Back in November, 12-time NHRA Pro Stock Bike winner Matt Smith arrived in Doha, Qatar, ready to ride for Al-Anabi Racing in the 2010-2011 Arabian Drag Racing League series. He headed home to North Carolina a month later with a freshly minted Pro Modified license in his pocket and an entirely new career path laid out before him.

The dramatic and unexpected turn from Pro Extreme Motorcycle to the ADRL’s premier four-wheeled class came for Smith after Al-Anabi’s Sheikh Khalid Al-Thani opted out of driving his Frank Manzo-tuned ’68 Camaro after just the first of eight scheduled races. Despite rampant rumors swirling about the Sheikh’s sudden departure from the driver’s seat of last year’s championship-winning ride, Smith says the decision resulted from several definable factors.

“I’m not speaking for him so don’t hold me to it, but it’s a lot of different things,” Smith suggests. “He’s got his country to run over there, he’s the head of security in Qatar, he’s got other businesses over there that he’s got to run; plus his back was hurting from driving.

Back in November, 12-time NHRA Pro Stock Bike winner Matt Smith arrived in Doha, Qatar, ready to ride for Al-Anabi Racing in the 2010-2011 Arabian Drag Racing League series. He headed home to North Carolina a month later with a freshly minted Pro Modified license in his pocket and an entirely new career path laid out before him.

The dramatic and unexpected turn from Pro Extreme Motorcycle to the ADRL’s premier four-wheeled class came for Smith after Al-Anabi’s Sheikh Khalid Al-Thani opted out of driving his Frank Manzo-tuned ’68 Camaro after just the first of eight scheduled races. Despite rampant rumors swirling about the Sheikh’s sudden departure from the driver’s seat of last year’s championship-winning ride, Smith says the decision resulted from several definable factors.

“I’m not speaking for him so don’t hold me to it, but it’s a lot of different things,” Smith suggests. “He’s got his country to run over there, he’s the head of security in Qatar, he’s got other businesses over there that he’s got to run; plus his back was hurting from driving.

“So all in all he’s taking a break, he’s going to get healthy again, get his businesses all back on the right path and going straight, and I think he’ll be back in the car, probably before we know it, and it might be a two-car team when he comes back. But right now he’s put me in to drive the car and Frank to crew chief and it’s really fun; I think we showed real quick that we’re gonna’ be pretty fast.”

Though definitely a surprise in Qatar, Smith says moving into the cars from the bikes has always been part of his long-term career planning and something he’s discussed several times with his father, famed Pro Mod and Pro Stock driver and tuner Rickie Smith, who currently races in the Arabian series for Al-Anabi’s rival Bahrain 1 team. However, with limited funds and “Tricky Rickie” still at the top of his game in the cockpit, there just hasn’t been room at Rickie Smith Racing for a second-generation driver; which makes his current situation a most-fortuitous opportunity, Smith figures.

“I am so honored to be in the position I’m in,” he stresses. “I mean, Frank Manzo is the Sportsman all-time winner in NHRA and it’s an honor to have him teach me and to have him as my crew chief, and then I have my dad that I can talk to and ask him about what I feel here or why is the car doing this? I’m in a win-win situation here because it’s all just a plus deal around me.”

So with the likes of his father, Manzo, reigning American Drag Racing League champ Frankie Taylor and 2010 Pro Extreme runner-up Joshua Hernandez looking on, Smith began his four-wheeled training at the Qatar Race Club with a few 60- and 330-foot squirts before making his first full eighth-mile pass of 3.88 seconds at just over 190 mph. That performance unleashed him for a stunning 3.63 at more than 209 mph to officially earn his Pro Modified competition license with the quickest and fastest license-qualifying effort in history.

Smith credits Manzo and his Al-Anabi teammates for getting him up to speed so fast.

“They put me through tire shake, put me through the car driving left, driving right, and I did everything positive and just like I was supposed to do, so they opened it up to see what I could do and it was an awesome deal,” he says. “On the 3.88 pass it felt kind of slow; I guess because on the bike you if you’re going 190 you can feel the wind and it makes it feel a lot faster than that. But when they turned it up and I went the 209 mile an hour, it was far more exciting and I could tell it was a lot faster than I’ve ever been on a bike.”

And now that he’s ready to race, Smith confirmed he’ll be entered in Pro Extreme for each of the remaining five races in the 2010-2011 Arabian racing season. After that, he expects to contend the entire 2011 American Pro Extreme schedule in an Al-Anabi Racing entry. Additionally, he said Manzo hopes he’ll continue working on the new Al-Anabi Pro Extreme Motorcycle program.

“I want to do both, but it’s all up to Khalid and what he wants me to do,” Smith says. “I guess when I get back there (in January) they’re supposed to have contracts and all that stuff, so maybe after I come back from the next set of races I’ll have the lowdown on everything. Right now I’m very proud to be representing Qatar and I just want to thank Sheikh Khalid for having the trust and the faith in me to do this for him.”

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