Matt Smith spoke on Saturday morning to CompetitionPlus.com regarding a fight which broke out in the Pro Stock Motorcycle pits Friday evening at Raceway Park in Englishtown, NJ, during the Toyota NHRA Summernationals.

“If you could call it a fight,” Smith said. “I never threw a punch, but I got hit three times.”

Smith said the incident started in the shutdown area following Friday’s final qualifying session. He alleges Arana Sr. “cussed his wife and teammate out for a seat I supposedly copied” while in the shutdown area.

The incident stemmed from what Arana’s publicist described as Smith’s purchase of a seat for Angie’s bike and then a copy was made without compensation.

Matt Smith spoke on Saturday morning to CompetitionPlus.com regarding a fight which broke out in the Pro Stock Motorcycle pits Friday evening at Raceway Park in Englishtown, NJ, during the Toyota NHRA Summernationals.

“If you could call it a fight,” Smith said. “I never threw a punch, but I got hit three times.”

Smith said the incident started in the shutdown area following Friday’s final qualifying session. He alleges Arana Sr. “cussed his wife and teammate out for a seat I supposedly copied” while in the shutdown area.

The incident stemmed from what Arana’s publicist described as Smith’s purchase of a seat for Angie’s bike and then a copy was made without compensation.

Smith described the purchase as a couple of inserts to go in the seats on both his bike and Angie’s. He also purchased one for John Hall.

“Angie liked it, and I put one on my bike but didn’t like the way it felt,” Smith explained. I made myself a different kind of seat. It comes up more and keeps me more up in the seat like I like. I made me one and John one because I figured he would like it better.”

The above seat is the unit purchased from Hector Arana Sr. The picture below shows Matt Smith's version of the seat which he said was made for comfort. Arana alleges Smith stole the design and he should be compensated.
Smith alleges Arana started the incident by talking to his wife the way he did. He said Hall also received the same verbal assault.

“He wasn’t a big enough man to come talk to me personally,” Smith continued. “Angie told him he needs to come talk to me. He just kept on cussing in front of everyone on the top end.”

Smith said he was at the scales when his wife conveyed the message.

“I got back and went over to the back of his pits and while standing at his ropes, I asked him to come out there. He comes back there, and I ask, ‘Hector, what’s the problem?” “He starts cussing me. He says, ‘You copied my f’ing seat. I said, ‘hold on, I didn’t copy anything. I bought two from you, I didn’t like the way it felt, so I made my own. It’s different.”

Smith said the seat must be the same design in order for it to fit on their bikes.

“I made mine different,” Smith explained. “He just kept on … ‘you f’ing copied my seat.”

Smith further explained he didn’t copy the seat and added his displeasure towards Arana’s choice of words towards his wife.

“I told him, don’t talk to her like that or we are going to have a problem,” Smith added. “He then told me he would talk to who he wanted how he wanted.”

Smith said he reasoned with Arana and said he wouldn’t talk to his wife in the same manner.

Smith said he was then “sucker punched” by an Arana crewman he described as “Dan”.

The NHRA issued a statement on Saturday morning which read, "An altercation occurred in the Pro Stock Motorcycle pit area on Friday evening. Dan Gonzalez, crew chief for Hector Arana Jr., has been suspended for the remainder of the event. NHRA will review the situation early next week to determine if further action will be taken."

Smith believes there should have never been an altercation.

“Now I am pissed because I just got hit,” Smith said. “My cousin had me by the arm because he knows I’m ready to fight. Someone grabbed my cousin. This wasn’t between the crews, it was me and Hector. We had our voices elevated, but there were no punches being thrown.”

Smith said he confronted Gonzalez. The crewman who was restraining Gonzalez  released him, Smith alleges he was struck twice by Gonzalez while still being restrained by his own crewmember.

“I went off, and by this time I’ve taken three shots to the head and it didn’t hurt me,” Smith said. “It shouldn’t have happened and if he’s that big of a coward to hit me … you just don’t fight at the race track. I had words and took it up like a man with Hector. If he wants to go a different way … fine. If we want to go outside the gate somewhere, I’d be glad to meet him. But, that’s not the way it should have gone down.”

The verbal volleys have gone on for over two years now between the two teams and in one instance; the two riders were backed off of the starting line by starter Mark Lyle because of a lengthy burndown.

“Yeah, there’s been bad blood but never nothing like this,” Smith said. “We say this, say that. When you look at the Pro Stock Bike community, it’s like a family. Me and Michael Phillips have had words, but then we’ll have drinks at the end of the day. You’ll have words, but it should never escalate to a fistfight. I was a big enough man to hold my arms down and not hit anyone.”

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