| September 20, 2023
Matt Smith has made it known that he’ll do almost anything to become the first NHRA Pro Stock Motorcycle racer to win seven championships, and he showed it at Maple Grove Raceway, in Mohnton, Pennsylvania, September 18, when he defeated his teammate, Chip Ellis in the final round.
By Kevin McKenna
Smith didn’t have the quickest bike, in fact, Ellis outran him by a lot in the final, but he had enough to get the job done. Smith ran a 6.807 in Monday’s rain-delayed final round to a 6.727 by Ellis, who was inexplicably late off the starting line.
Smith also knocked off Chris Bostick, Marc Ingwersen and teammate Jianna Evaristo to reach the final round and picked up his 38th career victory a round later. With five races remaining, Smith now holds a 17-point lead over Vance & Hines’ Suzuki’s Gaige Herrera.
“Today was exciting. We’ve won races on Monday before, and we pulled it off today,” Smith said. “All in all, we had a great weekend. Personally, my bike still isn’t the bike I need out here to win a seventh championship. We just have to get my bike better. My bike isn’t 60-footing the way it needs to. We know we have really good power, even though we qualified fourth, we’re still way behind.
“We’ve won six championships because we play our cards right and we’re smart and we do what we need to do. We brought a fourth bike [to this race] and that was our goal. When you don’t have the best stuff, you have to bring other stuff in to try to learn. All in all, that’s why we brought that bike to Reading and Chip knocked out some people that we needed him to knock out.”
Ellis, long known as one of the most technical riders in the class, was hired by Smith to ride his Buell bike during the six-race NHRA Countdown, the playoffs to determine season champions. Ellis did his part with wins over Cory Reed, Eddie Krawiec and GETTRX Buell’s Hector Arana Jr. to reach the final round.
Incoming points leader Herrera was nearly untouchable in qualifying with a 6.672-second elapsed time and a speed of 203.00 mph to lead the way, but his shot at the victory ended early when his bike slowed against Evaristo’s Scrappers Suzuki. Many had expected Herrera to waltz to the championship after he won seven of the first ten events, but Smith apparently has other ideas.
The Camping World NHRA Series will now head to zMax Dragway in Concord, North Carolina, for this weekend’s Carolina Nationals, and event that happens to be in Smith’s backyard.
ROUND ONE — Gaige Herrera, Suzuki, 6.695, 202.24 was unopposed; Angie Smith, 6.779, 199.46 def. John Hall, 6.866, 196.04; Eddie Krawiec, Suzuki, 6.743, 201.04 def. Kelly Clontz, Suzuki, 7.046, 186.74; Chip Ellis, 6.766, 197.83 def. Cory Reed, Suzuki, 6.948, 189.87; Hector Arana Jr, 6.745, 199.11 def. Ron Tornow, 7.024, 183.47; Marc Ingwersen, 6.881, 193.77 def. Chase Van Sant, Suzuki, 8.318, 104.02; Matt Smith, Suzuki, 6.807, 199.67 def. Chris Bostick, Foul – Red Light; Jianna Evaristo, Suzuki, 6.853, 197.22 def. Steve Johnson, Suzuki, 7.727, 125.45;
QUARTERFINALS — M. Smith, 6.793, 200.26 def. Ingwersen, Foul – Red Light; Arana Jr, 6.745, 200.62 def. A. Smith, 6.808, 199.02; Ellis, 6.738, 201.46 def. Krawiec, 6.771, 200.83; Evaristo, 6.894, 196.44 def. Herrera, 7.069, 194.07;
SEMIFINALS — Ellis, 6.801, 198.32 def. Arana Jr, Foul – Red Light; M. Smith, 6.856, 198.20 def. Evaristo, 6.890, 196.04;
FINAL — M. Smith, 6.807, 198.50 def. Ellis, 6.727, 199.37.
1. Matt Smith, 2,200; 2. Gaige Herrera, 2,183; 3. Hector Arana Jr, 2,156; 4. Eddie Krawiec, 2,116; 5. Angie Smith, 2,112; 6. Jianna Evaristo, 2,083; 7. Steve Johnson, 2,075; 8. Marc Ingwersen, 2,072; 9. Chase Van Sant, 2,067; 10. Kelly Clontz, 2,032.