[1][2] Smith first competed in motor racing in 1958, winning the New Zealand Hill Climb championship when he was 16.
He progressed to single seater racing in 1962, first driving a Lola March T, Formula Junior car.
[5] In 2011 Smith won the Formula 5000 Revival championship for the third time.
[7] In 2021, Smith took part in his 50th New Zealand Grand Prix at age 79, during his 63rd consecutive season of racing.
[8][9] Smith was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire in the 1987 Queen's Birthday Honours, for services to motorsport,[10] and in 1995 was inducted into the New Zealand Motorsport Hall of Fame.