ARLINGTON — His business card reads: “Kyle Austin Smith, Race Car Driver.”
His resume documents 11 years of racing accomplishments, including more than 75 feature wins, two championship titles and finishing second overall in points three times and third overall once.
Kyle Austin Smith just turned 16.
“I do really well in school, but racing is something I’ve always been a part of,” Smith said. “I’ve raced for 11 years so it seems like a natural thing.”
Although his racing experience so far has mostly been in quarter-midgets and go-karts, and he doesn’t have a drivers license yet, Smith knows he wants to race cars.
“I’m an open-wheel kind of man,” he said. “The most realistic thing seems to be a sprint car. … I know I can race other things, midgets or Legends.”
Smith said he hoped to get noticed in the local racing community — hence the business card and resume — and when he’s not racing he goes to Skagit Speedway to watch the sprint car races.
Still, racing is an expensive hobby, and the Smiths — Kyle is the only child of parents Doug and Barbara Smith — have done their best to support and encourage Kyle’s ambition without bankrupting themselves.
In 1998 he started his first quarter-midget race at Paine Field on the day he turned 5. Kyle Smith finished second in points that year and was second again the next year.
“It was just an old used car, but he got 50 feature wins,” said Doug Smith. “We restored that car three times until he grew out of it.”
A used 10-year old go-kart was Kyle Smith’s next vehicle. With it he scored his first championship in 2005 before moving up to race against adults — including local sprint car drivers like Seth Bergman, Evan Margeson, Colton Heath and Jared Peterson — in the Yamaha Light class.
Although he experienced fewer successes while racing in the adult class, Kyle Smith said the challenge more than made up for it.
“When I was a kid I used to win every week unless I was broke,” he said. “When I moved up I had to accept not winning. … The last two years I’ve learned a lot, but it’s been a lot more fun.”
Smith wrapped up his second championship last March, winning the Yamaha Light division of the Cascade Karting Association’s winter racing season.
“He just has a great ability,” Doug Smith said of his son. “He’s been competitive in school, too. He does real well in school.”
A sophomore at Arlington High School, Kyle Smith was recently accepted into the National Honor Society and has routinely maintained a grade point average in the 3.7-3.8 range.
Although he would like to make racing his career, Kyle Smith said he has not ruled out going to college, preferably at the University of Washington.
One of Kyle Smith’s favorite drivers, NASCAR’s Ryan Newman, graduated from Purdue University with a Bachelor of Science degree in vehicle structural engineering.
Following Newman’s path — college then racing — is something Smith would like to do, but if that doesn’t work out, he does have a fallback plan.
“With an engineering degree there are a lot of options (in racing),” Smith said. “If I can’t race for a career, I could study music at UW.”
Smith has played the trumpet since fifth grade and is a member of Arlington’s jazz band, pit orchestra and wind ensemble.
Although he’s still racing karts, Doug Smith recently bought his son a used Dwarf car to race.
Similar to a Legend car — the Smiths originally thought they were buying a used Legend — Dwarf cars are five-eighths scale replica models of vintage 1928-1948 American-made automobiles with four-cylinder motorcycle engines.
“We’ve just raced for fun, but his ability far exceeds that,” Doug Smith said of Kyle. “He’s a smart driver … He’s impressed a lot of people.”
Doug Smith knows a thing or two about driving ability. For six years he served on the pit crew of NASCAR racer Larry Gunselman.
Doug Smith said he “dumped gas” for Gunselman, who lived in Snohomish at one time, when Gunselman was driving in what is now called the NASCAR Grand National Camping World West Series.
Gunselman subsequently went on to make starts in NASCAR’s Nationwide and Cup series, and recently finished 34th at the Craftsman Truck race on May 30 in Dover, Del.
Whatever Kyle Smith ends up doing with his life, Doug and Barbara Smith are squarely behind him.
“He’s so well-rounded, even with his trumpet,” Doug Smith said of Kyle. “And he wants to go to college. But, he’s a great driver.
“I’d hate to see him waste that ability,” Doug Smith said.
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