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Rickie Smith in a League All
His Own
PITTSBORO, N.C. (December 18, 2015): It started in 1976. Twenty-three year old
Rickie Smith had only been in racing two years when IHRA opened up a class
called Super Modified. The heads up nature of the class appealed to the young
North Carolina native, who had, by that time, been bitten by the racing bug.
Rules called for small block, single carburetor horsepower, what Smith calls
“miniature Pro Stocks”. Smith dominated the class in ‘76, winning his first
championship, just one of many to come. The following year, he not only
successfully defended his championship, but defended it so well that IHRA did
away with the class. He lost only two events all season and maintained a half a
tenth to a tenth above the rest of the field. He was untouchable.
Thirty-nine years and another eight championships later, it would seem Rickie
Smith is still untouchable, although in a different way. He’s now won three
championships in three years: back to back NHRA Pro Mod Championships in 2013
and 2014 as well as the 2015 PDRA Pro Nitrous World Championship. This is quite
a feat for anyone to accomplish, yet alone someone over the age of 60. Add to
that the fact that Smith drives his own rig to and from the track, does much of
the maintenance on his car in between rounds and makes all his own tuning calls
and it’s safe to say that Smith is in a league all his own.
“I don’t think people think much about what I’m doing because they’ve seen me
just do it and do it and do it, but there’s no one else doing what I’m doing on
a professional level [at my age],” Smith emphasized. “I’ve never had more than
three people on my team. The last few years it’s just been me and Chad [Hester].
I drive my own truck. I get to the race, I put the awning up with Chad. There’s
a lot of work in between rounds for two people to do. I have to make all my own
decisions. Chad does the clutch every round. I have to look out for the motor.
If something comes up with the rear end I have to jump back there and change the
rear end in the car by myself and check on the motor and then go back up next
round and try not be late on the tree.
“Since the day I started racing I’ve been able to keep that mindset to keep my
mind straight and calm and not make mistakes. That’s the whole deal about drag
racing: you can’t make mistakes. You’ve got to be almost like a robot in there.
In NASCAR you can blow a tire and hit the wall and still come back three hours
later and win the race. In drag racing it’s all over within four to seven
seconds. You make a two or three hundredths mistake and you’re going home. I
don't care what age you are, it’s hard to keep your mindset and fool with
hundredths of a second.”
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As a professional racer by trade, Smith is at the track as much as possible,
keeping his IDG-backed Camaro in the eyes of fans and fellow race teams. He ran
two series in 2015 for a total of 18 events. Despite missing the first event on
the PDRA tour this year, his success at the remaining eight stops was enough to
edge out PDRA frontrunner Tommy Franklin for the 2015 Pro Nitrous
Championship, with wins at the Spring Nationals, the North-South Shootout and
Dragstock, plus a runner up finish at the Mid-America Open and three semi-final
finishes throughout the season.
With as much success as Smith has had in his racing career, one might suspect
that a tenth championship would be just another trophy on the shelf. But this
one meant more to Smith, because for the first time, his entire family could
really enjoy it with him. Smith’s three children have all followed in his
footsteps. His only son, Matt Smith, has had great success in NHRA Pro Stock
Bike. His eldest daughter Amanda continued in racing through marriage to NASCAR
and Global Rallycross standout, Scott Speed and the youngest, Melissa, married
drag racing nitrous guru Brandon Switzer of Switzer Dynamics. Due to various
conflicts, Melissa wasn’t able to celebrate the 2013 and ‘14 NHRA Championships
with Smith.
“I’ve always had my family and my kids. It was tough the last couple of years
not having Melissa around. When I won my last two in the late 80s Melissa was
just born. She never got to enjoy those. I was able to pull off a couple of
championships here even at 60 and 62 years old and my daughter didn’t even get
to enjoy them with me. To be able to pull this championship off in the PDRA and
have her around to celebrate with me - that’s what it’s all about. Melissa
secretly planned with the PDRA to present the award to me on stage at the
banquet. It was a neat deal. Knowing that she’s never gotten to enjoy any
championship with me and then she got to be there and see this one and to see
how hard her dad is working to do this stuff, meant the world to me.”
The moment on stage with Smith and his daughter was an emotional one. Smith
accepted his award and spoke through tears during his speech. It was a touching
highlight of the PDRA World Championship Awards and a moment that will standout
in drag racing history for years to come.
“I want to say a big thank you to Chad Hester,” Smith added, highlighting his
sole crewman. “That guy has been with me five years now. You’ve got to have
somebody like him to work as hard as I work him. There’s not many people that’ll
do what Chad and I do. It’s hard to get young kids to work that hard anymore. I
appreciate him.
“I enjoyed running the PDRA this year,” Smith continued. “It’s a real nice
organization. It’s got real good people running it. There’s not as much politics
involved in it. You got good racers. It’s kind of like the old IHRA days in a
way. One of the biggest things is you get to run nitrous cars against nitrous
cars. In NHRA you’ve got turbos, blowers and nitrous. It’s really hard to try to
keep the rules where everybody is competitive. Nitrous is the lowest horsepower
cars out of the three over there. So they’re always having to knock [the blower
and turbo] cars back so we can run with them. It’s just a battle. I’m building a
turbo car right now that I’ll run some next year, but I kept one of my nitrous
cars. Just going to see how things go next year on the NHRA side to see what car
we end up with.”
Before Smith can get started on his own 2016 season, however, he first must take
his annual trip to the Middle East to help tune and setup cars within the
Arabian Drag Racing League. When he returns to the U.S. in late February, he’ll
head to Jerry Bickel’s to pick up his new turbo car and plans to test it in the
beginning of March. Smith’s primary sponsor, IDG - Industrial Distribution Group
- will be back again for the 2016 season, giving Smith the fuel he needs to
defend his Championship.
“IDG is under new ownership and I’m thankful that Lisa Mitchell, the new
President of IDG and Hagemeyer NA, has signed another contract with me. For them
to step up and continue supporting me really means a lot. I’m thankful to Lisa
and Joe with IDG for carrying me on into 2016. They’re actually getting more
involved in motorsports by providing MRO products and inventory management
expertise for motorsports teams and manufacturers. I’m glad they’re going to be
more involved in racing. It looks good right now. I just need to go out and do
my job and be competitive. I’m happy where I’m at and I’m going to keep going
along, but when IDG is done, I'm pretty much done. I’ve decided that when they
pull out that’s my sign to retire.”
Until then, however, Smith is determined to continuing giving his passion turned
profession his all. “I was Athlete of the Year my senior year in high school and
I’m just that type of person. If I'm going out there you can bet I’m going to be
200% trying to win the championship. If I die because I worked too hard under
the car then my wife knows I left here happy. I just still want to be with my
family and do something that I love to do.
“I don’t care if you’re 25 years old or if you’re 62 years old, you never know
when you’re going to win your next race or if you’ll even win another race. I
understand that because I’ve been through the ups and downs. Every race you win
anymore, you just gotta know that that might be the last one you ever win. And
if it is, that’s okay. I’ve won a tremendous amount of races and 10
championships now throughout my career. You can about put all the people on one
hand that have won that many professional championships. I just stop and think,
62 years old and I’m winning professional championships. The only other person I
know even doing anything like that is John Force.
“The Lord has blessed me in a lot of ways to let me keep winning and doing what
I’m doing. It’s pretty awesome for me to keep doing this at this age.”
The PDRA congratulates 2015 Pro Nitrous World Champion Rickie Smith and applauds
him on a legendary career.
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VIEW THE FULL EVENT PHOTO GALLERY "Awards Celebration" & "PDRA at PRI"
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.
Follow the PDRA:
Facebook,
Twitter,
Instagram,
YouTube.
Photo: Gary Rowe / PDRA660.com / RaceWorks.com
PRESS CONTACT: Lisa Collier
Professional Drag Racers
Association
lisa@pdra660.com
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