Mark Smith (American racing driver)

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]

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

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

Smith has produced a number of short films including Two Balloons, Denmark and A House, A Home.^[58][59][60] He is the co-author of two photography books The Powder Road and Österlandet.^[61][62] Smith is a graduate of the University of Oregon.^[63]

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