Rickie Smith has seen a lot in a lifetime of drag racing, but the one thing that transpired on Sunday he didn’t see coming when he rolled through the gates at zMAX Dragway on Thursday. In fact, months ago, when he planned to run Competition Eliminator at the NHRA Four-Wide Nationals on an off-weekend, he had never thought it could happen in a million years.
Smith has been drag racing for a long time, but Sunday marked a million years.
“I can’t believe this is happening,” Smith said. “I came down here for Parkway Ford just to put on a show. I’m more excited doing this than racing Pro Modified. That’s badass racing, ya’ll.”
Smith was .028 on the tree to beat Joel Warren in the final. How impressive was this feat?
No. 1 Smith was running a full tree in a Pro Modified car.
No. 2, prior to this weekend, the last time he ran a five-tenths sportsman tree was in 1974 while racing the Maverick, which he would eventually use to dominate IHRA’s Super Modified division. The eliminator would eventually die because Smith won so much.
“God was holding my thumb,” Smith said.
Smith needed some divine intervention. He spotted Comp hitter David Billingsley by two seconds and gave up almost another .09 on the starting line.
Oh, his index took a beating as he stormed by for the win, running 5.907, 216.93 to catch Billingsley with room to spare. He went -.763 under, and while it wasn’t quite as severe as his qualifying -.906, it cost him some index for the second round.
“I knew I could beat him pretty bad, but I was way late,” Smith said. “I just said [to myself], ‘Buddy, you gotta do your deal.”
“I was lucky enough to stay focused. When you let someone go that far, you have to just watch your tree. When I get far enough out, I start looking for the car. He was already at the eighth mile, and I said, ‘There ain’t no way in hell I am going to catch him.”
“I caught him; I don’t know how.”
Smith caught a break, kinda-sorta, in the second round as he beat Lonnie Johnson’s C/Econo Altered. This time he used only -.577, and a 5.833 to run down Johnson. The win was a twofer, as his victory gave him a bye run in the final round.
His index took a hit, and Smith admits a big mistake he made was giving long-time right-hand man Chad Hester the weekend off. During the weekend, he had to pull the engine down twice and change transmissions between semis and finals.
If not for Greg Stanfield’s Rod Shop crewman Tim Sniveley, Smith might have been a goner.
The one time Smith didn’t get a CIC (Competition Index Control) was in the semi-finals when Smith eased down the track with a -.328, 6.01 run.
Smith’s index started at 6.67, but by the time he reached the final round, it had lowered to 6.34.
In the final round, Smith gave up a 2.76-second head start and only .007 on the starting line in the final, using a -.559, 5.781 to reel in Warren, who lost with a -.483, 8.617.
Smith has now won in five different categories in his Hall of Fame drag racing career, but this win at zMax dragway was likely one of his more interesting ones.
“We worked our butts off, for sure,” Smith surmised.
