Rickie Smith thought he was in big time trouble. He had just made what he thought was a strong run when an IHRA official walked up to his car and told him “they want to see you on the starting line.”
 
“What for?” Smith asked.
 
The official said nothing as he attached a towrope to Smith’s 1978 Mustang II and proceeded to tow him to the starting line. Every conceivable thought ran through his head as the ATV slowly churned its way up the return road in front of the crowd.
 
Smith gradually noticed the cheers of the crowd gathered at Rockingham Dragway for the 1980 IHRA U.S. Open Nationals. He surmised that he had done something “pretty good.”
 
What Smith didn’t know immediately is that he’d performed a feat that no other Pro Stock driver had been able to accomplish in national event-legal trim. Not even Bob Glidden, Bill Jenkins, Ronnie Sox, or Warren Johnson had pulled off what he did.
 

 

 

Rickie Smith thought he was in big time trouble. He had just made what he thought was a strong run when an IHRA official walked up to his car and told him “they want to see you on the starting line.”
 
“What for?” Smith asked.
 
The official said nothing as he attached a towrope to Smith’s 1978 Mustang II and proceeded to tow him to the starting line. Every conceivable thought ran through his head as the ATV slowly churned its way up the return road in front of the crowd.
 
Smith gradually noticed the cheers of the crowd gathered at Rockingham Dragway for the 1980 IHRA U.S. Open Nationals. He surmised that he had done something “pretty good.”
 
What Smith didn’t know immediately is that he’d performed a feat that no other Pro Stock driver had been able to accomplish in national event-legal trim. Not even Bob Glidden, Bill Jenkins, Ronnie Sox, or Warren Johnson had pulled off what he did.
 
Smith had posted a 7.99-second elapsed time, and that one run would forever make his name synonymous with mountain motor Pro Stock and put the class on the drag racing map.
 
Smith, already a two-time champion in sportsman drag racing, would go on to tack on another five titles as a Pro Stock driver (1982, 1986, 1987, 1988, and 1989). He is credited with 31 victories in 53 final rounds. Glidden is a distant second with 19 wins.
 
Saturday evening at Maryland International Raceway, Smith was officially declared the No. 1 IHRA mountain motor Pro Stock driver of all-time. Flanked by his wife Nancy, his daughter, and his crew, a teary-eyed Smith poured out his heart to an attentive crowd.
 
The normally vocal fans hung on Smith’s every word.
 
“I couldn’t have done this without Evan Knoll and his support,” Smith said. ‘I know my career is winding down and I only have a little while to do this, but I have to give credit to my wife Nancy and our kids, they are the real champions in my heart. This is a real honor for me, and you, the fans, also helped to make me what I am today.”

 

Smith has always been sentimental when it came to talking about his racing.
 
“I got out of high school and had a small football scholarship – I had been married four months and my wife was three months pregnant,” said Smith. “We have been married thirty six years now. When I went to driving bulldozers in construction with my grandfather, I only drove cars when I could find the time.
 
“But I worked many years to learn how to win and when I learned I just kept trying to do what I knew how to do the best. I only wanted to win. I was living my dream.”
 
Smith said his success came at the sacrifice of time spent with the family.
 
“I worked at it hard and lost a lot of time with my kids,” Smith said. “I gave up a lot of my personal time to win those championships. You don’t realize that until you get old and see what you gave up. I can’t say that I would have done it different even though I know better now. Some moments you’ll never get back in life.

“I just look back at all the stuff I ever did in my life. And when I get to the chapter in the mountain motor Pro Stock racing, I am blown away at the good fortunes that came my way. It’s more than you can ever imagine.

“I think we all have a purpose in life and for me it was mountain motor racing. The IHRA gave me a place to prove myself back in those early days. I can’t think of a better place for it to have started than in the IHRA. I was just glad that this was my destiny and the IHRA’s too. I guess we all got famous together.”
 
Earning this award was something Smith felt he was capable of, but felt there were others equally deserving of it.

“I figured I could be in the top five or top three,” Smith said. “You know I raced against some of the guys like Ronnie Sox and we had some memorable battles. Then Warren Johnson and I had some vicious starting-line staging battles. When you are honored alongside of people like that – it says a lot.”

Smith said if he could be granted one wish, it would be for the next generation of Pro Stock drivers to fully comprehend the magnitude of how tough it is to become a champion.

“I just hope some of the younger drivers see what we have been able to accomplish and it inspires them to do the same,” Smith said. “You can do this but it is tough. You won’t work ten hours and accomplish it. You’ll work nearly 24 hours. That is what it will take.

“I worked in the basement of my home until 2:30 in the morning many nights and then I’d get up at 5:30 and go to work. A lot of people didn’t see that. My kids didn’t see that. All that happened for a lot of years.”