Reigning NHRA world champion Pro Stock Motorcycle pilot Matt Smith stole the spotlight at the Dodge Power Brokers U.S. Nationals Sept. 5.

Initially riding a Suzuki and then switching to his trusty Buell and won the U.S. Nationals for the second time in his career.

However, Smith wasn’t the only rider in his Matt Smith Racing camp turning heads. The other was Jianna Evaristo on her Pep Boys/Scrappers Racing Suzuki.

Evaristo, the daughter of Top Fuel driver/owner Mike Salinas, qualified in the No. 14 spot with a career-best 6.924-second elapsed time at 195.17 mph. She then rolled up in the staging lanes in round one and stunned Eddie Krawiec, a four-time world champ who was also aboard Suzuki.

Evaristo clocked a 6.952-second lap at 193.74 mph to defeat Krawiec’s 6.966-second pass at 194.07 mph.

Unfortunately, Evaristo’s day ended in the second round when she had a redlight start against Jerry Savoie.

The day for Evaristo was seen as a success – especially by Smith.

“Jianna, it has been a road to recovery for her,” Smith said. “After the crash in the offseason, that was a really, bad crash and a lot of people don’t know it, but she hit the ground really hard with her head and had a concussion for a while. It has been an ongoing thing just to get her back up to par. We have just been gradually, gradually feeding her some power back into this thing and she ran her top speed of her career her at Indy.”

Evaristo, who also got married during the 2022 NHRA season, made her season debut the Virginia Nationals at Virginia Motorsports Park in Richmond, May 13-15.

Evaristo is in her third season competing in NHRA’s PSM class and has one career Wally when she won the season-ending Auto Club NHRA Finals in November of 2019.

Evaristo has competed in 32 career NHRA Pro Stock Motorcycle national events and has seven career round wins.

“She’s going to be good,” Smith said of Evaristo. “We’re getting there. She’s doing way better and our goal for next year is to get her back to where she can finish in the Top 10. I told her this year (2022) is just testing for next year for you so you can be 100 percent ready. That’s our goal with her.”

Smith and Evaristo and the rest of the PSM class returns to the track at the Pep Boys Nationals Sept. 13-15 at Maple Grove Raceway in Reading, Pa.