Ten years ago, “Tricky” Rickie Smith added another championship to his robust résumé when he clinched the 2015 PDRA Pro Nitrous world championship. This season, the relentless North Carolina-based driver/tuner/owner is looking to become the next two-time world champion in the series’ 12-season history.
With backing from Jim and Annie Whiteley’s J&A Service and Junie Michael of Parkway Ford, Smith set out to run the full 2026 Red Line Oil PDRA Drag Racing Series schedule, which began in March at the KTR Carolina Nationals presented by Pee Dee Fleet at Darlington Dragway and continues this weekend at the Summit Racing Equipment East Coast Nationals presented by FuelTech at Darana Motorsports Park – Benson, NC.
Smith also plans to compete in the JBS Equipment NHRA Pro Mod Series presented by Elite Motorsports at next weekend’s NHRA Four-Wide Nationals at zMAX Dragway and the inaugural NHRA Nationals at The Rock at Rockingham Dragway in September.
When asked about his goals for the 2026 season with his Musi-powered J&A Service/Parkway Ford Mustang, Smith answered simply: “win races.” But when delving deeper into his aspirations for the year, Smith admits the next championship is always on his mind.
“When I’m running for the points somewhere, it just seems it’s more gratifying,” Smith said. “It just gives me more drive when I’m trying to run for a points chase, rather than just going in and picking a race here, picking a race there. So, I’d like to do good in PDRA this year.”
Smith ran a limited Pro Nitrous schedule in 2024, finishing 10th in points in four appearances, including a runner-up finish at Drag Wars at GALOT Motorsports Park (now Darana Motorsports Park – Benson, NC). Last season, he picked up a couple wins in IHRA Pro Nitrous competition.
At the 2026 PDRA season opener, Smith qualified fifth with a 3.669 E.T. at 206.52 mph and won first round with a 3.679 before losing to 2024 world champion Fredy Scriba in the quarterfinals. He’s confident he can improve on that this weekend at the East Coast Nationals.
“I struggled a little at Darlington in the first race and we found a problem,” Smith said. “I should have been minimum two hundredths quicker down there than I was, and I expected to be there and I didn’t, but I think I found that.”
Smith points out that his program differs significantly from the other top teams in Pro Nitrous, or really any other Pro Modified class at this point. He doesn’t have a paid tuner or large crew – it’s just Smith and a couple crew members. He has to work within a budget, which means he isn’t willing to lean on his equipment as hard as some of his competitors. It’s a mindset that’s served him well over the years.
“It’s a whole different way you race when you race for a living and put bread on your table and pay all your bills with that race car than it is when you come in and you’ve got a business to support everything you do,” Smith said. “You don’t have to win. You want to win, but it don’t mean whether your family gets to eat or you have a home to live in. But I’ve had to do this for going on 43 years – to win or be competitive where I can keep a sponsor.
“So I can’t afford to just put the motor on kill all the time, like about three or four of those top teams over there. I can’t,” Smith said. “But I still feel like I can run within a hundredth or a hundredth and a half of them, even when they do that. Sometimes it’s going to be decided on the starting line, whether I leave first or they leave first. That’s just the way you have to go race and I’m fine with that.”
With the nitrous combination essentially pushed out of multi-combination classes like NHRA Pro Mod and outlaw Pro Mod, PDRA Pro Nitrous provides a home for dedicated nitrous racers like Smith to race on a level playing field.
“It’s very important right now,” Smith said of Pro Nitrous. “PDRA right now is the only place we’ve got to really run one-on-one. If you get out-run, then you need to go back home and go to work. I appreciate Tommy [Franklin, PDRA co-owner] having a class for us. It’s an awesome deal for somebody like that to support Pro Nitrous.”
PDRA East Coast Nationals qualifying at Darana Motorsports Park – Benson, NC begins Friday with pro sessions at noon, 5 p.m., and 8:15 p.m. Eliminations will kick off Saturday at noon. Tune in to the official event livestream on www.FloRacing.com.
This story was originally published on April 16, 2026. 
