Tricky Rickie Smith May Still Have a Few Tricks Up His Sleeve

‘Tricky” Rickie Smith has competed against and beat drag racing’s best and most successful Doorslammer racers ever, including Warren Johnson, Bob Glidden, Lee Shepherd, Fred Hahn and Ronnie Sox during his 30-year Doorslammer racing career.

As a driver, tuner and team owner, Tricky Rickie amassed a personal record winning championships and national events and setting records racing with the IHRA, NHRA, ADRL and PDRA that is unequaled in drag racing history.

His record throughout a 30-plus-year career is certainly impressive. The King, North Carolina racer has won championships on both the NHRA and IHRA circuits. As an IHRA sportsman racer he has two world titles (1976 and 1977) to his credit in the long-gone Super Modified class. He moved up to the IHRA Mountain Motor Pro Stock category, winning his first Pro Stock title in 1982 and then went on to win four straight championships between 1986-1989, and he has a U.S. Nationals win in Pro Mod on his résumé.

Since winning that last IHRA Pro Stock Championship he has gone back and forth between the NHRA and IHRA, racing in the Pro Stock and Pro Mod classes and proving to be equally adept at both 500-ci and Mountain Motor Pro Stock competition.

Smith has a pair of NHRA national event titles and a runner-ups in Pro Stock at the U.S. Nationals. He also won the first ever NHRA Pro Mod race, and most recently won back-to-back NHRA Pro Modified championships in 2013 and 2014. He also has multiple Pro Mod wins in the eighth-mile ADRL and PDRA circuits.

In his first year in an IHRA Pro Stocker (1979), Smith drove his Oak Ridge Boys-sponsored ’78 Mustang II with a 588-ci Jack Roush-built Ford engine to a 7.999 elapsed time during eliminations at the U.S. Open Nationals at Rockingham Dragway to become the first member of the Holley 7-Second Pro Stock Club.

Smith finished second in the IHRA world championship point standings in 1980, and was poised to win his first world championship in 1981 when he was sidelined by a serious crash. In 1982, however, Smith became the first Pro Stock driver to clock 180 mph while enroute to the IHRA World Championship. He claimed four consecutive IHRA world championships from 1986 through 1989. In 1992, Smith won his first NHRA Pro Stock title.

During his career, Smith, who is the father of NHRA Pro Stock Motorcycle racer Matt Smith, won 31 IHRA Pro Stock national event titles in 53 final rounds for a better than 600% winning record.

After sewing up his second NHRA Pro Mod World Championship during the 2014 NHRA national event at Gateway Motorsports Park near St. Louis, he held a press conference announcing his retirement, but he evidently couldn’t ignore the siren song of drag racing, and a short time after the 2014 season was over, he opted to return to drag racing with his sponsor for at least one more year.

“I had all intentions of retiring,” Smith said. “IDG [Industrial Distribution Group] talked me into staying, and I know they have talked about next year [2015], but I will not commit. I have not said anything to them. I just wanted to get through this year. I’m not going to say one way or the other right now, but I will say one thing: We won the first Pro Mod race NHRA ever had and it would be a heck of a time for me to walk away because I won my last race and the championship at the same time. It would just be perfect to go. I don’t know whether I am or not.”

The NHRA Pro Mods begin their 2015 10-event schedule in Gainesville, Florida at the Gatornationals in March, and Smith is pre-entered for that event.

Smith has a reputation as a great driver who is known to play mind games with his opponents on the starting line, which accounts for his nickname of Tricky Rickie. He’s acknowledged as one of the savviest clutch and suspension tuners in the sport. His ability to set up a race car chassis and clutch is so desired that a couple of years ago he actually had a couple of foreign potentates with race teams from rival Middle Eastern countries bidding for his services. For almost a decade, Smith has worked with members of the Al-Anabi Racing team that for years has been an absolute powerhouse, dominating Pro Mod racing in both the NHRA and PDRA series.

There are few Doorslammer racers in the history of the sport who have had a career as a dominant driver and as a chassis/clutch tuner for hire. There are even fewer racers who have had that kind of success as a team owner, tuner and driver, and Rickie Smith isn’t done yet.

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Musi’s Monster Mountain Motor

If Pat Musi wasn’t a household name among Pro Stock, Pro Mod and Pro Street racers before 2014, he certainly is now.

Musi has long been known as one of the leaders in developing EFI/nitrous oxide injection for Mountain Motor engines. In the last few years, he has added EFI 900-plus-ci engines to his menu, and as a result, has become a force in the drag racing niche that requires those huge engine combinations.

For the Pro Mod-type racer, Musi has both a 947-ci and a 903-ci EFI nitrous motor. The 903 EFI/nitrous combination is currently the engine of choice for two-time and defending NHRA Pro Mod champ Rickie Smith. Musi hasn’t been able to dyno his nitrous 903 engine with four stages of nitrous fully engaged on a dyno, but based on the speeds and E.T.s that Smith and others have recorded, Musi estimated the engine makes 2,800 hp and 2,300 ft-lbs of torque at 6,500 rpm.

Several other name racers, including PDRA star Jason Harris, have switched over to Musi’s 903 engine with great success. Harris had a dominating year in 2014, securing his first Pro Nitrous class championship.

When Drag Racer contacted Musi about his 903 engine he was driving a forklift in his Mooresville, North Carolina shop getting ready for a test session for his daughter Lizzy Musi, who is a PDRA Pro Nitrous competitor. He couldn’t spend much time with us, but he did say that as powerful as his 903 EFI motor was in 2014, he had been dyno testing throughout the winter, upgrading and improving defending NHRA Pro Mod champ Smith’s motor.

“We didn’t sit on our hands over the winter,” Musi said, “we found some more power and Rickie was pleased.”

Musi also hinted that with the new NHRA Top Sportsman and Top Dragster classes he will be developing a version of his 903 for those racers.

TECH INFO

• ENGINE SPECS AND COMPONENTS FOR MUSI 903:
• CN BILLET 5.300 BORE SPACING BLOCK SONNY BRYANT 5,750 STROKE 5.300 BORE SPACING CRANK
• MUSI/VENOLIA PISTONS PREPPED AND GAS PORTED 4.670 BORE GRP NITROUS ALUMINUM RODS MUSI TOOL STEEL WRIST PINS CLEVITE 77 H SERIES BEARINGS TOOL STEEL NITROUS RINGS
• MUSI SPECIAL BILLET ROLLER 70MM CAMSHAFT
• JESEL KEY WAY LIFTERS
• MUSI 5.300 BILLET WEDGE HEADS WITH OIL RESTRICTORS
• MANLEY TITANIUM VALVES MANLEY TITANIUM RETAINERS AND 10-DEGREE LOCKS
• PSI TRIPLE ROLLER SPRINGS 2.200 JESEL SHAFT ROCKER ARM SYSTEM JESEL BELT DRIVE
• COPPER HEAD GASKETS
• MUSI SHEET METAL INTAKE WITH FOUR TWO-BARREL THROTTLE BODIES EDELBROCK XTR EFI BOX
• FOUR EDELBROCK NITROUS SYSTEMS PLUMBED WATERMAN FUEL PUMP WELDON REGULATOR
• MANTON PUSHRODS WITH BRONZE TIPS MSD FRONT DRIVE DISTRIBUTOR
• DAILEY FIVE-STAGE DRY SUMP PUMP MOROSO TWO-PIECE PAN AND TANK STAR VACUUM PUMP
• ATI BALANCER MSD STARTER
• MUSI ENGRAVED SHEET METAL VALVE COVERS
• ASSEMBLED, DYNOED AND TUNED FOR NITROUS

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