Q&A With Matt & Angie Smith

Affliction got the chance to talk with Matt and Angie Smith before a big race. 

When you’re pulling up to the line, what goes through your mind just before hitting the throttle?

Angie:  You have to do your job.  You have to have a good reaction time, and you usually replay the whole run in your mind before you even to a burn out heading up to the line.  When you’re up there at the line, you have to be focused on cutting a good light and going straight and doing the very best you can on that run.

What do you eat before you race?

Angie:  Nothing! [laughs] The first round I don’t eat anything!  Your nerves and adrenaline just take over and you don’t want to eat.  Once you win or lose it hits you and you’re ready to eat.

What do you eat in celebration after the race?

Angie:  Wherever we are going to eat dinner!  I usually like to get a big steak after a race.

Matt:  Me too. I like getting steak after racing, but I will also nibble on a Reese’s Cup or Kit Kat before the race.

Do you have any rituals the night before a race?

Matt:  Normally, before the race, we are servicing all the bikes and getting them ready for the next day.  It’s a lot of maintenance, checking, and making sure nothing is going to blow up.

We saw that you are both very hands on in the pit- is working on your own bike kind of like ‘packing your own parachute’?

Angie:  Yeah, it kind of is.  I’ve had to learn all the mechanics and logistics over the last five years.  I’m very grateful for being able to do that because I can give him [Matt] as a crew chief more feed back than the computers are showing us.

So does it get heated in the pit when you’re telling him what to do?

Angie:  [Laughs] It can get heated.  It has been pretty good this year [laughs].

Matt:  Yeah, it can be- like Angie said, there have been seasons where we’ve been at each others throats, but other than that we’ve had a good year.