Drag Illustrated Issue 140, January 2019 | Page 79
THE
CHAMPIONS
ISSUE
NHRA Pro Stock Motorcycle
Matt Smith
T
he 2018 NHRA Mello Yello
Drag Racing Series Pro Stock Mo-
torcycle championship was won in
dramatic fashion in the final round
of the final race of the season. Matt
Smith and Countdown to the Cham-
pionship contender Eddie Krawiec left the start-
ing line with identical .026-second reaction times
in the money round at the NHRA Finals, and a
hush fell over Auto Club Raceway at Pomona as
the two raced side-by-side down the quarter-mile.
At the finish line stripe, it was Smith with a
record-setting 201.65 mph pass aboard his Elite
EBR and victorious 6.765-second pass to a 6.812.
“I was in the same situation in 2007, where I
had to win the race to win the championship,”
says Smith, a second-generation racer who now
owns three NHRA Pro Stock Motorcycle titles.
“We came out victorious then, and it was like
history was repeating itself, except this time it
was my birthday. It was a great day, but man,
we went through a lot to get here.”
Smith survived a broken air line in the first
round and had to battle back after the transmis-
sion broke as he crossed the finish line in round
two. In three of four race day rounds, though, he
displayed exemplary power with passes in excess
of 200 mph. To that point, no one in the history
of the category had ever made that many runs
over the 200-mph mark on any given day at a
national event.
“That’s a testament to my team and all the peo-
ple who work with us behind the scenes,” insists
Smith, who entered the Countdown as the No. 6
seed and made up ground quickly with four final
rounds in the six playoff events.
Smith, the 2007 and 2013 Pro Stock Motor-
cycle champ, did not qualify for the first race of
the season, but he went to the four-wide final in
Charlotte and then won Chicago two races later.
In Sonoma, he scored the Mickey Thompson Pro
Bike Battle trophy, and although it didn’t come
with additional points to add to his tally, it came
with a big boost of confidence.
“We’re having the time of our life right now.
The way the season started, we never would have
thought this could happen,” says Smith. “It was
just meant to be. It was supposed to be a story-
book ending.” – KELLY WADE
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DOUG RIESTERER TEXAS OUTLAW PRO MOD ASSOCIATION // JONAS ALESHIRE MID-WEST PRO MOD SERIES PRO MOD
Ja n u a r y 2 0 1 9
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