Back For More: Tricky Rickie Reveals New Sponsor, New Pro Mod Camaro For 2022 Season|
Rickie Smith sent out ii sponsorship proposals to ii dissimilar companies less than two months ago, knowing full well information technology was late in the season to be trying to procure a sponsor for 2020.
Within only a few hours he got a response and, from there, information technology didn't take long for Strutmasters to commit to the Pro Modern legend.
He talked with Scrap Lofton on a Tuesday, was in their Roxboro, N.C. role two days later and had a sponsorship deal for 2022 signed, sealed and delivered only hours subsequently. Smith has enjoyed a career filled with championships and large-time support from quality sponsors, but never has a deal come together this quickly.
"I had no idea when I went down there I would come up out with a bargain," Smith said. "I left there with a signed bargain with everything washed. It's just awesome when yous tin come away with a new sponsor. It was so tardily in the twelvemonth, only it just came together. I'thou tickled to decease to work with Chip. He came in and helped, and it's merely a pretty awesome deal."
The good news doesn't stop there. Strutmasters.com volition exist the major sponsor on the side of Smith's new 2022 nitrous Camaro from Jerry Bickel Race Cars.
He just took commitment of the Musi Racing Engines-powered Camaro on Mon, revealing the car and new sponsor on Thursday at the PRI prove in Indianapolis.
The new Musi motor hasn't been on the dyno all the same and everything on the auto is brand new – including the sponsor – giving Smith, a 3-time NHRA Pro Mod gnaw plenty of enthusiasm heading into 2020.
After a tumultuous year, the longtime veteran feels reinvigorated and energized with the new season approaching.
"All of it puts a picayune life in yous. When a guy like (Flake) picks you up, information technology was absolutely a good boost for me," Smith said. "The new car is awesome. We inverse a few things on the chassis, but we're interested to run the car and go some laps on it."
Smith expects to test in Florida early adjacent year to get the nitrous Camaro set for the NHRA opener in Gainesville.
A year ago, Smith was preparing for his debut in a turbocharged Mustang, an experiment that quickly went off the rails.
He was back in the nitrous automobile past midseason, going on a solid run that included dorsum-to-back No. one qualifiers, 2 straight finals appearances and a win in St. Louis. But Smith also carve up with longtime teammate Khalid AlBalooshi and skipped the finale in Las Vegas, putting an finish to an arduousness-filled 2019.
At the tail end of the turbulent finish, though, Smith sewed up the bargain with Strutmasters.
He met with Lofton a week earlier the issue in Las Vegas, and was diddled abroad with how fast the deal was done. It was a brilliant spot to end the yr, assuring Smith he went about things in the correct mode.
"I emailed a couple proposals and inside 3-four hours, Fleck emailed back and said, 'I'm interested.' Nosotros texted back and forth and he asked when I was going to come up downwardly," Smith said. "I said I could be down at that place on Thursday, and a couple hours afterwards he said he would exercise the deal. I left in that location that day with everything done."
Smith was all the same partially in shock, but in Lofton'due south mind, information technology was an piece of cake decision.
"Growing upward in the Carolinas and being a Pro Stock fan and a Pro Mod fan, I never thought I could reach this place where I could sponsor him," Lofton told Competition Plus. "He lives to race and races to live. He'south been one of those guys that has figured out a way to do it."
It's left Smith, a xv-fourth dimension winner in NHRA Pro Modernistic, excited about the possibilities for 2020.
"Nosotros'll see what we can do, but information technology definitely sparked us," Smith said. "We're back to what we're used to doing."
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Source: https://dragillustrated.com/back-for-more-tricky-rickie-reveals-new-sponsor-new-pro-mod-camaro-for-2020-season/