Chasing a new dream

[Times photo: Bill Serne] Tricia Jean Smyrski talks strategy with her dad and pit crew, Steve Smyrski, on a recent Friday at Sunshine Speedway. Now almost 18, Tricia began driving dragsters at 16, though she may be headed for new challenges.

What's driving Tricia Jean Smyrski? Maybe it's the speed. Maybe it's her dad's ambition for her. Maybe it's those few seconds on the race track when the rest of the world falls away.

PINELLAS PARK -- Tricia Jean Smyrski crouches into the driver's seat of her dragster and looks up at her dad. Then she rumbles toward the starting line at Sunshine Speedway. She'll be taking on an orange Camaro SS tonight.

She's not scared. She's getting used to the roar you create tearing down an eighth-mile strip of asphalt at 130 mph. And she's winning races.

But she's almost 18 now. She's starting to steer toward another ambition.

"Oh, I'm still out here every Friday night," she had said earlier. "It's just that, well, I'm not sure I want to be a professional driver any more."

That's what her dad wanted. As soon as Tricia turned 16, Steve Smyrski bought her a dragster. He invested $80,000 in what he had wanted for himself, in what he hoped would be her future.

"I know this is a fairy tale we're doing here," he said in a Jan. 7, 2001, Floridian story. "But wishes come true sometimes."

Tricia had just started her first racing season. Steve was teaching her how to do burnouts, trying to earn a following for her. And in the gasoline haze of the drag strip, the divorced dad got to know his teenage daughter, and she learned about his life.

"I'd say, as a pit crew chief and driver, we've gotten a lot closer over these last two years. . . . But not as father and daughter," Steve says. "Now, she's only telling things to Mommy."

Tricia's mom had a stroke six years ago and can't move her right side. Tricia drives her to doctors' offices, does her laundry, brings her the phone.

Friday nights, she goes to the drag strip with her dad. She's driven her way into the top 15 racers at Sunshine. She's won $135.

Steve's dropped another $9,000. He rebuilt the dragster's motor and secured sponsors: Wing House and J & J Auto Body and Your Hot Sauce Company.

And he built his daughter a Web site. "Tricia can host your special events," it says. "What better way to celebrate a birthday for your kids or a special business event?" Tricia has driven in a parade, autographed photos at a country fair.

She has stopped listening to 'N Sync and has dated five different boys. She's started wearing eyeliner and mascara under her gold-rimmed glasses, under her racing helmet.

She wants to graduate from high school. She's been held back twice, so she's only a sophomore. She's taking computer classes and wants to earn a diploma by fall.

And when racing season ends in November?

"I think I might want to go into the Coast Guard," she told her dad about a month ago. "I think it might be cool."

"I want to talk about you getting your 250 mph license," her dad had said.

Steve had hoped his daughter would be a champion driver. But now she seems to be setting her sights on her own finish line.

On this night at Sunshine, she beats the Camaro by half the track. Her dad hugs her hard.

"Honey, go ahead and talk to the Coast Guard if you want to," he says later. "I'll keep the dragster in the trailer. And when you come home on shore leave, we'll come back to the track."

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