Roy Smith (2002)

Roy Smith roared out of Western Speedway, where he started in 1965 at age 20, to race on the great NASCAR tracks of North America. He enjoyed a tremendous 12-year career driving Super Modified cars throughout the Northwest where he won many major events and championships. He showed his great skills behind the wheel by winning the NASCAR Winston West points championship three years in a row from 1980 to 1982. He placed 22nd in the 1976 and 20th in the 1978 Daytona 500 races and enjoyed a career highlight with his 1982 top ten finish at Daytona. What makes these accomplishments all the more remarkable is that Roy was a true outsider. He was a Canadian driver operating on a budget that was a mere drop in the bucket compared to the famous and high-powered teams of competitors such as Bobby Allison and Ricky Rudd. Smith was named Victoria's male athlete of the year in 1980.