Mark Smith is an American former race car driver born in Portland, Oregon

Portland, Oregon

Portland is a city located in the Pacific Northwest, near the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers in the U.S. state of Oregon. As of the 2010 Census, it had a population of 583,776, making it the 29th most populous city in the United States...

. Smith entered karting

Kart racing

Kart racing or karting is a variant of open-wheel motorsport with small, open, four-wheeled vehicles called karts, go-karts, or gearbox/shifter karts depending on the design. They are usually raced on scaled-down circuits...

 competition at the age of 14 and won 6 championships in multiple IKF

International Kart Federation

The International Kart Federation was the first kart racing organization in the United States, founded and still based in California in 1957. In 1971 it was joined by the World Karting Association, which originally focused more on the Eastern and Central United States.The International Kart...

 divisions. In 1985 he moved up to Formula Ford

Formula Ford

Formula Ford is a single seater, open wheel class in motorsport which exists in some form in many countries around the world. It is an entry-level series to motor racing....

 scoring 4 race wins in two seasons and then advanced to Formula Super Vee

Formula Super Vee

Formula Super Vee was a type of open-wheel motor created to act as a platform for the promotion of VW products, playing much the same role in the 1970s as formulae such as Formula Renault play today. The idea for Formula Super Vee is generally attributed to Josef Hopen, who worked as the Special...

.

After winning the 1989 United States Formula Super Vee

Formula Super Vee

Formula Super Vee was a type of open-wheel motor created to act as a platform for the promotion of VW products, playing much the same role in the 1970s as formulae such as Formula Renault play today. The idea for Formula Super Vee is generally attributed to Josef Hopen, who worked as the Special...

 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 wayhttp://www.champcarstats.com/lights/drivers/SmithMark.htm.

In 1993 Mark moved up to the CART

Champ Car

Champ Car was the name for a class and specification of open wheel cars used in American Championship Car Racing for many decades, primarily for use in the Indianapolis 500 auto race...

 Indy Car Series

Champ Car

Champ Car was the name for a class and specification of open wheel cars used in American Championship Car Racing for many decades, primarily for use in the Indianapolis 500 auto race...

 racing primarily on road and street circuits for Arciero Racing. Smith qualified twice for the 1993 Indianapolis 500

Indianapolis 500

The Indianapolis 500-Mile Race, also known as the Indianapolis 500, the 500 Miles at Indianapolis, the Indy 500 or The 500, is an American automobile race, held annually, typically on the last weekend in May at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in Speedway, Indiana...

 but was bumped from the field. His second bumping at the hands of Didier Theys

Didier Theys

Didier Theys is an Belgian sports car driver. He is a two-time overall winner of the 24 Hours of Daytona ; a winner of the 12 Hours of Sebring ; the Sports Racing Prototype driver champion of the Grand-American Road Racing Association and the winner of the 24 Hours of Spa...

 happened just 6 minutes before the end of qualifications that year; an outcome that added to the Speedway

Indianapolis 500

The Indianapolis 500-Mile Race, also known as the Indianapolis 500, the 500 Miles at Indianapolis, the Indy 500 or The 500, is an American automobile race, held annually, typically on the last weekend in May at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in Speedway, Indiana...

 myth about The Curse of the Smiths.

The following year Smith remained cursed. Mark qualified for the 1994 Indianapolis 500 but was bumped from the field by Bobby Rahal

Bobby Rahal

Robert "Bobby" Woodward Rahal is an American auto racing driver and team owner. As a driver, he won three championships and 24 races in the CART open-wheel series, including the 1986 Indianapolis 500...

. 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 but on the following lap he brushed the exit of turn 1 and crashed heavily into turn two.

Smith's best Indy Car finish was a 5th place at the 1994 Michigan 500.

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
1989	Ralt of America Ralt RALT was a manufacturer of single-seater racing cars, founded by ex-Jack Brabham associate Ron Tauranac after he sold out his interest in Brabham to Bernie Ecclestone. Ron and his brother had built some specials in Australia in the 1950s under the RALT name...	PHX 4	DAL 3	IRP 1*	MIL 1*	CLE 3	DEM 1	ATL 1*	MDO 1*	ROA 4	NAZ Ret	STP 3			1st	169

Formula Pacific

Year	Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Rank	Points
1989	Graeme Lawrence Autosport Graeme Lawrence Graeme Lawrence is a former race car driver from New Zealand.Lawrence was the first New Zealander to win a race in the Tasman Series, in 1970. Although he won only the one race that year, he was Tasman Series champion, driving Chris Amon's old Ferrari 246T....	BAY 4	BAY 3	PUK 3	PUK 3	MAN 3	MAN 2	WIG Ret	WIG 2	TIM 4	TIM 2	4th	39

CART Indy Lights

Year	Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	Rank	Points
1990	Ralt of America Ralt RALT was a manufacturer of single-seater racing cars, founded by ex-Jack Brabham associate Ron Tauranac after he sold out his interest in Brabham to Bernie Ecclestone. Ron and his brother had built some specials in Australia in the 1950s under the RALT name...	PHX 2	LBH 2	MIL 9	DET 11	POR 6	CLE 4	MEA 10	TOR 6	DEN 9	VAN 2	MDO 9	ROA 3	NAZ 5	LS 5	3rd	128
1991	Evergreen	LBH 4	PHX 2*	MIL 7	DET 6	POR 3	CLE 1*	MEA 5	TOR 5	DEN 4	MDO 2	NAZ 8	LS 1*			2nd	155
1992	Evergreen	PHX 7	LBH 11	DET 3	POR Ret	MIL 5	LOU 11	TOR 9	CLE Ret	VAN 1	MDO 7	NAZ 5	LS Ret			7th	74

CART

Year	Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	Rank	Points
1993	Arciero	SRF 1993 Australian FAI IndyCar Grand Prix The 1993 Australian FAI IndyCar Grand Prix was the opening round of the 1993 CART World Series season, held on 21 March 1993 on the Streets of Surfers Paradise, Australia. The race was won by series débutant Nigel Mansell, the first person to win his first race in the series.-Qualifying results:-... 18	PHX 9	LBH 10	IND 1993 Indianapolis 500 The 77th Indianapolis 500 was held at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway on Sunday, May 30, 1993. Emerson Fittipaldi took the lead with 16 laps to go, and won his second career Indy 500 victory... DNQ	MIL	DET Ret	POR Ret	CLE Ret	TOR Ret	MIC	NHA	ROA Ret	VAN Ret	MDO Ret	NAZ 12	LS 17	22nd	8
1994	Walker Walker Racing Walker Racing is a racing team founded by Derrick Walker in 1991 racing originally in the CART Championship Car series. Presently the team competes in the Firestone Indy Lights series.-Early success:...	SRF 1994 Australian FAI Indycar Grand Prix The 1994 Australian FAI Indycar Grand Prix was the opening round of the 1994 CART World Series season, held on 20 March 1994 on the streets of Surfers Paradise, Australia.... Ret	PHX DNS	LBH Ret	IND 1994 Indianapolis 500 The 78th Indianapolis 500 was held at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway on Sunday, May 29, 1994. Al Unser, Jr. won from the pole position, his second Indy 500 victory. Much to the surprise of competitors, media, and fans, Marlboro Team Penske arrived at the Speedway with a brand new, secretly-built... DNQ	MIL 24	DET 14	POR 16	CLE Ret	TOR Ret	MIC 5	MDO 20	NHA 12	VAN 8	ROA Ret	NAZ 12	LS 14	19th	17

External links

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