Drag Illustrated Issue 117, January 2017 | Page 115

DRAG ILLUSTRATED ROUNDTABLE
PHOTOS : NHRA / NATIONAL DRAGSTER , REAL PRO MOD ASSOCIATION
RIDING A HIGH Decades of knowledge and a steady sponsor in IDG ( now Vallen ) have helped Rickie Smith become one of the most feared competitors in the world of nitrous-assisted Pro Modified racing . He ’ s won championships in four different sanctioning bodies over the course of his career .
amount of hours and the amount of testing that was done paid off . Hard work and passion and good sponsorship , it takes it all to do it .
RS : Anybody who ’ s grown up around me knows I refuse to lose . That ’ s my motto . It ’ s been tough sometimes , but I know when I ’ m not competitive I don ’ t have the money to run with these guys . That ’ s the reason I didn ’ t race off and on for years . The biggest thing is you need to have a little bit of money to compete with these guys . You can ’ t win championships if you ’ re not prepared , and that ’ s been my thing – trying to be prepared . When you give money to somebody good , you can ’ t fight money and good . You can fight money and bad .
I ’ m not saying I ’ ve dominated ( Pro Mod ), but I ’ ve done awfully good three out of the last four years winning a championship , but I got in a little bit of a money situation where I could find a sponsor and be competitive .
Every time I ’ ve had a little bit of a chance to do the program like I needed to do it , not the top of the line , not the middle of the line , basically the third or the fourth in the line , when I had the kind of decent money that I could go buy the parts , I ’ m not saying dominated , but I ’ ve been at the top of the pack every time I ’ ve been able to do that . That ’ s what has happened at the end
of my career . IDG has come along and given me this opportunity , and it ’ s been awesome .
Last question . When you have a certain number of things seemingly stacked against you , and you ’ ve got teams specifically coming after you and calling you out , how satisfying is it when you still come out on top ? JL : At some point in my life I ’ m going to look
“ Anybody who ’ s grown up around me knows I refuse to lose . That ’ s my motto ,” Smith said .
back and say it ’ s very satisfying . Right now , I ’ m busy looking to get better all the time and keep working so that I don ’ t have to worry about it . I don ’ t really stop and think about it ; it ’ s just not something that I do . But , you know , come on in , the water ’ s fine . This class is not for everybody , there ’ s no question about it . It takes a lot of work and a lot of effort , and you ’ re not going to ho-hum your way to the top , that ’ s for sure . It takes a lot of work . You can ’ t sit back and enjoy it for too long or you ’ re going to get crushed .
TC : It ’ s the best feeling in the world because it ’ s always fun to plot out a plan with your team members – the guys you work with on all this stuff – and see it come to fruition and be fast and winning races . There ’ s nothing better than that . That feeling , not only for me , but for my family and all the guys on the team , that ’ s a big feather in everyone ’ s cap . It ’ s the best feeling because you ’ re working so hard at this program and somebody comes up and kind of kicks you in the nuts , and you go back to work and come out swinging and you kick all the rest of them in the nuts . It ’ s a great feeling and that ’ s how it should be .
RS : Without a doubt , it ’ s awesome . That ’ s basically what I ’ m running on now . My body and my back , and my legs are telling me to get out of this deal . I ’ ll be 64 at the end of this year and it ’ s just been an awesome ride . I ’ m just tickled to death to be able to do this at my age . It ’ s just awesome that some of these people step up and help me out . They don ’ t have to do that , but I think a lot of them have seen that I have worked hard throughout my career to get here , and I ’ m riding a high right now . When it goes away , I ’ ll walk away . But it ’ s been awesome . DI
January 2017
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