By nature, Clark Smiley’s GTO isn’t the kind of car, at first glance, you would expect to see in Competition Eliminator. 

But, on the contrary, the nature of Competition Eliminator is to provide refuge for the dozens of oddball combinations one can concoct in one's mind. Thanks to the Rooftec Division 4 Competition Eliminator bonus spearheaded by Rodger Brogdon, cars like Smiley’s gas-burning, 406 cubic inch Pontiac, topped with a 14.71 supercharger and others, are making their way regularly to NHRA divisional and national events. 

While it could also be written off as a novelty, Smiley’s blown entry has qualified No. 1 at two NHRA Division 4 events and, most recently, back-to-back final round appearances at the Tulsa double-header race. 

On the strength of his strong finishes, Smiley has vaulted himself into striking distance for the top ten of the Rooftec Comp Eliminator Bonus Fund top ten. With points-and-a-half awaiting him and the rest of the competition at the final event next month, Smiley is gunning to make the points run as furious as the top-end charge in his machine. 

Smily walks a fine line between racing his BB/Altered entry with an exclamation point and knowing when to do “just enough to win.” As he points out, it’s a fine combination of a tightrope act while playing checks. 

The balancing act became evident in Race 1 on Thursday as Smiley qualified No. 1 in the first event and secured the special WFO qualifying bonus. This race-within-a-race occurs during Rooftec Competition Eliminator qualifying at D4 events. 

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From there, he defeated Sean Dodd (who had a transmission issue and couldn’t make it to the line) and Cali Neff without hitting his index at all.

As Smiley roared up to the line for the third round of competition, he had to face none other than Brogdon. Because Brogdon runs a B/Altered Automatic, Smiley got a head start of a little over three-tenths of a second. He needed to cut a great light in order to stay ahead of Brogdon and managed to do just that. Unfortunately, he had to take a hit of .03 to his index to reach the finish line first. Brogdon took a hit, too, running .55 under his index trying to take Smiley down. Smiley’s biggest asset was the starting line in this win. 

“Having a bye into the finals was big for me,” said Smiley. “It gave us time to cool off the car. We could just take the green light and back out.”

In the semifinal round, Smiley watched as Kayla Mozeris took a hit of .08 to get around Jarrod Granier. In the final round, the two faced each other for the first time that weekend, although it wouldn’t be the last. Mozeris was just a tick too early on the tree, and Smiley took the win. 

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As fate would have it, Smiley ended up facing Mozeris in the final round of the second event as well. Mozeris took that trophy home, but Smiley was all smiles following a confidence-building weekend.

“I would’ve liked to have won both, but seeing her win her first Comp race, that was pretty neat,” said Smiley. “She was really happy down there, and I was happy for her. In that first race, she was .002 red, and in the second race, she was .003 green. That’s a fierce competitor right there.”

Smiley’s stellar performance catapulted him into the 14th position in the CEBF points standings, just 35 points out of tenth place.

“I don’t really think too much about the points. I just go to every race to win it. I just normally don’t do a very good job,” said Smiley with a laugh. “At our D4 races, if you win it, you are good. Because of the Comp Eliminator Bonus Fund, everybody’s there, and everyone is trying a little harder. Everyone is fast. They are all good. It makes it fun. It’s been neat to have so many people there. If you run at the beginning of the pack, you can be back to your trailer and can still hear what everybody else is doing. Same thing if you’re at the back. You don’t have to get in your car when the first pair is running. You can watch a few pairs run. I like it.”