When his boss Geoff Vantreight turned down the opportunity to drive in a special Sponsor’s Race in 1955, Al Smith stood in for him and got his very first ride in a racecar. Taking a definite liking to the experience, he started driving in the Stockcar class at Western two years later and soon began recording some wins, finishing the season ninth in points which included a second place finish behind Dave Cooper in the fifty lap Labour Day Gold Cup race.
He began to hit his stride in 1958, winning his first main event on June 1st which he followed up with victories in the next two. He won that year’s Gold Cup as well as Best Looking Car and Best Looking Crew and finished fourth in the points race. 1959 saw Al’s victories include the July Cup and the Championship Race and his moving up one spot in points to third. The 1960 season was Al’s best to date with him winning the Roy White Memorial, being voted Most Popular Driver by Western’s fans and emerging as the number one Stockcar driver in points. Building a new car for 1961, Al and crew found stiff competition from the likes of Ray Pottinger, Billy Foster and Dick Varley but managed a seventh place finish in their final year in the Stockcar class.
A new Modified Sportsman class started up in 1962 which saw Al and crew modify their last year’s car to run in the new division. They soon found that their upgraded racer not only had major handling problems but it quickly developed a reputation for mechanical “gremlins” that resulted in them not finishing very many races. For 1963, car owner and sponsor Geoff Vantreight bought Billy Foster’s previous year’s Daffodil Cup – winning car for Al which definitely improved things as he set a new Modified track record at Western, competing in the newly-formed Canadian American Modified Racing Association (CAMRA) where he finished fifth in the year-end points standings.
The off-season saw Victoria racecar fabricator Grant King, assisted by Jimmie Isacson, build four new sprint cars, one of which was for Geoff for Al to drive in 1964. Again following the CAMRA circuit, Al set many new track records, posting both wins and good finishes which put him into sixth spot overall in points. In addition to running some CAMRA races in 1965, Al competed in both Victoria and Nanaimo in which he finished second in Island Modified points, also setting a new track record at Western.
1966 saw Al win the the “InterCity” (Nanaimo and Langley tracks) “A” modified season championship which included the Tony Slogar Memorial race in Nanaimo.
For the 1967 season, Al drove a new Dick Midgley-prepared car, competing on the CAMRA circuit where he finished in third spot and also the InterCity tracks which now included Western Speedway. He won that year’s Strawberry Cup and repeated his win of the Tony Slogar Memorial in Nanaimo. Stepping back to let his younger brother Roy take the wheel in 1968, Al returned in 1969 and won his 2nd Strawberry Cup as well as winning the Tony Slogar trophy for the third time.
Al continued to compete in the Super Modified class which included a short stint in 1975 at the wheel of Bob Vantreight’s #8 “A” modified roadster. In 1978 he held the distinction, along with Lewiston Idaho’s George Robertson, of having run in every Daffodil Cup since the inaugural one in 1961. He subsequently retired from active competition and was in the very first group of inductees into the Victoria Auto Racing Hall of Fame in 1984.
Al passed away in March of 2017.
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- 1955 at Western – Al Smith’s 1st ride in a racecar, shown here with regular driver Mike Newton and crew which included his brothers Lloyd “Oiler” Newton (3rd from the left) and Roy (4th from the left) (Dave Orrick or Bud Glover photo).
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- 1957 at Western – (front to back) #8 Al Smith, #13 Harry Roberts, #6 Digger O’Dell, #7 Bert Gilmour, #10 Phil Lambrick, #64 Ed Kostenuk, #5 Dick Varley and #1 Dick Willoughby (Barrie Goodwin photo).
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- 1959 at Western – Al in #4 with #22 Gil Philardi outside and #1 Dave Cooper behind (Ted Mackenzie photo).
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- 1960 at Western – Fast heat with (l to r) Red Burke, Jim Berry, Ray Pottinger, Gil Philardi, Dave Cooper, Al Smith and Doug Bowell (Barrie Goodwin photo).
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- 1960 at Nanaimo’s “Grandview Bowl” – Al following a main event win (photographer unknown).
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- 1961 at Western – Al in the #1 Stockcar (Ted Mackenzie photo).
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- 1962 at Western – Al in the #7 “Modified Sportsman” (Ted Mackenzie photo).
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- 1963 at Western – Al in the ex-Billy Foster Modified Sportsman with the first “wing” to be run on the Island (Ted Mackenzie photo).
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- 1964 at Gordon Head racecar shop of Geoff Vantreight – freshly built offset upright sprint car with Al in car and (l to right) Geoff Vantreight, Jimmie Isacson, Grant King, Phil Lambrick and Dick Midgley (Irving Strickland Times-Colonist photo)
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- 1965 at Western – Al wins the “A” trophy dash at the inaugural “Timber Cup” race, with trophy presenter Marg Neal (Barrie Goodwin photo).
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- 1965 at Western – Al and crew with #7 “Vantreight Daffodil Special” (Barrie Goodwin photo).
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- 1967 at Western – Starter Phil Hendry with Al and the “Strawberry Cup” (Barrie Goodwin photo).
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- 1967 at Nanaimo’s Grandview Bowl – Frances Slogar presents Al with the “Tony Slogar Memorial” trophy (Barrie Goodwin photo).
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- 1969 at Western – Al receives a Cowichan sweater from Geoff Vantreight (Ted Mackenzie photo).
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- 1975 at Western – Al in Bob Vantreight’s #8 “A” Modified (Barrie Goodwin photo).
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- 1984 “Hall of Fame” induction ceremony – Al in a restored sprint car (Barrie Goodwin photo).
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- 1984 Inductee Al Smith – artist’s portrait
