Anything less than a victory would have gone against any law of nature.
From the time Angie Smith beat the odds to end up on top of qualifying Friday at the NHRA Potomac Nationals, it seemed like more than a race report. With husband Matt Smith hospitalized with gallstones and still calling the team’s tuning shots from a hospital bed, a storyline began forming that transcended the usual drag racing tale of perseverance.
Then she held onto the No. 1 position Saturday and captured her first Mission #2Fast2Tasty Challenge victory. At that point, it became evident the weekend was headed toward one of two endings, a storybook finish or another painful chapter like the one she endured two weeks earlier in Chicago.
When Smith turned on the win light Sunday afternoon at Maryland International Raceway, becoming the 200th female professional winner in NHRA history, it felt less like coincidence and more like the conclusion to a weekend that seemed determined to make a statement.
The victory ended a drought approaching four years. It also delivered one of the most significant moments in recent Pro Stock Motorcycle history.
Smith defeated Ryan Oehler in the final round with a weekend-best 6.683-second pass at 201.52 mph aboard her Denso Auto Parts Buell. The win was her fourth career national event victory and completed a weekend where nearly every obstacle imaginable stood in her path.
Only days earlier, Matt Smith Racing wasn’t certain it would even compete.
Matt Smith was hospitalized Friday morning, leaving the operation responsible for four motorcycles without the person who normally oversees virtually every detail. Instead of packing up and accepting participation points, the team regrouped around its most experienced rider.
“I was just ecstatic because at 7 a.m. Friday, we were running zero bikes, we were taking the Tree and getting our 30 points and packing up and going home,” Smith said.
“At 10 a.m. Matt said, ‘We’re running all four bikes.’ And I go, ‘Well, how?’ And he goes, ‘I believe in you and you can do it.’ So that’s what we did and it was tough and it was not easy. And it’s one of those things when your team believes in you and your husband believes in you and he says that you can do it, then that’s what we did.”
For three days the entire Matt Smith Racing operation functioned without the man who normally orchestrates nearly every detail. The fact the team won at all was remarkable. The fact it won with Smith becoming the 200th female professional winner in NHRA history made it the kind of weekend people will remember long after the elapsed times are forgotten.
Smith qualified No. 1. She won Saturday’s specialty race. She then marched through eliminations Sunday by defeating Brayden Davis and Clayton Howey before closing the deal against Oehler.
The victory also erased the sting of Chicago.
Two weeks ago, Smith appeared headed toward victory before a mechanical issue on the starting line ended her day before it ever truly began. The disappointment lingered because her motorcycle had been one of the quickest in the category.
Maryland provided the answer.
This time the motorcycle stayed together, the rider never flinched, and the win light finally came on.
For generations, women have helped shape professional drag racing. Smith’s victory placed her name alongside those who built the path she now travels.
“It means everything,” Smith said. “From Erica to Shirley, to Angelle, to all of those ladies have paved the way for me to come out here and I get to call some of them my really good friends and that’s what means so much to me.”
“We have such a close relationship and I will always be the 200th, and that is very intriguing to me because you never know when you’re going to get another one and these things are hard to get and for me to be the 200th. Actually, I was watching on TV and I saw Jackie Fricke win. I was like, ‘Well, she won the 200th.’ I’m like, ‘Dang it.’ But it was the 200th for pros and I couldn’t be more happy and I’m glad I can represent the women of NHRA and NHRA.”
The remarkable part is Smith nearly missed the opportunity entirely.
Throughout the weekend she was balancing her own responsibilities while assuming many of the duties normally handled by her husband. The workload became overwhelming at times, especially considering the team fields four motorcycles.
She admitted there were fans she couldn’t spend time with because the operation demanded every available minute.
“Matt is a remarkable person for him to just navigate running four motorcycles, lining four people up, doing four different maps,” Smith said.
“Every map is different for our motorcycles. It’s not like he builds one map and loads it in all the bikes. Every map is different. So it was just a challenge and we as a team had to step up to the plate.”
“He does all the clutches. He sets all the switches for our clutch levers. He does so much that a lot of people, they don’t know,” Smith continued. “Not only was I doing my jobs, I was doing his jobs too. So I was a little overwhelmed.”
The victory carried additional significance because of where it happened.
Long before she became a national event winner in Pro Stock Motorcycle, Smith built a relationship with Maryland International Raceway competing in other forms of motorcycle racing. The facility, and many of its fans, already knew her long before NHRA brought a national event to the property.
“It is very special to come here,” Smith said. “I have made probably a hundred laps down this racetrack on an Outlaw Pro Street bike with nitrous. I have not made one single pass on this track on a Pro Stock bike.”
“To get it done here where I have had success here, it just means the world to me. The Miller family, they’re great friends of mine. Royce Miller said he was pulling for me because he’s known me since I was 19 years old.”
He reached his first final round in five years by defeating Chase Van Sant, reigning world champion Richard Gadson and Jianna Evaristo. The performance continued what has been a steady climb for a team showing signs of becoming a regular contender.
Smith’s focus, however, remained centered on something larger than points.
She admitted she rarely looks at the standings during a race weekend, preferring instead to focus on the task immediately in front of her. Even after learning she had moved within striking distance of the championship lead, her perspective remained unchanged.
“Yeah. Wow. I didn’t even know that,” Smith said when told she was within reach of the points lead.
“You know what? I’m just going to keep doing what I’m doing. I usually don’t look at points until kind of the Countdown starts. I never look at them during the race because it’ll play in your mind and you’ll start thinking about it.”
“I feel like our plan is already written and we just have to play it out and today’s one of those days where I think it was just meant to be.”
On a weekend when almost everything that could have gone wrong did, it was hard to find many people in Maryland willing to argue with her.
