8/5/2025
Five Flags Speedway
Hard Work, Preparation, Determination Fueling Richie Smith’s Mods Winning Streak
By Chuck Corder
5flagsspeedway.com reporter
Richie Smith earned his stripes on the quarter-mile, bullring short tracks in Central Florida across 25 years of racing.
This season, though, the 48-year-old Modifieds driver has found a groove on the bigger tracks, including the famed half-mile asphalt oval of Five Flags Speedway.
Smith, the Hernando native, is on a blistering streak of five consecutive wins on mostly unfamiliar asphalt. His most recent victories came in late June at Five Flags and Mobile International Speedway, two tracks Smith had rarely competed on as a driver.
“It’s gratifying just knowing everything we do is in the right direction and making our cars better and faster,” Smith said.
He returns with the Modifieds of Mayhem this week to Pensacola’s high banks for the Michles & Booth Back 2 School Bash on Friday. The Mods (50 laps) will be joined by The Dock on Pensacola Beach Sportsmen (25), Lloyd’s Glass Pure Stocks (25) and the Story & Bleich Roofing Crown Stocks (25), who will also compete in a 10-lap non-winners’ feature.
They will all serve as appetizers ahead of Friday’s pièce de resistance: Five Flags’ annual Demolition Derby.
Gates open at 5 p.m. Friday; qualifying begins at 6:15; and the opening green flag will drop at approximately 8. Admission is $10 for all fans except children ages 6 to 11 ($5) and 5-and-under, who get in free.
Smith got his racing career started, fighting for checkered flags in local divisions at Auburndale Speedway, Citrus County Speedway, 4-17 Southern Speedway in Punta Gorda and other iconic tracks across Central Florida. About a decade ago, he found his love for the Modifieds and the rest is history.
“There’s nothing given to you with these machines,” Smith said. “You’ve got a bunch of horsepower with no tires, and that forces you to drive the heck outta them.”
He’s had successful runs like the one he’s currently enjoying, but he’s not taking anything for granted.
“I just try to take it race-by-race,” Smith said. “You never know what may happen.”
What has happened thus far in 2025 has others taking notice. After finishing a respectable fourth at the Mods running of the Rattler in March, Smith strung together a pair of sweeps at New Smyrna and Auburndale to get his season revved up.
He sandwiched a runner-up finish around some more wins all leading to his Gulf Coast trip at the end of June.
“I don’t have a lotta experience (in Pensacola),” Smith said. “One of the last times I came to Five Flags, I wrecked. So it was really special to go outta town and get some wins. It was definitely a special weekend. Those don’t happen as often as I would like.”
He has gained invaluable knowledge thanks to his mentorship and working alongside Cody Stickler, the four-time defending Mods Snowball Derby champion who seems to win wherever he goes. Stickler even drove for Smith, with Stickler wheeling the Smith-owned Mods to a Pensacola feature win during the regular season a few years ago.
They both work out of the RRD Racing shop in Bradenton where Johnny Sarppraicone helps build the chassis of Mods and other short-track cars.
“I do my own work,” Smith said. “But we struggled at the beginning with this car and ended up redoing a bunch of stuff. We went to (RRD Racing) and tested it, and it was really good. Johnny and all the guys have made me better as I’ve focused on half-mile tracks.”
Smith and his Mods machine have been nearly perfect this season. He has spent a long, distinguished career winning races in Central Florida. Smith is ecstatic that his pursuit of wins outside of his native tracks are coming to fruition.
“I like to win,” he said. “We work hard and make sure our stuff is prepared.”
