When the engine in Rickie Smith's GSA Pro Modified Camaro broke a rod during Saturday qualifying at the NHRA U.S. Nationals and the resulting concussion blew out the driver's side window and damaged the door frame, it was a bit of a trick to get everything situated in time for the first round of qualifying this morning. With some major help from the Jerry Bickel guys in St. Louis and veteran car painter/announcer Brian Olson, who made the all-night drive to get a new door and window, Smith made the call for the final qualifying session with a proper door in place, right down to the 'R. Smith' scripted on the window.

“We got down there and the guy said, 'You're not going to believe this, but I found a window with the right name on it, Rich Smith,'” said Olson. “It was a used window [that had been salvaged from] an accident, but it wasn't damaged. It was funny. I thought I would get it all off before we even started going, but Rickie said, 'No, leave it like it is.'

“My hats off to Jerry Bickel and those guys. Mike [shop foreman] is one of the greatest guys, and he was just proud as a peacock that everything turned out the way that it did. Rickie and his man changed the motor here last night as well, so everybody is running on empty right now.”

Smith explained, “We were just trying to run this thing too hard. It blew the scoop off, and then the concussion got in the cockpit and blew the window out and messed the door up. Nothing probably $10,000 won't fix. I've had explosions pretty bad before. It's just part of it.

“I knew we'd get it fixed because I have a hood scoop. But the door, we couldn't find anybody to go to Bickel's, but we got Brian Olson to ride all night to go pick this up. Him and Mike, they fixed this door, brought it back, and Brian did the finishing touches. Good thing we found somebody like Brian to do the legwork for us.”

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