Legend Rickie Smith Silences Haters With a Win After Controversial Weekend

There is no arguing that Rickie Smith is one of the greatest drag racers in the history of the sport, and there is no denying that Rickie will say exactly what he thinks. Well, over the weekend Rickie silenced his distractors by taking home yet another NHRA Pro Mod Wally.

Coming into the weekend at Brainerd, MN. Rickie was looking to continue his solid season in NHRA Pro Mod, a season in which has been rumored to be his final season behind the wheel before hanging up his driving shoes. The controversy came early in the weekend for Rickie when he decided not to partake in the DWagon shootout during qualifying for the event.

Rickie went on to say in an article on Comp Plus the following:

“Then they decided they were going to draw out of a hat? That's BS. I think it's wrong on NHRA's part to allow it because the money and everything has to come through them. For this to happen, they had to approve it. The rules were established, and they should have stayed that way. NHRA is just as much at fault for this as anyone."“

Obviously Rickie was not happy with the change, and understandably so if they were told that previous to the event that the format would be based on points. His absence in running the shootout was obvious to most on social media. E3xtreme Co-Founder Ellen Eschenbacher had posted Q1 results on her social media, and immediately people started bashing Rickie for being selfish, Old, and other not so pleasant things about him. It was like I was reading a post normally geared towards the no-prep crowd and they way that they decide to voice their displeasure regarding decisions that are made.

If you don’t know by now, you need not look any further than the two-part interview that I did with Rickie last year about how he feels regarding the state of drag racing and Pro Mod racing. Rickie doesn’t hold back and certainly isn’t worried about hurting people’s feelings. In fact, for those that think he spoke his mind regarding this situation only because he might be retiring at the end of the season, have obviously never spent a single minute with Rickie, watched an interview with Rickie, or read an article about Rickie. He has always spoken his mind, and the fact is, his is one of the rarities in the sport that will speak his mind, whether you like it or not.

Rickie Smith Warming the hides on his Mustang. Photo via NHRA

So what about the event itself? Well, a total of twelve Pro Mods qualified for the event in Brainerd. You didn’t read that wrong at all when I said twelve cars showed up. In the first round of eliminations Rickie took the tree to face off against Khalid AlBalooshi. Rickie took an .057 tree and lead the entire way, beating Khalid with a 5.765 at 250 to Khalid’s 7.84 at 108.

In the second round of eliminations it was a much different story though. Rickie had to cut the tree down against another Pro Mod legend, Mike Castellana. Tree drops and Rickie cracks off an .018 light to Mike’s .037 light. This is exactly what helped propel Rickie to the win, as Mike ran the quicker elapsed time of a 5.781 to Rickie’s slower 5.798 with a margin of victory that was only .0021 at the stripe, or approximately 9 inches separating the two.

The semi-final mach up was something that all Pro Mod fans look forward to. Rickie was set to take on another future legend of the sport and multiple time NHRA Pro Mod World Champion, Stevie Jackson. Sometimes luck is just on your side, and Rickie had lady luck with him for this matchup. An uncharacteristically terrible .085 light for Rickie and an .043 light for Stevie would normally spell trouble for Rickie, but something went away with Stevie’s car and it allowed Rickie to drive around him for the win. A 5.80 at 250 to Stevie’s coasting 6.87 at only 145 miles per hour.

In the finals, Rickie was going to get lane choice against Pro Mod Veteran Doug Winters. Doug had secured a bye to the finals after taking care of business earlier in the day versus Kris Thorne and J.R. Gray in E1 and E2 respectively. Again, Rickie has an atrocious reaction time this round. Doug absolutely destroyed Rickie on the tree. When the tree dropped, Doug left with an .027 reaction time, to Rickie’s .093 reaction time. Doug had him on the tree and to the 60’ mark before shaking and having to peddle the car. Doug was able to recover, but Rickie was able to make a clean pass at 5.79 and yet again 250 miles per hour to Doug’s 5.99 at 240 miles per hour.

With the win yesterday, it was the first Wally of the season for Rickie and the 17th NHRA Pro Mod Wally of his career. It also leaves Rickie and Kris Thorne leaps and bounds ahead of everyone else in the class points wise in the chase for the championship this season. With only four races left in the season, including Indy, Charlotte, St. Louis, and Dallas, it very well could come down to the final race at Ennis before a Champion can be crowned. Though with that said, it certainly didn’t take that long to shut all the haters on social media up once Rickie hoisted that Wally in Brainerd! I think it took them less time than it took Rickie to get down the track!