Matt Smith rode the Nitro Fish Ultimate Gear Suzuki to his fourth straight semifinal appearance in
the Ringers Gloves Bike Battle, a special event held at the U.S. Nationals at Raceway Park in
Indianapolis.
At the same time during today's eliminations rounds, he qualified No. 3 in the Pro Stock Motorcycle
class for the U.S. Nationals after three of five qualifying sessions, posting a 6.968-second
elapsed time at 190.57 mph to win the opening round of the Battle against Karen Stoffer.
In his first pass on Friday, Smith recorded a 7.018/190.65 (No. 4). He then faced Hector Arana in
the semifinal round of the Battle (and the third qualifying pass), posting a solid 7.015/189.18,
which was disqualified for the bonus event because of a red-light start.
Two more rounds of qualifying on Sunday will determine the 16-bike field for Monday's eliminations.
"We go rounds and sometimes we get these little monkeys on our back, as we call them, and you just
can't get over that little hurdle. And it's those little hurdles that keep plaguing us," said
Smith. "We had a really good bike today. I feel like I let my team down by going up there and
turning the red light on.
"I look at it two ways: If I would've been really late, that would've been bad, but I was going for
it. I was trying to beat Hector. I knew he had the best bike out here and I tried, but I came up
-.008 red. It was really close. It could've gone either way. We're talking two centimeters of
rolling in (to the lights) different and it could've been .008 the other way.
"Our bike is just running fabulous. I had to try to push it because I wanted to win it. I wanted to
win for our Nitro Fish team and sometimes the rider just has to step up and do it when the other
bike has a couple of hundredths' advantage. I take all the blame, but we'll be back Monday and try
to win this thing. Monday is the big day. We want to win it. I've been to the finals here three
times and I've won it once, so we'll see if we can win it twice.
"We're happy, everyone is happy, that we're No. 3.
"I have my fiancee Angie McBride running this weekend for my personal team (Matt Smith Racing) and
she's doing a good job in the Buell. We're going to stick a better motor in it for tomorrow. I've
also got L.E. Tonglet riding for us and he's doing an awesome job. You've got to give the kid
credit. That's three times on the Buell and he's qualified fifth. We're going to try to get Angie
up there just as high as he is tomorrow." Angie is No. 13 after three sessions.
