Quarterfinal finish for Matt Smith at Denver

A perfect reaction time Sunday against Hector Arana helped propel Matt Smith to a first-round Pro Stock Motorcycle victory in the Mopar Mile-High Nationals at Bandimere Speedway.

The hard-to-get .000-second reaction gave Smith a good lead and Arana couldn’t catch up. Smith, driving the Al-Anabi Racing V-Twin, got the win light 1320 feet later in 7.326 seconds, 180.69 mph to Arana’s .078, 7.353 at 181.25.

But Smith wasn’t able to get past Michael Phillips in the quarterfinal round, Phillips stopping the timer with a 7.300 at 181.37 to Smith’s 7.344 at 179.42.

One more regular-season race remains for Smith’s team – at Brainerd, Minn., Aug. 13-15 – before he joins nine other drivers in the Countdown to 1 playoffs.