Suzuki rider Smith qualifies fifth in Pomona

DON SCHUMACHER RACING
2009 NHRA FULL THROTTLE DRAG RACING SERIES
Round 5 of 5 in Countdown to 1 playoffs for Pro Stock Motorcycle class
Round 17 of 17 for season
45th annual AUTO CLUB NHRA FINALS
Auto Club Raceway at Pomona (Calif.)
Nov. 12-15, 2009

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

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

SUZUKI RIDER SMITH QUALIFIES FIFTH IN POMONA

POMONA, Calif. (Nov. 14, 2009) - Matt Smith rode the Nitro Fish Ultimate
Gear Suzuki Pro Stock Motorcycle into No. 5 in qualifying for the 45th
annual Auto Club NHRA Finals today, posting his quickest pass of 6.963
seconds at 192.30 mph earlier today.

His previous runs on Thursday and Friday produced a 25.174/66.14 (No. 21)
and 7.077/187.03 (No. 13).

Smith was on a stout run in his final attempt today until something broke on
the bike at the 1000-foot mark of a 1320-foot race track, resulting in a
7.126/163.29 lap, earning him the fifth spot.

He will face Jim Underahl in the opening round of Sunday's eliminations.

"We were on a pretty good run," Smith said of the last pass. "We finally got
our 60-foot (increment) around. We struggled with that all weekend. We've
been fighting the track just like a ton of people are. There's just not a
lot of grip up there. We've been having to adjust the bike to what the
track's telling us, and we've been making a lot of changes.

³(Crew chief) Steve Tartaglia has been doing an awesome job getting the
clutch and the tune-up right," added Smith, who is fourth in the point
standings and has a chance to move into third place to end the NHRA Full
Throttle Drag Racing Series season. "We made a good pass this morning with a
new motor in the bike and we went to the No. 3 spot. We saw a lot of
improvement. We felt like we could improve in that final pass, but something
happened, we don't know what yet.

"We'll get ready, we've got plenty of bullets here and Steve will tune it up
to go fast tomorrow."

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