Sun, 09 May 2021, 09:20 AM It's Always Been About Family for Rhonda Hartman-Smith

By Kelly Wade, WinLightNews.com Photo copyright 2021 Auto Imagery, Inc.

Megan Smith vs. Madison Payne

On Friday at Atlanta Dragway's final rendition of the Lucas Oil Southern Nationals, Rhonda Hartman-Smith lined up daughter Megan for her first-ever run at an NHRA national event. The 22-year-old followed her mother's direction from inside the cockpit of the family's A/Fuel dragster ahead of making her first run in the Top Alcohol Dragster category. Surely, she caught sight of her mother's joyful expression. It would have been difficult to miss.

"It's exciting, but it's also overwhelming and nerve-wracking," admitted Hartman-Smith, mom to both Megan and Dylan (15). She was on the other side of a similar scenario not so long ago.

Rhonda, Megan and John

"It's a totally different experience to be outside the car and have your daughter inside of it. But she's done an awesome job. Megan has been around the sport since she was a toddler - basically, since she was born."

Megan, Rhonda and Karen Photo by Kelly Wade

Virgil Hartman

Hartman-Smith, herself, was born into a racing family. Her mother is Karen and her father is Virgil Hartman, the esteemed car builder and tuner who immersed himself in the West Coast drag racing scene in the 1970s and began building everything from front-engine dragsters to back engine Funny Cars. As one would expect, the Hartman's children were both eager to find their way in the sport. Their son, Richard, first jumped into an Alcohol Funny Car as a teen and moved into a nitro car as soon as he could, and that made room for little sister to have her turn.

Richard Hartman

"I was always around the sport, working on my brother's racecars and racing as a family, and I knew it was something I wanted to do," she said. "My mom tried to get me to do dance and piano and cheer and all the girly stuff - and I did it - but I ended up racing. We laugh about it, but it was inevitable. I always looked up to my brother and thought I was going to follow in his footsteps."

The Southern California native took over her brother's spot in the Alcohol Funny Car and cut her teeth racing the West Coast in the California Independent Funny Car Association (CIFCA). She took a short tour in an A/Fuel dragster, but by the age of 19, Hartman-Smith was piloting a Top Fuel dragster in the IHRA, and the pleasantly ambitious young driver was clearly comfortable in the role.

Rhonda in Memphis.

Hartman-Smith became the youngest and the first female driver to win in the series with victories claimed at Alabama International Dragway and at Tulsa Raceway Park in 1994. She was the IHRA Rookie of the Year that season and went on to win her third national event at Darlington to end the year second in the 1995 Top Fuel standings.

She moved over to NHRA Top Fuel racing after that and was active until 1998, when she became pregnant with Megan. Hartman-Smith's racing was paused for a spell, but she came back to NHRA and raced full time for four years with sponsorship from Fram/Prestone.

Rhonda vs. John in Pomona.

Hartman-Smith's immediate comfort level in a car with such massive horsepower wasn't drawn solely from genetics. There was a top-to-bottom education before she was ever handed the reins of a racecar, and she and husband John "Bodie" Smith, a successful tuner and driver in his own right, have enforced the same structure with Megan.

"Part of the criteria before I could drive was that I had to learn everything from the ground up - from marketing to working on the car. I had to learn every piece," she recalled.

"John and I both come from racing families, and we've both done everything there is to do on the racecars themselves. We were confident [going to Atlanta] because Megan took the time to learn pretty much everything on the car. She also had to go to college, and once she graduated, she could go racing. She worked hard. It takes a lot of dedication and a lot of effort, but she's ate-up with racing."

Megan, Rhonda and John

Hard work is the name of the game in this tribe. Virgil brought the family and their business, Hartman Enterprises, to South Carolina in the early 1990s, and they still own and operate the plastic injection molding, manufacturing, and mold-making entity. Hartman-Smith's father-in-law, Paul Smith, is still actively tuning in the NHRA fuel ranks, as is husband John. Megan's A/Fuel dragster bears the branding of both Paul Smith Racing and Hartman Enterprises.

"It's taken a lot of work with both families pitching in to get the car done," said Hartman-Smith. "But from the beginning, I've always loved racing as a family."

Megan and Rhonda in driver intros in 2004.

Although son Dylan didn't take an early interest in driving a racecar, Hartman-Smith acknowledged that he's very technically inclined and more interested in the engineering side of things. Who knows what the future will hold, but it seems fairly accurate to envision the son of Rhonda Hartman-Smith and John Smith - a young man who also happens to be the grandson of respected crew chiefs Virgil Hartman and Paul Smith - involved heavily in drag racing somewhere down the line.

As for Megan, she's already expressed interest in one day having a two-car team with her mom as the second driver. Hartman-Smith, whose most recent event was the 2010 NHRA Four-Wide Nationals in Charlotte, smiled and nodded hearing this.

"We've talked some about it," she said. "But we're just trying to get a tune-up on [Megan's A/Fuel dragster] right now. I think if we can get this car running well, maybe that could happen. It would be fun, and I'd definitely love that opportunity. If it happens, I'm ready. But I want to see her succeed. That's my main goal."

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NHRA: 10 Most Recent Entries [ top ]

Nov 06- LAS VEGAS - Top Alcohol Funny Car Final, Round 4 Eliminations
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Nov 05- POMONA 2 - Event Preview
Nov 02- LAS VEGAS - Summary of Eliminations in Top Alcohol Funny Car
Nov 02- LAS VEGAS - Summary of Eliminations in Top Alcohol Dragster
Nov 02- LAS VEGAS - Summary of Eliminations in Competition Eliminator
Nov 02- LAS VEGAS - Summary of Eliminations in Super Stock
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