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SMITH PROOF THAT
DINOSAURS STILL
REIGN IN RACING
‘Tricky Rickie’
Aims for PDRA Title
in September Return
to Rockingham
ROCKINGHAM, N.C. –
The original
dinosaurs were the
earth’s dominant
terrestrial
vertebrates for 135
million years.
Rickie Smith’s reign
has been somewhat
shorter, but the man
considered drag
racing’s last real
dinosaur is no less
formidable a
presence in his
realm than T-Rex was
in his.
The 61-year-old
veteran from King,
N.C., is old school
in every sense. In
an era of
specialization,
“Tricky Rickie”
remains the
essential
Renaissance Man of
the Mechanical Age.
Forty years into one
of the most
remarkable careers
in motor racing,
Smith still is the
auto racing
equivalent of a
one-man band.
While rivals fly in
for events from
California to
Carolina, Smith
still drives his own
truck-and-trailer,
handles all the
set-up and
maintenance work on
his nitrous-boosted
Pro Modified and,
most importantly, on
any given weekend,
still provides
driving lessons to
his mostly younger
adversaries.
That’s why, when the
PDRA tour returns to
Rockingham Dragway
Sept. 10-12 for
Dragstock XII, Smith
will be vying for
yet another series
title. Outside of
John Force, no one
has won more major
drag racing
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championships than
Smith and while Force’s 16 titles all
came in the Funny Car class, Smith has
reigned over three distinctly
different disciplines.
After winning two
IHRA Super Modified
Championship and
five titles in the
IHRA’s Mountain
Motor Pro Stock
class, the former
high school football
standout and
wrestler turned his
attention to the
NHRA tour where he
has won the last two
Pro Modified
championships.
He can add a PDRA
title this week
simply by doing what
he usually does on
the quarter mile
track he considers
home – and that is
simply win.
Smith’s first
Rockingham win came
in 1977. He most
recent was a hole
shot victory over
reigning PDRA series
champion Jason
Harris of Pittsboro,
N.C., last April.
Although Smith’s
mechanical skills,
especially in
chassis set-up, have
kept him at the
forefront for more
than four decades,
it is his driving
that is the stuff of
legend.
“The first year I
went into Pro Stock,
we could run pretty
fast (but) I was
getting kind of wore
out,” Smith said.
“(The other drivers)
knew how to play it.
I had run Super
Modified and won two
championships but
when I went into the
pros, it was a
little bit meaner
crowd up there.
“Either I had to get
mean or get out,” he
said. “I figured
with my background
of high-school
football and
everything else, I
wasn’t about to lay
down. So I just got
mean with ‘em.”
Despite his
reputation, Smith
never has taken
success for granted.
He knows how much
work it requires and
he admits that he is
kind of surprised
himself that he
still is willing to
make the necessary
physical and
emotional commitment
every year.
“The last race you
win could be your
last one,” he said.
“It’s that tough.
Things have got to
line up for you. It
seems like out of
the four rounds,
you’ve got to get a
lucky round. There’s
a lot of
good-running cars
out there that
hardly ever win a
race.”
Smith’s IDG Camaro
obviously is not one
of them.
A Carolina racing
Hall of Fame member
and a legend among
Mountain Motor
aficionados, Smith
has toyed with
retirement the last
two seasons, ever
since he and son
Matt became the
first father-and-son
world champions
after prevailing in
2013 in the NHRA Pro
Modified and Pro
Stock Motorcycle
classes,
respectively.
In fact, in an
emotional moment
after clinching his
first NHRA title,
Smith officially
announced his
retirement,
eliciting a sigh of
relief from within
the category that
quickly turned to
anguish once the
Carolinian decided
he still had some
gas in his tank.
Indeed, since he
opted to focus on
the NHRA series in
2011, Smith has won
eight races, two
championships, never
finished lower than
fourth and posted
the quickest and
fastest quarter mile
numbers in history
for a nitrous car –
5.778 and 250.13
miles per hour at
Atlanta, Ga., in
2014.
Now, he has applied
that laser focus to
a PDRA series in
which he has gone to
the finals in three
of the last five
events to take over
the point lead, a
performance that
once again his
proven that in some
arenas, at least,
dinosaurs still
rule.
Photo: Gary Rowe /
PDRA660.com /
RaceWorks.com |
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