Veteran Pro Stock Motorcycle racer Matt Smith confirmed to CompetitionPlus.com Wednesday that Polaris will no longer be sponsoring him effective at the end of the 2017 season.

“I was notified by them the weekend of Brainerd (Minn., Aug. 17-20) to start looking for a new (primary) sponsor,” Smith said. “I don’t know if they are going to come back as a small associate sponsor for me and in NHRA, but I know they will not be a major sponsor for me and in the NHRA after this season.”

Smith has been backed by Polaris the past three seasons.

“We had a three-year deal with them and it has been great,” he said. “But, for somebody to just up and want to pull out is frustrating a little bit.”

Smith’s focus now is on the future.

“The approach for me is to just start trying to find a marketing partner that wants to come onboard for next year,” he said. “If somebody is looking at us, because we are a top five bike right now, we have a good program for somebody to get on board. It would be nice if somebody who is interested in next year to maybe work with us a little bit this year and put their name on there and get a relationship. Then, if they are happy we will continue to make it a full-blown deal for next year. We are just going to continue to look and search for sponsorship.”

Smith, the 2007 and 2013 NHRA PSM world champion, finished fifth in the regular season points standings and now heads into the six-race Countdown to the Championship – with the points reset – 50 points behind leader LE Tonglet. Smith has three runner-up finishes this season at Norwalk, Ohio, Denver and Sonoma, Calif.

The Countdown begins Sept. 15-17 win the Carolina Nationals in Charlotte.

Smith said he will continue to ride a Victory Mangum body and Victory engine-powered motorcycle in 2018 despite Polaris Industries announcing last Jan. 9, it was shutting down its unprofitable Victory Motorcycle brand. The Victory Motorcycle brand was founded in 1997.

“I’ve built a small arsenal right now of these Victory motors and we have six of them done and they are lasting and they are dependable,” Smith said.