Sorry it has taken me so long to write in but I have been super busy. Anyway, we finally did it. We finally beat the girls. I didn’t know if it was ever going to happen, but it did. No matter how good or how fast you may be, sometimes a little luck is what you need.

After we broke the motor in the finals in Atlanta, we had all the parts shipped in to St. Louis, and we couldn’t have done it without S&S putting the cases and the crank together. We put the motor together on Thursday, so you never know if it is going to be just as good or not. It is always a little nerve-racking until you make a pass down the track, and since it rained all day Friday, I was somewhat nervous going into that Friday‘s night session. We ended up putting the motor we ran at Gainesville and Houston in on Friday’s night session just to see what it would do.

We put down a good number and ended up No. 1 going into Saturday. We were happy with the run, so we put in the motor we had put back together in for Saturday. We hoped to run another great number however that was not what we ended up doing. I forgot to take out the shift clip, and since the bike requires you to shift I could not get down the track.

Even though we were still number one, we were still waiting to see what that motor could do. We ended up being the second fastest bike of the last session and after coming back and evaluating the data, needless to say we could definitely improve a lot.

Being number one is somewhat stressful in that most people think it is a jinx on raceday. Hardly anyone ever wins from that position, however I was determined to make it happen. We went into first round facing off against Michael Phillips, who is normally stellar on the Tree. You never want to red-light or lose, especially in the first round and especially when you are number one. I knew I was late when I left the line, but I was hoping my bike could make up the difference and it did. We ended up low for the first round and from then on, I was on a mission.

I knew second round it was going to be now or never. We had Karen Stoffer, the points leader, and she had already beat us twice this year, so I knew this was it. She ended up going red and we ended up getting the win. Even though we didn’t run as good as we should have, we got the win light and that was all that mattered. We got back to the pits and realized that the valve core stem was loose and my rear tire was going flat, which in turn slowed us down a bunch.

After fixing that, it was time for the semi’s. Normally I have had my dad at every race this year, so we had some extra hands in the pits. In St. Louis though, we were thrashing every round to get back up to the line. It seems like there is less time in between rounds at each race. Anyway, we had Hector Arana and his Buell was running good. I knew I would have to be there with him on the Tree and I was. We ended up running a great 6.917 ET, which was the third quickest run in NHRA Pro Stock Motorcycle history and we were headed to the finals again.

This time I was not letting that Wally get away. I had Angelle and there is nobody better than Angelle. She cuts great lights and runs great numbers, but I was ready to take her out. She drilled me on the Tree, but my bike had not been cutting real great lights all day, so I was just concentrating on hitting my shift lights. I flew by her and saw the win light at the end of the track. I was going crazy. I finally did it; I took out the girls and got the Wally.

Heck, I didn’t even know what I had ran until I came around the corner. My chain came loose and tore up some of my body when I went through the lights, so I wasn’t even worried about my number at that time. All I wanted was that Wally.

Alan Reinhart came up to me and said, “Are you ready for the number?” And I was like, yeah. He said 6.901 ET, I thought holy cow this is the best day ever. I set the new national record. I picked up the most points ever at a race, and at St. Louis at that. I don’t think I had ever been that excited, and then Dave Connolly won. It was like, bring on the party!

Over the last few days it has really been sinking in that I am the points leader. No matter how long it lasts, I can always remember these moments. We are however, determined to make it last, just in case you were wondering.

I also went with dad this past Wednesday to Budds Creek, Md., for a Mountain Motor Shootout and he ended up runner-up, after losing to Robert Patrick. So the Smith luck is running strong right now.

The bikes have a few weeks off, so I am going to be working hard to make sure we stay at the top. My youngest sister, Melissa graduated this week from the University of Oklahoma, so even though I didn’t get to go I wanted to say Congrats!

I will check back in soon! Hope everyone had a great Mother’s Day!