As a seven-time IHRA national champion and multi-time NHRA national event winner, Rickie Smith is a legitimate doorslammer driving legend. Currently campaigning his Industrial Distribution Group (IDG)-backed 2012 Camaro on the 10-event NHRA Pro Mod tour, Smith scored his most recent win in that series’ season opener this spring over fellow nitrous driver Mike Castellana at the Gatornationals in Florida.

But this year he’s also racing his EFI-equipped, nitrous-boosted Chevy in the ADRL’s new “legal” Pro Mod class, which, unlike Pro Nitrous, is one of just three classes in the all-eighth-mile series that mandates minimum weights for driver and car combined.

“It’s good that they’ve got two nitrous classes because there are a lot of nitrous cars out there, but obviously, anyone that weighs over 210 pounds, it’s tough to get as light as some of those other guys,” said Smith, who hails from King, NC. “I mean, we’ve all got the same cars; anyone can go to Rick Jones or Jerry Bickel and buy a lightweight car, but not everybody can be a light driver.

“I would not be over here racing, period, if it wasn’t for that,” he added. “I’m not going to come over and give up a hundred pounds to somebody before we even start.”

Being able to race with the ADRL provides more than just extra seat time and opportunities to win, however, as Smith explained his ADRL outings provide valuable test data for his ongoing championship quest in the quarter-mile NHRA series.

“It definitely helps. The whole deal with these cars is getting it through low and second gear; once you get out of second gear it don’t matter where you are; you’re going down the race track,” he said. “We run the same gear combination and everything on the quarter mile or the eighth, but as far as getting the car out of low, everything’s the same until you get it into second gear and then you can start running the motor a tad harder.”

Also aiding the transition between the two series is similar track preparation equipment and techniques, Smith said.

“ADRL is doing a super nice job of keeping the tracks in good shape. Them and NHRA have got the same dragger (track grooming machine) now and that’s helped a bunch. They’re so similar now that you can pretty much just figure in the track temperature and your correction factor for the air and you’re going to be pretty much where you need to be everywhere, whether its NHRA or ADRL that’s dragged the track. It’s definitely a big deal to have that dragging machine at these tracks.”

About the only drawback Smith sees in running with the ADRL this year is that two of its 10 events coincide with dates on the NHRA Pro Mod schedule.

“My deal with IDG is for the NHRA, so of course that’s where my focus is, but I wish they (ADRL) hadn’t of done that because we would definitely have gone for the championship over here, too,” Smith said. “Mike (Castellana), he’s in the same boat; we’re both going to miss out on 250 bonus points for going to all the (ADRL) races, so that’ll probably take us out of the deal no matter what.”

Given Smith’s track record, though, the competition might not want to count him out of the running. After all, they don’t call him “Tricky Rickie” for nothing.

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