Matt Smith confirmed to CompetitionPlus.com he plans on riding a Suzuki at all the NHRA Camping World Drag Racing Series races in 2023.

Smith has won three Pro Stock Motorcycle world championships in a row – six in his career – but the last three have primarily come with him aboard a Buell.

“I am supposed to be full-blown Suzuki,” Smith said. “I have not signed a contract yet. I have committed to it, and they have committed to me, so I'm just waiting for a contract to be signed. I have committed to Suzuki and Suzuki has committed to me. We're just waiting for the lawyers to draw the proper paperwork up and me to sign it. But that is the plan.”

Smith said he’s has his Suzuki game plan in order as the new season is set to begin March 9-12 at the Gatornationals in Gainesville, Fla.

“I'm going to start with the Suzuki I ran last year, and I am supposed to get the new Gen 3 body work and I'm hoping to debut that in Chicago,” Smith said.

The Route 66 NHRA Nationals presented by Peak Performance are May 19-21 in Chicago.

During Smith’s championship-winning 2022 season, he had four wins – three on Buell and one in Richmond, Va., on a Suzuki.

“We attempted to run (a Suzuki) at probably eight of (the races last year),” Smith said. “We were working through a lot of little bugs and some learning curve and stuff like that and when it came time for the Countdown in Indy, I just decided to just focus on the V-Twin, which I knew would run and run for the championship.”

Despite his three world championship seasons in a row, Smith believes getting aboard a Suzuki fulltime makes sense.

“It's the right move,” he said. “NHRA is really pushing for a Suzuki brand bike to win the championship. They're doing everything they can for the rules to do that (with the) weight so since they're doing that, I figured why not take advantage of that? And I maybe will be the one that can do it for them, so that's what my plan is.”

Although Smith is switching to a Suzuki, he said his wife, Angie is going to ride a V-twin Buell in the upcoming season.

“She's got total control of all the motors we have in our camp,” Matt said. “And the bike she won the last race on at the end of the year (in Pomona, Calif.), that's the bike she is going to run this year.”

 

 

Besides riding a Suzuki, Matt Smith has plenty to do prior to the Gatornationals.

“We're trying to get everything done for this first race,” he said. “Of course, the main thing is it's going to be me, Angie, and Jianna (Salinas-Evaristo) out of our camp this year. I'm going to have Chip (Ellis) run as well. Chip helped me a lot with some parts and pieces and developing and designing some stuff this year ... this winter, for a Suzuki bike and I just felt obligated to let him run the first race of the year. So, I committed to that for him. He's never been over 200 mph on a Pro Stock bike. So my goal is to get him over 200 on a Pro Stock bike.

“Basically Ron Tornow, I do his motors for him, and he's bought bikes from us, and his motor home is stuck underground up there right now in the mines in Pennsylvania, and he can't get it out in time, so we're going to run his bike out of my trailer (at the Gatornationals).

So, they don't have to winterize the stuff and they store all that stuff in there. Well, I guess with all the snow and stuff they've got lately, they're not opening that mine for a couple more weeks and his stuff is kind of stuck in there. We have had his V-Twin all winter. We put new body work on it and all that stuff and was updating his motors and stuff like that. We've had his bike, and he just doesn’t have the transportation to get there. I got a lot going on, but it won't be so bad after this first race.”

Matt said he and Evaristo will be on Suzukis and his wife, Ellis and Tornow will be aboard V-Twins in Gainesville.

Although Smith has six world titles and won 36 national events, he sees more to accomplish in the future.

“There's a lot of things,” Smith said. “I would love to get Jianna a win. I'd love to get Angie a championship. I would love to get seven championships for me. There's a lot of things on my plate that I would like to accomplish. But the main thing is this team MSR, if I can't win the championship, then I need Angie to win the championship. Our goal is to have one of us to win this championship this year. The V-Twin is really good, and we put some new ECUs on our V-Twin stuff over the winter, and I made a couple passes in testing and actually went the quickest ever on a V-Twin in history. We went in the 60s with it.

 

 

"We got some new stuff coming out. We got some fast stuff and hopefully I can make this Suzuki run just as good as our V-Twins.”

Smith said he will test in Orlando, Fla., March 6-7 and possibly the 8th. 

“I'm hoping to make two or three (passes),” Smith said. “I mean, I went 74 with my Suzuki when I already tested this year. It could have went 69 or 70 there. So, I'm pretty happy with it. (I want to) make one or two passes on the Suzuki, then I'm just focused on everybody else making runs.”

A year ago, at the Gators, Karen Stoffer won the race and clocked a 6.665-second time in her second-round win. Smith believes those type of numbers are possible again.

“I do. I mean, if there's a big tailwind and we have good air, then Karen's numbers can be broke,” Smith said. “But when we tested down there, I know Gaige (Herrera) went 69, I went 69. If we're in the 1200 to 1300 feet range of altitude and we have a slight tailwind, absolutely that record can fall.”

Setting a new PSM elapsed time record is something Smith would embrace.

“Well, all us racers, we want to go fast. And if you look at the majority of the racers, a lot of people come out and race at the fast racetracks, which I call sea level tracks,” he said. “You don't see a lot of people going to Denver because, oh wait, I don't want to go that slow. But there's records up there to beat. We went the first time in the 0’s, we were the first to go over 190 mph (in Denver). There are records that I broke last year up there. Eventually we're going to go in the 6s there at some point. It will probably be three or four more years, but that'll be another historic thing to do. There's always records to be broke everywhere and I'm just happy that I can still do this at my age.”

Smith has seen the ups and downs in his career, which began in 2003 in the PSM class. Now, he has strong financial backing and the ability to run his operation – Matt Smith Racing – at the highest level.

“It's very rewarding and we've won three straight championships and six total now,” Smith said. “I mean, when you have a sponsor like we have right now behind us in Denso; Denso who is committed to drag racing. And not only Denso, I mean we have Lucas Oil on board who is a huge partner of NHRA. And when you have people like that behind you, you don't have to worry about performing as much.”

Smith also knows nothing comes easy in the highly competitive PSM class. 

“Obviously you have challenges,” Smith said.

Smith, however, does take a lot of pride that he’s the reigning three-year king of the Pro Stock Motorcycle class – a class that includes the powerhouse Vance & Hines team that now runs Suzukis.

“Well, look at it like this,” Smith said. “I have a 5,000 square foot shop and I do all my own machine work and we build our own motors and all that. And there's only three of us here in our shop, me, Angie, and Nate. Vance & Hines has a 20,000 or 30,000 square foot shop and they have 18 to 24 employees and every CNC machine imaginable and we're still beating them. So, I'm just proud that we are able to do that, and we've got the technology here in our little town in King, North Carolina, and we're going to keep fighting that fight.”