After competing in 187 NHRA national events in the Pro Stock Motorcycle races – No. 188 proved to be one to remember for Angie Smith.

Smith captured the first No. 1 qualifying position of her career with a 6.736-second elapsed time at 203.06 mph at the Sonoma (Calif.) Nationals Saturday.

After competing in 187 NHRA national events in the Pro Stock Motorcycle races – No. 188 proved to be one to remember for Angie Smith.

Smith captured the first No. 1 qualifying position of her career with a 6.736-second elapsed time at 203.06 mph at the Sonoma (Calif.) Nationals Saturday.

“Man, when they told me I went 6.73, actually the first comment out of my mouth was, ‘Matt's behind me. He's there behind me. So don't count him out yet,’ said Angie about her husband and reigning world champ. “6.73, 203 (mph), that's pretty awesome run out there. I didn't think that a 73 was out there. I thought maybe a 75 was out there. When I rounded the corner, they told me I was number one and I was ecstatic.

But like I said, I knew Matt was behind me. And then they told me I was number one. I always say, ‘There's no crying in drag racing,’ but the tears started flowing because you always dream of days like this. And when there's so many elite riders in our class being No. 1 qualifier is hard. I mean, winning a race is hard, but being No. 1 qualifier, out of three sessions, I think is even more tough than winning a race. And we did it. That's all I can say.”

Angie’s run was even more impressive considering her team led by Matt changed engines prior to the third qualifying session. She will receive a bye in the first round.

“I was upset because I didn't get to make the second round of qualifying,” Angie said. “We come back, we looked at, there wasn't any data. Scotty (Pollacheck) and Matt downloaded their runs, and then we were going to look at my bike and see what was going on. And then we tried to start it and it didn't start. So, we decided at 2:30 p.m. to do a motor swap. So, we did a motor swap in 30 minutes and hats off to my whole crew, because every single crew person on our team, even Matt, we were out there, we jumped in, and everybody had a role. We swapped engines in 30 minutes, started it up, warmed it up, and then we got up there. And when the scoreboard says 6.73, I think that's a good testament to our horsepower. Because I think every single motor that we have is really, really good. And this motor actually hasn't been in a motorcycle in two and a half years.”

Angie Smith, who made her Pro Stock Motorcycle debut in 2004 in Gainesville, Fla., was not counting the days when she would get a No. 1 qualifier spot.

“I'm not surprised that it hasn't come sooner because when you're married to a four-time champ, like Matt Smith I mean, he does the same thing over and over,” Angie said. “I mean, I can overlay a hundred runs on a race back computer and you can't tell the difference in any of them. There is so many elite riders in this class, you have to make a perfect run to be number one. And I would say that was a perfect run. The only thing that wasn't, I mean, it wasn't a bad thing, but my bike slipped out of gear at the finish line. My bike hit the rev limiter at the finish line, but other than that, I mean, it was a great run.”

With the No. 1 qualifier wait over. Angie was overcome with emotion when she put on the No. 1 qualifier hat at the top end of the track.

“The emotions came out,” she said. “And I always say, I always tell Matt, I've always said this to him, I don't like for him to be No. 1 qualifier, because it kind of puts the bullseye on your back and I think he races much better from (No.) 2 to 16. And now I'm sitting in the hot seat and I'm number one. My mentality (Sunday) is just to go out there and do the same thing that I did (Saturday).

“When they did put the yellow hat on me, yeah, I started crying and I kept saying, ‘There's no crying in drag racing, there's no crying in drag racing,’ but I couldn't hold my emotions back because I feel like you're in this sport long enough, you want to accomplish all the things that you do. And I think that was pretty much the last thing that I had not accomplished. I'd never been No. 1 quaklifier. I've won a race and I've done the other things, but I'd never been number one, so I think that's why the tears were flowing.”

With Angie starting from the No. 1 spot, Matt also had reason to celebrate. He was the No., 4 qualifier at 6.756 seconds, and he also set a new mph world record in the Pro Stock Motorcycle class at 205.04 mph

“Well, I mean, we kind of both do (get bragging rights), and it's kind of like, it goes back to when we were in Las Vegas last year, he won the (world) championship and I won the race,” Angie said. “We both had bragging rights on that day. So, I don't know if anybody knows this or not, and somebody probably needs to go tell Matt, but it's happy wife, happy life. When he figures that out, then we'll be doing really good.”