Charlotte: Matt Smith final report

SUZUKI RIDER SMITH'S CONCORD DAY ENDS IN FIRST ROUND

CONCORD, N.C. (Sept. 20, 2009) - Riding the Nitro Fish Suzuki Pro Stock Motorcycle for Don Schumacher Racing, Matt Smith, of nearby King, N.C., exited early today at the NHRA Carolina Nationals in his first-round match-up against Steve Johnson.

Johnson came out the victor with a 7.088-second pass at 186.02 mph to Smith's quicker but losing 7.072/184.95.

With the new points system in place for the Countdown to 1 playoffs for the top 10 in the rankings, which began at this event, Smith is now in sixth place.

"The only positive thing that came out of today is we didn't crash the bike and we didn't blow the motor up," said a disappointed Smith, who entered this event fourth in the standings. "Red-lighting just kills you and being late kills you, but it's part of our sport. It's so disappointing. And it's been a challenge to get the Suzuki to perform consistently.

"We're going to check to see if we can test here tomorrow," added Smith. "If we can, we'll test. We don't want to give up this championship just because we can't get the bike to run and I can't do my job. I need to work on the tree and Steve (Tartaglia, crew chief) needs to work on the bike. The only way to fix that is to test. That's what we're going to do."

Next up is the NHRA Fall Nationals at Texas Motorplex in Dallas, Sept. 25-27.

-credit: dsr