Mark Smith

Who is Mark Smith?

Mark Smith is an American former race car driver born in Portland, Oregon. Smith entered karting competition at the age of 14 and won 6 championships in multiple IKF divisions. In 1985 he moved up to Formula Ford scoring 4 race wins in two seasons and then advanced to Formula Super Vee.

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

In 1993 Mark moved up to the CART Indy Car Series racing primarily on road and street circuits for Arciero Racing. Smith qualified twice for the 1993 Indianapolis 500 but was bumped from the field. 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. Mark qualified for the 1994 Indianapolis 500 and was bumped from the field by Bobby Rahal. With 14 minutes remaining 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.