By Shawn Brouse
The Daily Item
July 04, 2008 12:40 am
—
When you mention the nickname "Mr. Excitement" around sprint car racing today, most will probably think you're talking about Millerstown's Todd Shaffer.
But long before Shaffer took on the reputation, there was another who went by such a moniker, and his name was Richard "Mitch" Smith, of Linglestown.
Mitch Smith is still honored today, each year, at Williams Grove Speedway when in early July the annual Mitch Smith Memorial is held. The track will host the 20th annual race tonight as part of Pennsylvania Speedweek, worth $10,000.
Smith's is a name revered far and wide and he is perhaps known mostly for one thing, the summer of 1971, when he obtained one of a few temporary licenses issued by the United States Auto Club for its trio of shows in the area. And he beat them all three times, twice at Williams Grove and once at Selinsgrove.
Back then, USAC was the World of Outlaws of today. Every driver wanted to compete with and win within USAC, and it was a natural stepping stone in the path of progress a driver had to take if he wanted to make it to the biggest of the big time: Indy cars. But Smith was content to just beat them at home.
Beavertown's William Sheaffer was a part of it all, although he didn't realize he was helping to make history.
"I knew he was beating these guys that had run the Indianapolis 500, but at the time it never registered that it would be a historical moment," Sheaffer admitted recently.
The Juniata County native was a crew member for Smith from 1966 through that famous summer of '71.
Sheaffer retired as Midd West School District Superintendent in 1999 after 33 years in teaching, and has been away from racing for more years than he can remember. But today, at 67, he clearly remembers his days affiliated with Smith.
He got started with the racing legend when Smith began piloting the No. 6 owned by John Regester and Regester Chevrolet, then based in Richfield. Sheaffer had been on the Regester crew since 1962. Through the years, Smith and Sheaffer became good friends, on and off the track.
Sheaffer changed tires, fueled the car and gave signals to Smith as he competed for what would end up being 170 career and super modified wins and several track titles.
"Regester had me step out on the track at Selinsgrove to give him (Smith) a signal to slow down because he had such a big lead, and the next wave I got was from the policeman to step inside the fence," Sheaffer recalled.
And when Regester stopped fielding a car in 1968, Sheaffer went with Smith as he took over the driving chores of the Gary Wasson-owned No. 5, based in Avis.
It was in the No. 5 that Smith thumped the USAC aces.
"The time that he beat the USAC drivers three times in one summer and the way that he beat them ... one time he spun on the sixth lap and had to come up through and passed them for the lead with five or six to go, and they (USAC) put the money up to have him tore down and we were legal," Sheaffer remembered.
Shortly after that, Sheaffer's time with Smith at the track came to an end, but the two remained avid hunting buddies, frequently teaming up to hunt pheasant at Sheaffer's Oriental homestead.
Smith retired from the sport in 1978 and was felled by a heart attack 10 years later. He was posthumously inducted into the National Sprint Car Hall of Fame in 1995. Today, Sheaffer and his wife of 51 years, Sue, remember those days at the dusty dirt tracks when along with their five children, they watched and helped Mitch Smith make history.
"Mitch was a very aggressive driver and if the car wasn't handling quite right, there were times that he took it upon himself on the speedway to make it handle right. Sometimes he would make it through and sometimes he wouldn't," Sheaffer said of Smith's style. "Regardless of where he started in the field, whether a heat or a feature, at the drop of the green, he only saw one position and that was to get to the lead as fast as he could. All the victories were special.
"Mitch was a soft-spoken individual who garnered quite a few fans from that, and he had a lot of respect from his fellow drivers."
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