Tinzy Smith is a bit of an oddity, but in the best possible ways. Walking through the Pro Stock pits at NHRA national events, there aren’t many female crew members to be found. Smith, however, is difficult to miss as she’s tooling away on a Pro Stock car under the awning of Elite Motorsports newcomer and longtime Pro Stock racer Greg Stanfield.
Editor’s Note: This story originally appeared in DI #195, the Women of Power Issue, in July/August 2025.
As clutch specialist on the car that was out of the gate with top speed of the meet (212.96 mph) at the Gainesville season opener, Smith’s work is valued and respected, and she’s become an integral part of the team.
“I loved cars when I was a teenager,” says the native of Texas who now resides in Wynnewood, Oklahoma. “We were a Ford family; my dad was always fascinated with Mustangs, and he would take me to the dragstrip. It started from there, and it grew.”
Through relationships built at the dragstrip, Smith’s insatiable hunger to learn was fed. There at the races, she went from spectator, to student, to respected clutch specialist on a naturally aspirated Outlaw 10.5 car and then in Mountain Motor Pro Stock.
Along the way, she was gratefully soaking in all the knowledge she could from those around her.
“Back in the beginning, I looked up to Shannon Glidden,” says Smith, speaking of the wife of Outlaw 10.5 multi-time champion Billy Glidden and daughter-in-law of the late, great Pro Stock pioneer Bob Glidden and wife Etta. “Shannon is such a hard worker, and watching her and Billy work on the car together was awesome. That’s kind of who I aspired to be when I started.”
Fortuitously, Smith’s path crossed with Richard Freeman and Erica Enders in 2008. At the time, she was deeply immersed in rebuild work and running the shop at a widely known and respected clutch company. When that partnership shifted, she was surprised and relieved to find that the years of work that she had put into learning the craft and honing her skills had not gone unnoticed.
“I had pretty much spent six years rebuilding every clutch underneath the sun. When I left, there were a lot of people reaching out for me to come work with them,” she says. “I ended up working with [NHRA Pro Stock racer] Shane Tucker part-time – but Richard Freeman really wanted me to work full-time for Elite. I decided to hop on board, moved to Oklahoma, and I joined the Elite family.”
Initially, she was assigned to a car driven by one of the Cuadra boys, but when Stanfield was added to the team, Smith’s assignment became his car. Back at the expansive and ever-humming Elite Motorsports race shop in Wynnewood, Smith is part of a strongly knit and nurtured home-base crew.
Primarily, she’s the clutch specialist on Stanfield’s Janac Brothers Racing/The Rod Shop Camaro, and between races, her duties include taking care of any maintenance that specific car may need.
“The thing I love about what I do is that you’re in a constant state of learning,” relates Smith. “Everything is changing all the time, and it’s a puzzle. ‘Why did [the clutch] do what it did? Why is this wear-pattern happening? How is the heat affecting it?’ It’s a science. And I love being at Elite because I get to broaden my horizons outside of just clutch work. These guys I work with every day are so talented; I really push myself to try to learn everything on the car.”
Smith explained that an all-for-one, one-for-all mentality of the Elite Motorsports team has afforded her the opportunity to learn from a plethora of talented, experienced people. She shared that while they’re fiercely competitive with the other teams out there gunning for race wins and championships, they’re also internally competitive – but never with animosity. There is a tremendous underlying bond, particularly amongst the core crew.
“We work our ever-loving butts off, and the full-time people are at the shop and on the road together all the time,” she says. “Each full-time person is assigned to one car, so when one car goes out, we’re all on the starting line for the others.
“We’re all so close because we work so hard toward this common goal. At the end of the day, you don’t just tear down the awning for your own car. You hop in and help each other wherever you can. We have to stick together and make all of this work, and it isn’t just race car stuff.”
Smith says that she has grown exponentially over the last few years, and along the path of learning, she’s been fortunate to form treasured friendships – including the one she shares with six-time world champion Pro Stock driver Enders.
“Sometimes, us girls have to stick together to navigate this world,” says Smith. “She’s a good friend and an amazing driver. All of our drivers are really phenomenal, and a lot of the people here are ones I look up to. It’s astounding to be part of a team like this.
“We get so busy doing what we do that we forget the company that we keep. I like to remember that, to think about how lucky I am to be around so many incredible people in the sport. I’m honored to work with Greg Stanfield and to be surrounded by a wealth of knowledge with Mark Ingersoll and all of our guys in the crew chief lounge. I’m going to continue to absorb, learn, and grow as much as I can.”
The post WOMEN OF POWER 2025: Tinzy Smith is A Student of Life first appeared on Drag Illustrated.