Drag Illustrated Issue 151, December 2019 | Page 112

30 UNDER 30 / 2019
WILL SMITH
■ BY THE TIME Will Smith was 2 years old, he knew he wanted
to drive a Top Fuel Dragster. He’s been working towards that goal ever
since, first using good grades to get his parents to buy him a Jr. Dragster.
The Alabama native skipped his senior trip in high school and cleaned
out his bank account to get his Super Comp license at Frank Hawley’s
Drag Racing School.
Smith realized driving ability alone isn’t enough to succeed in the
sport, so he’s also learned the business of drag racing. He went to work
on Steve Johnson’s NHRA Pro Stock Motorcycle team when he was 14.
He spent several years as the team manager for Mike Castellana and
Shannon Jenkins’ Awesome Motorsports Pro Mod team, later adding
the Speedtech Nitrous marketing manager position to his resume. That
led to his current role as the PDRA’s marketing director.
“My goal was always to be as well-rounded as possible,” Smith, 29,
says. “I might not know everything about one thing, but I want to know
a lot about a lot of stuff. I felt like that would help separate me apart
from other people years down the road.”
Smith hasn’t forgotten about his driving aspirations, though. He
bracket-raced the family’s Monza at local events in his early-to-mid-
20s, then put together a deal with longtime friend Dave Hirata to drive
the Hirata Motorsports A/Fuel dragster last season. He qualified in his
national event debut at Chicago and raced to runner-up finishes at the
Norwalk regional race and national event this year. Smith also reached
the semifinals at the prestigious U.S. Nationals, a surreal moment that
made him sit back and look at how far he’s gone.
“To wake up and say that I work full time for the PDRA and the Franklin
family and I drive one of the baddest nitro-burning A/Fuel dragsters in
the country for the famed Hirata Motorsports team...life’s pretty good,”
Smith says. “I’m just very fortunate to have the opportunity to work for
those groups of people.”
Smith’s dream of racing Top Fuel that once seemed far off isn’t so
unrealistic now. But Smith’s goals aren’t limited to his own personal
racing endeavors. He wants to pay it forward and help the next gener-
ation of dreamers.
“I want to find a kid one day that’s like me and educate them, teach
them along the way and help them achieve their goal of racing profes-
sionally,” Smith says. “If I can do that and say that I’ve done that 20
years from now, I think my life will be complete because I’m so appre-
ciative of the people who did that for me. Without them, this wouldn’t
be possible.” – N AT E VA N WAG N DI
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KYLE CULTRERA
■ “MINE IS A TALE of two careers,” says Kyle Cultrera, who celebrated
his 29th birthday this past March.
Cultrera was an NHRA racer first. He experienced success in the Lucas
Oil Drag Racing Series, including double Division 1 championships in
2013 and national event wins.
In recent years, though, Cultrera branched off into more concentrated
bracket racing, and when he swooped in and won the $20,000 Warm Up
at the SFG 500 this past June, he caught a lot of attention.
“That was a pretty big deal for me,” says Eliot, Maine, native Cultrera.
“It was in my sister Lauren’s car, and there were so many people there.
There were 660 entries on the first day. Winning that was pretty good
for a guy from Maine.”
His success in multiple drag racing arenas comes down to one simple
factor, he believes.
“I think it’s just about consistency,” says Cultrera, who works alongside
his father, Steve, selling racing fuel through Eastern VP. He also plows
in the winter and maintains municipality properties in the summer. “It’s
not easy to afford all the entry fees and travel for anybody, but I’m lucky
enough to get to go to all these races and somehow do decent at them.”
Cultrera is more dialed into bracket racing than anything right now,
but he plans to continue racing the NHRA New England Nationals and
the division race held there in Epping, where he has yet to win at the
national-event level.
No matter where his efforts are placed, though, drag racing is about
more than trophies.
“The best part is that I get to do this with my family,” says Cultrera, who
also shares the racing scene with his girlfriend, PDRA rising star Hailey
Hawkins. “I was able to race my sister, Lauren, at the NHRA national
event in Epping this year in the quarterfinals, and that was pretty special.
My nieces are older now, so they get to come to a lot of races. My mom
and dad, Steve and JoAnn are usually there. It’s fun for them, too. I’m
lucky to have that.” – K E L LY WA DI
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