A Texas Shootout

By Mickey Schultz
Photos by Ron Lewis
10/14/03

hird alternate Von Smith, driving the Roy Hill-owned, Liper Group Development-backed '03 Ford Mustang, took the win at the AMS Staff Leasing Pro Mod Challenge held at the Texas Motorplex.

Smith, who qualified No. 11, was inserted into the field when No. 7 qualifier Kirk Kuhns withdrew due to mechanical problems and the first and second alternates elected not to compete. Under the rules for the NHRA exhibition class, a driver who competes from an alternate position does not earn championship points for the DRO/NMM Pro Mod Cup.

En route to victory, Smith defeated Shannon Jenkins, Thomas Patterson and Rickie Smith. In defeating Rickie Smith in the final round, Von recorded a pass of 6.258 seconds at 229.29 mph to Rickie's 6.241/225.33

"From outhouse to penthouse. . .I know it's an old clichÈ, but it is us today," Smith said. "We had found our problem after the last qualifying session and were out of the field and getting ready to leave for testing. That's when they came to us and asked us if we wanted to run due to part breakage of one of the competitors."

Smith set low elapsed time and fastest speed of the weekend in the first round when he blazed the Texas Motorplex quarter-mile in 6.219 second at 230.34 mph.

Smith won the Alcohol Funny Car class one year ago at this event, but this was his first Pro Mod win.

With one race remaining on the NHRA AMS Staff Leasing Pro Mod Challenge, Fred Hahn still leads the points standings, with Mitch Stott in the No. 2 position and Tim McAmis third.

Neither Hahn nor Mitch Stott qualified for the Dallas event, with Hahn missing the cut by a mere four-thousandths of a second.

Stott discussed the DNQ. "I've always said that I am the luckiest guy in the most unlucky situations. It was unfortunate that we didn't qualify, but neither did Fred Hahn. So, we didn't lose any points to him. Lucky in an unlucky situation. It still leaves the point championship very much in our grasp," he said.