Mark Smith (American racing driver)

This article is about the American racing driver. For the British driver, see Mark Smith (British racing driver). For the Pennsylvanian racing driver, see Mark Smith (Pennsylvanian racing driver).

Mark Smith
Nationality	American
Born	(1967-04-10) April 10, 1967 (age 57) Portland, Oregon
Retired	1994
CART Championship Car
Years active	1993–1994
Teams	Arciero Racing Walker Racing
Starts	26
Previous series
1988–1989 1989 1990–1992	Formula Super Vee Formula Pacific Indy Lights
Championship titles
1989	Formula Super Vee
Awards
1989 1990	Formula Pacific Rookie of the Year[1] Indy Lights Rookie of the Year[2]

Formula Super Vee: Smith leading Groff at the 1988 Grand Prix of Cleveland

Indy Lights: Smith qualifying at Phoenix International Raceway 1991

CART: Smith driving for Arciero at the 1993 Long Beach Grand Prix

Mark Smith (born April 10, 1967) is a former American racing driver who competed in the CART IndyCar Series. Smith won the 1989 United States Formula Super Vee Championship and was the 1991 Indy Lights National Championship runner-up.

Career

Smith entered karting competition at the age of 14 and won 6 championships in multiple IKF divisions.^[3] In 1985 he moved up to Formula Ford scoring 4 race wins in two seasons and then advanced to Formula Super Vee.^[3]

After winning the 1989 United States Formula Super Vee Championship^[4] with 5 wins and 4 poles,^[5] Smith raced in Indy Lights from 1990 to 1992, finishing 3rd in series points his rookie year,^[6] and 2nd in 1991^[7] capturing 3 wins and 5 poles along the way.^[8]

In December 1992, it was announced that Smith would make his racing debut in CART / Indy Car, signing with Arciero for the 1993 season.^[9] Arciero, being a sparsely budgeted team, fielded a year old, 1992 Penske PC-21/Chevrolet B, for 13 of the 16 scheduled races.^[10][11]

Smith scored two top 10 finishes in the first three races of the season.^[12][13] At the fourth round, the Indianapolis 500, Smith qualified twice for the race but was bumped from the field.^[14] His second bumping at the hands of Didier Theys happened just 6 minutes before the end of qualifications that year, an outcome that added to the Speedway myth about The Curse of the Smiths.^[15]

Smith continued to show good pace his rookie year with several top 10 qualifying performances.^[16][17][18] At the Grand Prix of Portland, the 7th round of the season, Smith qualified the Arciero PC-21/Chevy B 6th on the grid between the Lolas' of Danny Sullivan and Mario Andretti.^[19] Early in the race while challenging for 5th Smith retired with a broken gearbox.^[20] The Penske transverse gearbox at the back of the PC-21 plagued Arciero during the 1993 season. After the Grand Prix of Portland in June, Smith retired from the next five races in a row with gearbox problems.^[21] Of the 13 races Arciero entered in 1993 the team finished four races, scoring points in three of those four races.^{[22][23][24][25]}

Mark qualified for the 1994 Indianapolis 500 and was bumped from the field by Bobby Rahal. With 14 minutes remaining in the final session, Smith made a bold attempt to qualify an ill-handling T93 Lola back-up car. His warm up lap of 221.8 mph was fast enough to make the race. On the following lap he crashed heavily into turn two.^[26]

Smith's best IndyCar finish was a 5th place at the 1994 Michigan 500.^[27]

Racing record

Career summary

Season	Series	Team	Races	Wins	Poles	Podiums	Points	Position
1985	SCCA Formula Ford	P1 Racing	7	1		4	N/A	N/A
1986	SCCA Formula Ford	Evergreen	9	3	2	5	N/A	N/A
1987	Formula Super Vee	Wilbur Bunce Engineering	7				N/A	N/A
1988	Formula Super Vee	Dave White Motorsports	13	1	1	2	108	6th
1989	Formula Pacific	Graeme Lawrence Autosport	10	0	2	7	39	4th
	New Zealand Grand Prix		1	0	0	1	N/A	3rd
	Formula Super Vee	Ralt America	11	5	4	8	169	1st
1990	Indy Lights	Ralt America	2		1	2	128	3rd
		Lanford	12	0	0	2
1991	New Zealand Grand Prix	Graeme Lawrence Autosport	1	0	1	0	N/A	Ret
	Indy Lights	Evergreen	12	2	3	5	103	2nd
1992	Indy Lights	Evergreen	14	1	3	2	134	7th
1993	CART IndyCar	Arciero	13	0	0	0	8	22nd
1994	CART IndyCar	Walker	16	0	0	0	17	19th
2022	SVRA Formula Ford (PCF)	Dave McMillan Racing	6	2	2	6	96	3rd
	Emerald Cup (HF)	Fossi	1	1	0	1	13	7th
2023	Emerald Cup (HF)	Fossi	5	4	2	5	62	1st
	Crossflow Cup (HF)		1	1	0	1	11	12th
2024	Emerald Cup (HF)	Fossi	9	8	9	8	107	1st
	Crossflow Cup (HF)		8	2	2	8	74	1st
Sources:[3][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36][37][38][39][40][41][42][43][44][45][46][47][48][49][50][51][52][53][54][55]

Formula Super Vee

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Year	Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	Rank	Points
1988	Dave White Motorsports	PHX Ret	LBH 5	DAL 6	IRP 6	MIL 6	DET Ret	NIA 7	CLE 5	MEA 1	MDO 10	ROA 2	NAZ 5	STP Ret	6th	108[56]
1989	Ralt America	PHX 4	DAL 3	IRP 1*	MIL 1*	CLE 3	DEM 1	ATL 1*	MDO 1*	ROA 4	NAZ Ret	STP 3			1st	169[57]

Formula Pacific

Year	Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Rank	Points
1989	Graeme Lawrence Autosport	BAY 4	BAY 3	PUK 3	PUK 3	MAN 3	MAN 2	WIG Ret	WIG 2	TIM 4	TIM 2	4th	39[58]

New Zealand Grand Prix

Year	Team	Car	Qualifying	Main race
1989	Graeme Lawrence Autosport	Swift DB4 - Ford	5th	3rd
1991	Graeme Lawrence Autosport	Swift DB4 - Toyota	1st	Ret

CART Indy Lights

Year	Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	Rank	Points
1990	Ralt America	PHX 2	LBH 2													3rd	128
	Lanford			MIL 9	DET 11	POR 6	CLE 4	MEA 10	TOR 6	DEN 9	VAN 2	MDO 9	ROA 3	NAZ 5	LAG 5
1991	Evergreen	LBH 4	PHX 2*	MIL 7	DET 6	POR 3	CLE 1*	MEA 5	TOR 5	DEN 4	MDO 2	NAZ 8	LAG 1*			2nd	155
1992	Evergreen	PHX 7	LBH 11	DET 3	POR 11	MIL 5	NHA 11	TOR 9	CLE 10	VAN 1	MDO 7	NAZ 5	LAG 14			7th	74

CART

Year	Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	Rank	Points	Ref
1993	Arciero	SRF 18	PHX 9	LBH 10	IND DNQ	MIL	DET 27	POR 29	CLE 15	TOR 23	MIC	NHA	ROA 24	VAN 22	MDO 19	NAZ 12	LAG 17	22nd	8	[59]
1994	Walker	SRF 21	PHX DNS	LBH 25	IND DNQ	MIL 24	DET 14	POR 16	CLE 22	TOR 30	MIC 5	MDO 20	NHA 12	VAN 8	ROA 26	NAZ 12	LAG 14	19th	17	[60]

Film and photography

Smith has produced a number of short films including Two Balloons, Denmark and A House, A Home.^[61][62][63] He is the co-author of two photography books The Powder Road and Österlandet.^[64][65] Smith is a graduate of the University of Oregon.^[66]

References

1. *Dealey, Arley (March 9, 1989). "Peter Jackson Formula Pacific Championship Rounds 9 & 10". On Track Auto Racing Magazine. USA: 43.
2. *Ryan, Michael (April 7, 1991). "How One Young Man Says Thank You, Motorsport's Rookie of the Year". Parade Magazine. USA: 4–5, 7.
3. Portland's Indy Car Future (June 22, 1990). Portland International Raceway Official Program (USA): 85, retrieved December 10, 2011
4. *Philips, David (December 14, 1989). "Marching Ahead". On Track Auto Racing Magazine (Volume 9, No. 24 ed.). USA: 21.
5. *Phillips, David (December 14, 1989). "Mark of the Future". On Track Auto Racing Magazine (Volume 9, No. 24 ed.). USA: 22–26.
6. *Shaw, Jeremy (December 13, 1990). "Tracy's Racing Series". On Track Auto Racing Magazine (Volume 10, No. 24 ed.). USA: 38–40, 42–43.
7. *Shaw, Jeremy (December 13, 1991). "Rolling with the Punches". On Track Auto Racing Magazine. 10 (24). USA: 36–40.
8. "Mark Smith".
9. Shaw, Jeremy (11 December 1992). "Into the Light". On Track. Paul Oxman Publishing. p. 38. Next Year Smith will graduate into the Indy Car series with Arciero's rejuvenated team. He will likely go well.
10. Tuttle, Tim (26 February 1993). "Moving Up". On Track. Paul Oxman Publishing. pp. 46–47. Arciero struck a deal to purchase two of the Penske-Chevy/B packages that Emerson Fittipaldi, Rick Mears and Tracy had driven for Penske Racing last season.
11. *"One To Watch: Mark Smith". Autosport. UK, USA. September 9, 1993.
12. Tuttle, Tim (23 April 1993). "First In Line". On Track. Paul Oxman Publishing. pp. 32–40. The unusual paint scheme on Arciero's Penske PC21-Chevy/B probably cost Mark Smith a couple of positions. Smith qualified 11th and was running well when he was black flagged on the eighth lap. Indy Car officials thought they detected a loose nose, but found nothing wrong. Smith worked his way up from 22nd and finished in the top 10 (ninth).
13. Kirby, Gordon (22 April 1993). "Tracy triumphs but Mansell's back". Autosport. Motorsport Network. pp. 26–30. 10th Mark Smith (USA) Arciero/ Craftsman Penske-Chevrolet B PC21 103 laps
14. *Indy Hell Week. On Track Magazine, June 18, 1993. Retrieved on November 14, 2011.
15. Mittman, Dick. 'Curse Of The Smiths' Remains Part Of Indianapolis 500 Lore Archived 2007-09-27 at the Wayback Machine, Indy500.com, November 4, 2004
16. Miller, Robin (11 July 1993). "Tracy edges Mansell for Grand Prix pole". Indianapolis Star. Al Unser Jr., in the Valvoline '93 Lola-Chevy-C starts in the seventh spot and rookie Mark Smith did a splendid job in his Craftsman '92 Penske-Chevy-B by nailing down the eighth slot. Smith bumped late on the final day of time trials at Indy, bested Bobby Rahal (10th), Mario Andretti (11th), Raul Boesel (12th) and Arie Luyendyk (15th) in year-old equipment.
17. Tuttle, Tim (July 1993). "Cleveland: There were no disappointments this time out for Paul Tracy, who left the rest in his wake". On Track. Paul Oxman Publishing. Rookie Mark Smith's Arciero/Craftsman Penske PC21/Chevy/B was eighth in another respectable effort. Smith has qualified eighth or better in the last three events
18. Tuttle, Tim (10 September 1993). "Road America: The Road Warrior-Shaking off the effects of a big shunt in practice, Paul Tracy ended Nigel Mansell's winning streak in decisive fashion". On Track. Paul Oxman Publishing. pp. 26–28. Rookie Mark Smith continued his solid qualifying efforts this season by taking ninth on the grid in the Craftsman/Arciero Penske PC21-Chevy/B.
19. Kirby, Gordon (1 July 1993). "Mansell slips up as Fittipaldi wins". Autosport. Motorsport Network. pp. 24–26. there was quite a surprise in 6th place, in the shape of rookie Mark Smith aboard Arciero's Penske/Chevy B PC21. Smith has surprised many people with his pace in his rookie season this year.
20. Kirby, Gordon (1 July 1993). "Mansell slips up as Fittipaldi wins". Autosport. Motorsport Network. pp. 24–26. Mansell led at the end of the opening lap with Fittipaldi and Johansson close behind, followed by Tracy in fourth, Andretti, Smith, Sullivan, Gordon and Unser. Poor Smith lasted only six laps before his transmission gave up, and his hopes of a strong hometown showing were dashed.
21. Tuttle, Tim (8 October 1993). "Mid-Ohio: Probing Probability - Emerson Fittipaldi may be down, but he's not out of the championship fight just yet". On Track. Paul Oxman Publishing. Arciero Racing's Craftsman Penske PC21-Chevy B in on streak the team would like to be able to stop if it could find a way. The year-old Penske has eliminated Mark Smith in six straight races with an array of transmission failures. The team has tried everything to solve the problem, including building some parts in the machine shop owned by engineer Gordon Coppuck.
22. "Valvoline 200, Phoenix International Raceway, 1993". Champ Car Stats. Archived from the original on 14 February 2019. Retrieved 14 February 2019.
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26. *Tuttle, Tim (June 17, 1994). Time Trials: Chasing Shadows. Retrieved on November 14, 2011.
27. "1994 Michigan 500". Motor Sport Database. Motor Sport Magazine Limited. Archived from the original on 14 February 2019. Retrieved 14 February 2019.
28. "Wilbur Bunce Racing". thethirdturn.com. Third Turn. Archived from the original on 31 October 2022. Retrieved 31 October 2022.
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31. "Peter Jackson Formula Pacific Championship 1989 standings". driverdb.com. DriverDataBase. Archived from the original on 31 October 2022. Retrieved 31 October 2022.
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33. "1989 Valvoline/Bosch/VW Super Vee Season Recap". On Track Magazine. December 14, 1989.
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35. "1990 / Indy Lights". Racing Years. Archived from the original on 31 October 2022. Retrieved 31 October 2022.
36. Coker, John (February 2, 1991). "1991 New Zealand Grand Prix". The New Zealand Herald. US speed merchant Mark Smith took pole position in the New Zealand Grand Prix yesterday.
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58. *Dealey, Arley (February 9 – March 9, 1989). "Peter Jackson Formula Pacific Championship". On Track Auto Racing Magazine. USA: 35(2/9/89), 37(2/9/89), 18(2/23/89), 20(2/23/89), 42(3/9/89).
59. "Mark Smith – 1993 CART Results". Racing-Reference. NASCAR Digital Media, LLC. Retrieved August 15, 2023.
60. "Mark Smith – 1994 CART Results". Racing-Reference. NASCAR Digital Media, LLC. Retrieved August 15, 2023.
61. "Two Balloons". OC. Archived from the original on 23 December 2018. Retrieved 23 December 2018.
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65. "Osterlandet". Abe Books. Archived from the original on 23 December 2018. Retrieved 23 December 2018.
66. Anderson, Curtis (18 August 1989). "UO senior on the verge of a job on Indy Circuit". The Register Guard. Smith is an Eagle Scout and a pilot

External links

• Mark Smith career summary at DriverDB.com
• Mark Smith's Indy Lights' statistics at ChampCarStats.com
• Mark Smith's statistics at ChampCarStats.com

Sporting positions
Preceded by Ken Murillo	US Formula Super Vee Championship Champion 1989	Succeeded by Stuart Crow
Preceded by P. J. Jones	Indy Lights Rookie of the Year 1990	Succeeded by Frank Freon