Officially, Matt Smith won Sunday’s Auto Club Finals at Pomona, Calif., when money-round opponent Angelle Sampey had a foul start.

But maybe the biggest triumph of the day for the veteran racer from King, N.C., was his quarterfinal-round defeat of Harley-Davidson competitor and title contender Eddie Krawiec.

With Sampey eliminating Andrew Hines, the only other championship hopeful, in the previous pairing, Jerry Savoie claimed the crown. For Smith, he took glee in knowing he had prevented the Harley-Davidson racers from winning once again. Harley-Davidson is a keen rival for Victory, the manufacturer of Smith’s bike.

“To put Eddie Krawiec on the trailer and load him up and to tell him, ‘You know what? You can’t win the championship, because we just defeated you,’ that was big for us,” Smith said. “He has gotten me before when I was in the final round, and he beat me so we couldn’t get our first victory for Victory. Then we capitalized and won the race.”

Smith’s winning time and speed were 8.044 seconds and 117.34 mph. Sampey was two-hundredths of a second too quick at the starting line and wasted a 6.872, 195.87 effort.

Said Smith after scoring his first victory of the year, his 18th overall, and his second in this Mello Yello Drag Racing Series finale at Pomona, “We haven’t had the best season in the world. We’ve had a fast bike, but we’ve had a lot of electrical problems and transmission issues. We finally solved that about four races ago. It’s been good for us to be able to run as good as we have. The Lord was with us.

“I want to thank Victory for sticking by me and giving me this shot. To give them their first win in NHRA is huge,” he said. “I know we’ve got a couple of teammates next year going to be running Victory. I’m glad I had the chance to get it done first for them.”

Smith didn’t name names, but he said one male rider and one female rider will compete next season aboard Victory machines.

“I hope it’ll help me,” he said. “If they’re way faster than me, I’ll know I’m doing a lot wrong. If I’m faster, I’ll know I’m doing good.”

He ruled out technology sharing: “I’m not sharing nothin’ with them.”  

His prediction is that “I think we’ll be good next year off the bat. We have big plans for next year: got a new body coming, new motor coming. Hopefully you’ll see us a lot more next year.”      

Sampey was making her final start for Star Racing and longtime colleague George Bryce. She'll race with and serve as team manager for Cory Reed and their Team Liberty operation in 2017. Overall, the three-time champion said she was satisfied with her year-long performance as her comeback continued. She advanced to the final Sunday by beating Scotty Pollacheck, Andrew Hines, and Jerry Savoie.

“I beat the old World Champ second round and the new World Champ in the semis,” Sampey said. “I’m really proud of that. It was a good year, and I think it worked out well for everybody. I’m really happy we finished off the year this way. George and I shook hands and we’re leaving very happy with each other.”