winning in Las Vegas on the same weekend her husband clinched his fourth world title .

That year has only pushed Smith to want to accomplish more , both regarding wins but also having a strong influence on other aspiring females and young riders .

Are you excited about your place in the sport and the impact you currently have on females and younger racers ?

I like the chance to be a role model for people , not just children , but for people in general . I feel like , when people look up to you , it ’ s very heartwarming that they watch how you walk , they watch how you talk , and your interactions with kids . You ’ re always in the spotlight . So when people look up to you like that , it ’ s very heartwarming .

Of course , you were able to make history last year with the 200-mph run . What did that mean to you and , moving forward , how did that motivate you moving into 2021 ?

I think I ’ m riding better than I ever have . Last year was a very monumental year for my career , with going 200 and winning the final race of the year . Going 200 , it was almost indescribable , but I still talk about it and I still get tears in my eyes because that ’ s one of the things with our sport , where if you go out there and set the speed record , you go out there and set the ET record , those are all things that , with time , that are going to be broken . My name is forever in the history books of the Denso 200-MPH Club . It was the last milestone in motorcycle drag racing , in our lifetime .

So , I don ’ t think that year could ’ ve gotten any better , but I always set my goals higher than I did the previous year . So my goal this year is to finish better than I did last year . I have very big shoes to fill this year , but you have to put very big goals out there where it ’ s almost unattainable , but you can still see it to be able to dig deep and achieve them . DI

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