World titles, all of them on shale. The
following year the finishing places were
reversed, Jim Esau taking the title and Smithy
second.
He enhanced the image of the sport and
became its best known representative, even
being invited to a BBC Sports Personality of
the Year Awards evening. He had a huge
dedicated following of fans and most agreed
that his participation in a meeting was
guaranteed to add an air of expectation to the
terraces and lively on-track action.
If you were lucky enough to see Stuart Smith
race, you will probably recall the way
individual drivers competed wheel to wheel
with him, despite his fearsome reputation.
Don’t be mistaken, there were many
occasions on which other drivers had the
better of him, this only enhanced the racing,
pumping up the entertainment factor tenfold. I
remember the likes of #396 Doug Cronshaw,#
2 Willie Harrison, #190 Len Wolfenden, #212
Frankie Wainman Snr, #272 Dave
Hodgson, #199
Mike Close, #306 Mick Noden, #252 Dave
Chisholm and many others getting the upper
hand, probably not as often as they would
have liked. The 70s in particular was an
amazing era for F1 Stock Cars.
Stuarts last Stock Car was constructed and
introduced in 1981, it went on to win three
consecutive World Finals, 1983, 1984 and
1985 - the same car with three different colour
schemes. In 1986, recurring back problems
after 20 years of competitive racing, and the
desire at 40 to find time to do other thing,
brought about Stu's decision to retire, not
taken lightly and not taken well with the
spectators.
There were many reasons for his
extraordinary success in Stock Car racing.
The attention to detail, his natural driving
skills, and his fearless and mechanical
knowledge all helped him in his quest for
“GOLD”. He never accepted that he was
beaten, so coupling this
up
with his lightning reflexes and uncanny knack
of anticipating trouble and knowing how to
avoid it, made him a natural winner and
showman. The fact is that every now and then
in any walk of life, someone comes along who
is that extra bit special. He was 'The Maestro',
'The Master', 'The One & Only', and
thoroughly deserved all the accolades.
He left a lasting legacy to the sport he loved
so much and will never be forgotten. So many
thousands of words have been written and
spoken about Stu Smith over the years, two
pages isn’t anywhere near enough space to
do justice to this Stock Car Legend. We have
only scratched the surface of “SMITHYS”
exploits on the track. Maybe this sentence
sums it all up: “Stuart David Smith, Stock Car
Legend, simply The Greatest of the Great”.
Photos by Stephen Locke and Martin Downs
www.insidestockcarworld.co.uk
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