Rickie Smith Keeps a Hands On Approach to Racing and Winning

PITTSBORO, N.C. May 14, 2015: Two decades ago it was commonplace for most Pro Mod champion drivers to drive their rig to the race, call the tuning shots, make many of the necessary changes in setup between rounds, tear down and drive home. Today, Pro Mod has risen to a new level of competition where many high profile teams consist of a fully staffed crew and a capable driver who has little to distract him or her from the main job of driving. For multi time Pro Mod Champion Rickie Smith, the job is as hands on today as during his first round of Championship accruing years in the ‘80s.

Smith doesn’t have a large crew. In fact, it’s just him and one other set of hands belonging to Chad Hester. Smith still drives his own rig to the track and tackles the pit work with Hester between rounds before suiting up again to take on the next opponent, round after round after round. It’s a combination he’s been using to race and win for many years.

“I drive my own truck,” Smith elaborated. “I do a lot of my own work. I like to see the drivers stay involved where the driver has to do some work. I am 61 years old and I still do a decent job on the tree for my age. But it’s not so much my age if I’m a couple hundredths late on the tree. It’s because I’m working so hard between rounds that when I get in that car I’m just give out. Many times between rounds, especially in NHRA, Chad’s got to cut the clutch and I have to change the rear end by myself. We’re trying to get all this done in an hour. So when I get back in the car, I’m totally wore out. You don’t see any, any, any drivers doing that.

That’s what I want some of my fans to understand. I’m doing a lot of work in between rounds sometime. There’s not hardly any drivers doing what I do. So if I get in the car and I'm a couple hundredths late, it’s not because I’m 61 years old. It’s because I’m plum exhausted from the work in between rounds.”

Smith hasn’t had problems turning on the win lights throughout the years, however. Most recently, Smith took his IDG-backed ‘69 Camaro to the winner’s circle at the PDRA Spring Nationals at Rockingham Dragway. While Smith has focused on the NHRA tour for the last few years, this PDRA event was less than two hours from his King, North Carolina home, and an open weekend in his schedule made the perfect opportunity for him to take on some of the top nitrous competitors in the country. After another decent showing at the Cajun Nationals a month later, Smith sits third in Pro Nitrous points and is looking to make a Championship run in both series. It seemed to be fate for Smith to attend PDRA events this season, as he explains:

“These last few races really worked out [with our travel schedule]. We ran Houston the week before Louisiana. Then I had to go to the trailer place to have my trailer worked on for two days. That was only an hour and a half from the track at Shreveport. So I said, ‘Shoot, we’re just going to stay and race.’ Now we’re up to third in the points. I go to Bickel’s and pick up a brand new car the Tuesday before the St. Louis race, so we’ll already be right there. So I told Chad we’re definitely going to run these races unless we get knocked way out of the points. My sponsor is in NHRA, but if we can keep running and have a chance to win the PDRA Championship then we’re going to keep running it.

“I like running the PDRA. The biggest thing is I like nitrous cars running against nitrous cars. This deal we got in NHRA, they can’t seem to keep the rules competitive. It seems like somebody’s always got an advantage. It’s a hassle all the time trying to outrun somebody that you don’t even know if you’re capable of outrunning. Four races in a row the turbo cars could outrun all of us by four or five hundredths. Why haven’t they changed the rules? It only took one race for them to change it on the nitrous cars. That’s what we’re all ticked off about. I just like running against somebody that I'm supposed to be running against - that if they outrun me then I need to go back to work.”

In the three events contested so far in PDRA’s sophomore season, Pro Nitrous has seen three different winners, a testament to the class’ parity.

Because Smith doesn’t have a large crew, he perhaps appreciates the support he does have more than most, pointing to his sponsor, Industrial Distributing Group (IDG), and Hester as keys to his success. “I wouldn’t be doing this without IDG. They are my main backer. Chad’s been with me going on five years now. It’s nobody but me and him. It’s a lot of work for both of us to do all this and run both of these deals. It’s hard to find somebody that will work that much, but Chad’s been a very good employee of mine for the last five years.

“Naturally you’d like to have more help, but then it costs more money and I still think that the driver needs to have a hand in what’s going on. I won a lot of my championships back in the 80s. I did a lot of my own work then. Warren Johnson did a lot of his own work. Bob Glidden did a lot of his own work. Lee Shepherd was the same way. You get up there and win and the driver gets all the glory. The driver really ain’t doing a lot of work anymore. I don’t like that. Some of these drivers need to work a little harder for what they get. To be able to hold that steering wheel and get the glory, you need to do a little work.

“I’m just glad I can still hold my own,” Smith continued. “It’s good racing. They play some games. I play some games. Sometimes it works in my favor and sometimes it doesn’t. That’s part of it. That’s the biggest thing I think you got to understand: you’re not going to win every time. You just have to go up there and do the best you can. When you’ve won nine championships, two in the last two years, you’ve got a target on your back as big as a tobacco barn. When you’ve got that target on you, all they want to do is go out there and beat Rickie Smith. I’m not bitching about it. I’m just saying I have to stay on my toes every round because everybody I run wants to have the best light and make their best run. That keeps me having to pay attention all the time. I’m just thankful that God has let me do what I do.”



ABOUT THE PDRA
Based in Pittsboro, North Carolina, the Professional Drag Racers Association is the top sanctioning body in the United States for the sport of eighth-mile drag racing. The PDRA’s professional categories include Pro Extreme, Pro Nitrous, Pro Boost, and Pro Extreme Motorcycle along with Top Sportsman, Top Dragster, Pro Jr. Dragster, and Top Jr. Dragster. The 2015 PDRA schedule consists of ten national events. For more on the world’s premier eighth mile drag racing organization visit www.pdra660.com.
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Photo: Gary Rowe / RaceWorks.com / PDRA660.com


PRESS CONTACT: Lisa Collier
Professional Drag Racers Association
lisa@pdra660.com