The rivalry between Pro Stock Motorcycle riders Michael Phillips and Matt Smith has blown up into an intense feud.

On Sunday, Phillips beat Smith in the second round of the Fram-Autolite NHRA Nationals. Following his win, Phillips’ feelings about Smith became apparent in an interview with NHRA announcer Al Reinhart.

“We’re out here just trying to go rounds,” Phillips said. “Matt’s got a little racial issue with me, but I’m not worried about it, he can’t get me out of my game.”

Allegation of racial prejudice and cheating take center stage in rivalry ...

 

The rivalry between Pro Stock Motorcycle riders Michael Phillips and Matt Smith has blown up into an intense feud.

On Sunday, Phillips beat Smith in the second round of the Fram-Autolite NHRA Nationals. Following his win, Phillips’ feelings about Smith became apparent in an interview with NHRA announcer Al Reinhart.

“We’re out here just trying to go rounds,” Phillips said. “Matt’s got a little racial issue with me, but I’m not worried about it, he can’t get me out of my game.”

When Smith was made aware of Phillips’ comments, he was puzzled, but not surprised.

“I don’t even know what he’s talking about because I didn’t say anything to him at all at Sonoma,” Smith said. “I think he might be referring back to Norwalk two weeks prior to that. We got into a heated discussion at the top end of the track after qualifying. He’s always throwing the race card out there all the time to whomever. Over the last five years, he’s gotten in four or five people’s face about everything. Nobody else has problems with anybody but him. He has been in argument with me, Hector (Arana), and last year it was Steve Tartaglia. It is just numerous people all the time with this guy. It is not one isolated incident.”

Smith says Phillips’ racial allegations are disappointing.

“I have customers (at Matt Smith Racing) who are black, I have Redell Harris, and he knows I’m not a racial person,” Smith said. “I’m friends with everybody in the world. I help anybody I can out there. I do not care what color they are or where they came from. Even overseas, the person who sponsors me is Sheikh Khalid. I’ve been so nice to all the people over there and I have been helping them out. I do not have a problem with anybody unless they’re not legit and he’s not legit. I will never call him a name, I just called him a cheater.”


Phillips also acknowledged the problems with he and Smith escalated during qualifying at the Fourth annual Summit Racing Equipment NHRA Nationals at Norwalk, Ohio, June 24-27.

Phillips competes on the Racers Edge Suzuki and Smith is on the Al-Anabi Racing Buell. Smith is second in the season point standings and Phillips is fourth. Phillips has won three races this season, including Sonoma last Sunday. Also at Infineon, Phillips defeated Eddie Krawiec in the semifinals, and Phillips set a new national speed record for Pro Stock Motorcycles at 197.65 mph on the run.

“We were in Ohio on a qualifying run, and I was bulldogging him all the way down the track,” Phillips said. “He was not going to outrun me. I was on at least another .85, .86 pass. Then, about 6.2 seconds into the run, my bike tried to roll over on me in fourth and fifth gear, and I hit the cone with the front tire. It went like a .95 at like 180 mph. Why would I want to throw away a run like that? But, I didn’t say anything (to him) that night.”

That next day, according to Phillips, the verbal battle with Smith began after the two had another qualifying run against each other.

“I got to the other end of the track and I got off the bike, and I told him you honestly think I tried to hit that cone (on Friday’s qualifying run), and throw away a good run, and he tells me, ‘you’re just going to confront me and ask me this (expletive). You’re showing your true (expletive) colors.’ I said, all right, what you mean I’m showing you my true colors,” Phillips said. “I said what are you’re trying to call me a (N***** N-word) on the slick and you’re not man enough to tell me and call me that to my face, is that what you’re trying to do? He said if a spade is a spade. It went off from there.”

According to Phillips, moments later the heated exchange turned into fighting words.

“I said we can both get off these motorcycles and walk outside this gate and handle this like men,” Phillips said. “He said, ‘nah let’s do it right here. Let’s do it right here. I told him, if I do it right here, I’m going to get thrown out, and he said ‘That’s right, I want your black ass away from here.’ I said oh, Ok so it’s like that. I told him, you’re nothing but a North Carolina redneck, and I tell you what I will catch you on the outside of this race track. One of the NHRA guys came over to me and told me to stay away from him and concentrate on what you’re doing, and that’s how that ended.”

Smith, when asked about the conversation, explained his version of the confrontation.

“We were talking about him cheating, I told him it was not right for you to be cheating out here like you’re doing,” Smith said. “I told him to his face that he was cheating and I know how much power he has because he buys his motors from Vance & Hines. There’s no way he can run that fast with that kind of speed. He says you’re calling me the N-word, he said N***** (N-word), and I said I’m not calling you that at all. You’re the one that’s ruining our sport because people out here cheating do not need to be in our sport. Everybody else I know out here is straight up. We all run pretty close, we all run close on the back half, and you just blow us all away. I’ve talked to the Vance & Hines people and they said there’s no way you can run that fast. Basically, I told him if you’re that smart, you would be building your own motors and not buying motors from Vance & Hines. I just think it is a bad deal for our class. There’s so many people working hard and now he has won three races this year that someone else should have won. He’s taking up a spot in the Countdown and he can’t run that fast being legal.”

The bad blood between Smith and Phillips simmered some more when the two met in the first round of eliminations at Norwalk.

“I went up there trying to race a guy fast,” Phillips said. “I let him do his burnout first and then I did my burnout and went to the line and put my light on. He was over there jacking around with his eye glasses and straightening his eye glasses up in his helmet. He’s playing pretty boy over there jacking off and stuff. I’m sitting there with the bike running and he didn’t come in. I’m sitting, I’m sitting, I’m sitting and I’m sitting. This jack off decides he wants to come in and when he goes in, I put my second light on. Then there that (expletive) goes again just sitting there. I sit there five almost six seconds. He got me on the tree and he beat me. If he would have just raced me fair, he knows what would have happened, but he had to play these (expletive) games, he wanted to play.”

Smith clocked a 7.047-second time at 189.90 mph to beat Phillips’ 7.057-second effort at 190.40 mph. Smith had a .014 reaction time, while Phillips was at .029 on the tree.    

Phillips says the origin of the rift between he and Smith started around two years ago.

“He (Smith) has been accusing me of cheating for about the last two years,” Phillips said. “But, he never was a man to come tell that to my face. If I have something to say about somebody, and I don’t like somebody, I’m going to let them know. I’m going to tell them, you’re either going to whoop me or I’m going to whoop you. Where I come from, I had to fight every day. Where he comes from, I know he (didn't) have to fight. If he wants to sit down like a man and do something with me, I’m willing and waiting for him. He keeps crying to the NHRA, I’m cheating, I’m cheating, I’m cheating. If you want to tear my bike apart, go ahead.”

This past weekend at Sonoma, Smith and Phillips were pitted across from each other, which didn’t help their situation.

“They (NHRA) parked us across from each other, and to be honest, I do not want to be around that boy,” Phillips said. “He’s going to mess around and get himself hurt, but I’m going to leave that alone because I feel I’m a better man than that.”

Phillips said he dedicated this season to his grandfather Henry Presley. Presley passed away in December of 2009.

“My grandfather is the one who got me started riding motorcycles and I’m going to stay 100 percent focused on what I have to do,” Phillips said.

Following the second round of qualifying at Sonoma, Phillips said his bike was put through a tech inspection.

“Danny Garcia (NHRA’s National Technical Director) told me to pull the bike into the inspection trailer,” Phillips. “He told me to take the fan off and the body off (my bike) and leave. I was like OK. Everything that was on the bike was supposed to be on that bike. They didn’t find nothing. They checked my bike for an hour or so, and then they (NHRA officials) gave me my bike back and told me everything was fine. I’ve been working with some other people with some other stuff, some NASCAR guys, including Kevin Hamlin. I’ve been working with them doing stuff to the bodies and other stuff like that, and (my) bike picked up when we started doing that stuff. When you get people with resources and they have some research and development on certain things, it is definitely going to show some horsepower.”

Phillips said Smith didn’t say anything directly to him during the Sonoma event, but it didn’t cool anything down for Phillips.

“The boy has no idea who he is messing with,” Phillips said. “If he really thinks he is that much of a rider, and he can out ride me, then me and him, all we have to do is take the wheelie bars off our bikes, and he can leave his hand clutch in his bike and I will leave the hand clutch in my bike, and I’m going to show him who the better man is. We’re going to have an NHRA legal (race). No nitrous, no nothing because he will probably try to do his little (expletive) he do with his cheating (expletive). You have to think about something, when you keep pointing the finger at somebody how many fingers do you have pointing back at yourself? You have three fingers pointing at yourself and you have one pointing at me. When you always have a person crying, that mean they can’t handle why they’re getting their (expletive) whooped. Why are they playing games? I’ve done got fed up. The people (NHRA) tore my bike apart and they ain’t found nothing. So what is it? What am I doing.”

Phillips says he has nothing to hide.

“I let the NHRA guys come in and look at my computer,” Phillips said. “That’s why my bike runs so well because of the RPMs I run. The RPMs I run, you will not find any of the other guys who run their bike that hard. I guarantee you that.”

Smith believes it is just a matter of time before Philips is caught cheating.

“It will catch up to him,” Smith said. “I have no proof he is doing it (cheating), but the numbers do not add up. When you don’t 60 foot great and then you out run everybody in the back half by a hundredth or two, it is just not feasible. I’ve talked to Terry Vance. I’ve talked to Andrew Hines. The Suzukis have a lot of power, but they do not have that much power to run 197.50 mph to a 245 back half, they can’t do it. Why is he the only one doing it, when all these other customers Vance & Hines has and they can’t do it. And, they have better 60 foots (times) than he does. The increment numbers do not add up at all. I hope they catch him. I want it stopped. I know what kind of power he’s got, and I’ve talked to too many people and there’s no way he can run that fast. I hope the NHRA does something about it and I hope they start checking a little bit more. Plain and simple, he needs to be caught. I have not got along with him in a year and I’ve kind of kept quiet, watching this stuff progress. He won one race last year and ran kind of good, but he didn’t really effect the championship. What he’s doing now, he’s going to effect the outcome of the championship this year. It is just not right. That’s kind of why I’m standing up and voicing my opinion. He can be mad at me all he wants, I’m just telling it like it is.”

Phillips doesn’t believe Smith’s claims have any merit.

“He (Smith) doesn’t know what the (expletive) he is talking about,” Phillips said. “I took Joe D’s (DeSantis) motor, that nobody knew about, and I went just as fast. Testing, I went 7 flat on Joe D’s bike and I pulled the bike in before the first set of mph lights and I went 7 flat at 190 mph. He doesn’t know what the (expletive) he is talking about.”