long for some to speculate that Matt would take a knee for Angie, allowing her to claim her first win. The numbers in the final did little to quell that notion since Matt gained a big holeshot advantage at the start and was well on his way to a victory when his Nitro Fish Buell fell silent. Angie rode to a 6.905 for the win while Matt coasted across the finish line with a 7.23 at just 145 mph. "My motor blew up," Matt said. "We've been having problems with rocker arms and pushrods and we stayed up until 1 a.m. last night working on the bike. It runs good for the first eighth-mile, but won't run in the back half. I can't get two good runs out of it. It was running along just fine and then it went to one cylinder so I pulled the clutch in. We've got three races in three weeks and I couldn't risk hurting a lot of parts. If we had next week off I probably would have run it out." "I've never wanted to wish bad luck on anyone, but I'm glad his motor blew up," Angie added. "My lights have all been close to- day and I didn't want to red-light in the final so I squeezed the clutch; maybe a little too hard. That's why I was so late on the starting line. I just didn't want to lose on a red light. "The important thing is that we had an all Matt Smith Racing fi- nal round and that I got to race against my hubby in the final. I still can't believe it." CN FINAL 1. Angie Smith (Buell) 6.905/191.89 mph 2. Matt Smith (Buell) 7.230/145.99 mph Briefly... A year ago, Adam Arana reached his first final round in Epping but round wins have been tough to come by ever since. Despite mechanical is- sues, the Lucas Oil Buell rider made it to the second round in Epping af- ter Star Racing Buell's Michael Ray fouled in round one. "I definitely got lucky in the first round," Arana said. "I like Michael and it sucks that he red-lit, but racing's racing and I'm glad for the win. I just wish we could have had a little bit more luck in the second round." Adam Arana grabbed a big lead against Matt Smith in the second round, but couldn't maintain the ad- vantage. Arana's 6.979 almost beat Smith's much quicker 6.879. After- ward, Arana noted that tire shake, a condition caused by not enough clutch slippage, was the culprit. "It was frustrating," Arana said. "It rattled the tire really, really bad and I could feel it in the handlebars. Usu- ally if it rattles and it's not too bad, you just feel the bike have a little jitter and then it carries on and clears up. But this one, I felt it in the handlebars and I shifted into second and contin- ued to feel it. That's an issue that we need to address." Following the fifth round of the 2014 season, Hines and Krawiec still hold a comfortable lead atop the Mel- lo Yello point standings while Hector Arana Jr., John Hall, Matt Smith, and Scotty Pollacheck round out the top five. Angie Smith has moved to num- ber eight following her victory. Angie Smith (far lane) beat both of the Screamin' Eagle Harleys to reach the final, including Eddie Krawiec (near lane).