Suzuki rider Smith soars to No. 4 in Texas qualifying

DON SCHUMACHER RACING
2009 NHRA FULL THROTTLE DRAG RACING SERIES
Round 2 of Countdown to 1 Playoffs (five in total for PSM class)
Round 14 of 17 for season - Pro Stock Motorcycle
NHRA FALL NATIONALS
Texas Motorplex
Ennis, Texas
Sept. 25-27, 2009

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Judy Stropus, 203-438-0501; cell 203-243-2438;
jstropus@earthlink.net

SUZUKI RIDER SMITH SOARS TO NO. 4 IN TEXAS QUALIFYING

ENNIS, Texas (Sept. 26, 2009) - Riding the Nitro Fish Ultimate Gear Suzuki
Pro Stock Motorcycle for Don Schumacher Racing, Matt Smith soared to the No.
4 spot in qualifying for the NHRA Fall Nationals today at Texas Motorplex,
earning two bonus points along the way.

Smith, sixth in the Countdown to 1 playoffs standings, benefited from NHRA's
new bonus points system for qualifying during the playoffs by posting the
second quickest pass of 6.944 seconds at 191.21 mph for No. 4 in the third
round today. In the final try, he posted another solid 6.989/192.14, keeping
himself in fourth place. Track temperatures between the two sessions varied
from 106 to 128 degrees.

His two attempts on Friday resulted in a 7.040/188.62 (No. 6) and a
7.003/190.11 (No. 6).

"It's been a while since we've had all these positives coming into
eliminations," said Smith. "We have the Nitro Fish Suzuki running really
good. Steve (Tartaglia, crew chief) and the guys have done a fantastic job.
We swapped motors last night. That was our plan coming into here.

"We wanted to run one motor on Friday and run another motor on Saturday and
pick the best one for Sunday. We haven't done that all year, and that's what
we did this time and, so far, it showed that it was the right thing to do.

"We were second and fourth quickest of the sessions today and we qualified
fourth. Were very happy, we're very excited and we're ready for tomorrow.

"Everything is good on this engine, and I think we will be in very good
shape. We ran 192 mph in that last round. We got a little too aggressive
with the clutch that time, it spun the tire, shook a little bit, and we lost
500ths (of a second) at the eight-mile from the previous pass, but we picked
up on the back. So, if we get both of them together tomorrow we're going to
be really fast."

Smith faces Junior Pippin in the first round of eliminations on Sunday.

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