About the Driver

Started at 6, parents raced, wife races, daughters on podium

 My name is Anthony smith, my story begins when I was a little fella, always into cars and dirt, like most little boys. Growing up around my dad always working on some sort of muscle car or drag car. When things start to matter, my family fell apart, from parents separating and battling drug or alcohol abuse, to bouncing from different family members homes it was a rough way to grow up and finish school. It’s a long story that I don’t wish on anyone. But i know it’s all too familiar to so many. With the help of my great aunt and uncle I made it through high school, still in love with all things vehicle related.

I drove an 85 k5 blazer ins school, built a motor for that with my dad and that thing took a literal beating in school. It came home with its tongue out every time I drove it. I bought a few cheap sn95 mustangs shortly after and then smallBlock swapped an s10 and busting in to a 10’second 1/4 I thought I owned the world. Lucky for me I used my minimal mechanic skills to buy fix and sell vehicles to supplement my normal 9-5, mainly because I just enjoy working on something new and learning. If I was that good at it I’d be doing it for a living I suppose. lol. I bought my home at 20 years old, working my tail off to dig my heels in and give my kids somewhere to call home. I moved upwards of 20 times before the age of 20 and I was determined to change generational traits.I’m currently still in the same home, 15 plus years later

I now have 5 kids and two are almost 16. One of my sons is currently racing in the tuner class and sealed his first feature win this year, and yes he beat me fair and square. I may have been wrecked but I didn’t have the night he did up until then either. I wasn’t catching him. I’d never raced a dirt car until 2024 and honestly only attended a couple dirt races as a kid, we mostly went to the drags. Two years ago myself and my spouse started attending dirt races at Salina highbanks in Salina Oklahoma. And boy did that escalate into something I never dreamed of. Starting in a 500 dollar car that should have just been in a derby then crushed, somehow I landed 4th in points for the year in what they call a trophy class, 3,4,6,8 cylinder front or rear wheel drive cars , all stock vehicle class. Several bad crashes, many countless nights i learned really quick I wanted to do this for the rest of my life

So in late 2024 I built a 4 cylinder Honda with a cage from a pure stock chassis and followed the usra tuner rule book to step into a more competitive class so I could race more tracks. Fast forward to 2025 I won the points championship at Salina and landed 8th at arrowhead and only attended half the season at arrowhead. In the beginning of 2025’i purchased a 1000 dollar pure stock nova chassis with an empty rearend and barely as a roller and began acquiring parts. As 2025 went on I realized this became the way I bring my family together, every weekend we are together making friends memories and learning so much more than what a race car is. Life lessons, experiences, teamwork, dedication, sadness, and pure joy, all the things that come with racing. to create something I never had. I no longer have family, besides who I have created and an amazing woman who chose to love me. All my family have since passed, became estranged for many reasons and I can’t help but feel like my kids have a story to tell now. They get something from me. Not some sob story of my crazy family. They have something to remember me by. Something I did. Something I built with my own two hands. My story sort of ended in my teenage years. Now I get to show them what chasing a dream is. What it means to work hard, dedicate yourself to something and see it through and just how to be. I’ve since obtained a cavalier tuner for my son, got to tail him til I wrecked, only to park it at the finish line and meet him their for his first win.

The worst race night of my life was also my best. I have photos of me jumping in the air as he passes the line. And I get literal chills every time I look at it. That’s what did it for me. Seeing my kids do something I never would have had a chance to do at their age. As it is now, I have found and built my best friend a car, he’s a critical part of our team, I helped build a couple more for friends and am currently building a car for a 14 year old Girl. Shes the daughter of a close friend of ours and has shown more desire to learn and work on cars than most adults I’ve met. All the while I’ve been chasing a goal of building this pure stock, being in a full size v8.Throwing that weight around. I made it mobile before end of last year and I was honestly surprised I went as far as I did. I started tail back for the entire night, hot laps came I shook the nerves and the rookie showed bad, I couldn’t find high gear. FYI that sag didn’t go into reverse going forward in case you were curious. Found my power steering puked and somehow the brakes were almost non existent. Heat race came, I started in the back stretch dead last with a huge gap before the next guy. I ran the pack down and made a pass or two and wiggled, played safe and let them have it back. Hey, I didn’t hit the wall, I was in one piece and made a clean pass. Played safe and done it to the pit. That’s a huge WIN for me. Feature came around, power steering had just…went full manual, Brakes were iffy at best. I started the same as the heat and I wanted to make some moves. I did just that and passed several, we went cautionless and around lap 11 or so, the leader had lapped me in around 8th place or so. I told myself it’s time to learn what they do and did my best to recreate what he was doing. And to my surprise he didn’t run away from me. I wasn’t gonna come near him but I kept him close enough I was pumped. Il add my entire pit family had been taking bets how many times I’d spin my first time out, and I was determined that wasn’t gonna happen. 

Lol after a couple laps trying to watch that leader I slid out a little saved it into the infield and jumped back on the track without losing my spot, at that point i smoke showed, made a lap and the trans case split in half taking everything out from the clutch to the pinion gear. Rusted everything up. That was October 25 and I’ve jut got it back together. Still no brakes or steering but the car is mobile again. Mind you I’ve never scaled the car much less added weight or a setup. Has leafs and shocks from lord knows when or what. When I loaded that car everyone was silent, fearing I was upset, but In my eyes I conquered so many years of self doubt, so many times hearing you’d never accomplish anything like that, so many won’t ever happens. I was just emotional. Truly tears of joy. In a time when it was all literally pieces. 

Most would have given up. Every piece I threw in the bed of my truck was just more sparks that lit a fire I didn’t know I had. It will take some work but my bucket of bolts will race again very soon. To win a sponsorship like this wouldn’t be for just me. 

It’d be for a team of people who are genuinely the best people you’d want to be around. It’d be for a couple of the hardest working kids you’ve ever met. It’d be for my little team. It’d be the best sponsor money anyone ever spent. I hope someone took the time to read my story and hope to hear from you guys. Il do my best to upload videos and photos. Thank you for this opportunity..