Victory’s Angie Smith thrilled with qualifying effort in Las Vegas

LAS VEGAS – The way Angie Smith and her Victory Motorcycle Gunner have performed in the NHRA Toyota Nationals this weekend at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, she’s ready to restart her 2016 season.

Smith matched her best qualifying effort of the season, and she’ll start final eliminations on Sunday from the No. 11 spot.

“I wish it was Gainesville,” Smith said, referring to the traditional season-opener. “I wish we could rewind this.”

Smith’s Gunner made a pass of 7.003 seconds at 187.29 mph in the third qualifying session for her best pass of the weekend.

“We made a great run in Q3,” Smith said. “We went 7.00 at only 187, and we really didn’t have anything to tune from, so that was our base. I think Q4 we were going to get after it a little harder but we didn’t because our cam sensor went out.

“But I’m just ecstatic to be in the show and qualified 11th. I’m really happy with it. My team has worked really hard all year, and it’s just now showing up, but I’ll take it now vs. later.”

Saturday’s performance came after a test here last week that showed season-long issues with Smith’s Gunner. A new fuel-injection system and a complete re-wiring of the bike fixed the problems, and she was excited for the race this weekend.

Smith will face No. 6 qualifier Hector Arana Sr. in the first round of eliminations Sunday. Arana’s best pass was 6.974 seconds at 192.06 mph.

Smith, though, was happy to be racing Arana, as her husband, Matt, was sitting in the No. 6 spot after Q3 before Matt moved up to No. 4 in the final session.

“Thank God we don’t have to race each other,” Angie Smith said. “Going into that round we were six and 11 and I was like, ‘This stinks.’ We’ve raced each other several times this year but some people shuffled and he actually improved, so all is good.”

Pro Stock eliminations start at noon, Sunday. FOX Sports 1 will broadcast the action live from 4-7 p.m., Sunday. (All times listed in ET).