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Published Wednesday, November 25, 2009 in Local

Dirt track champ Clint Smith to be grand marshal in Haralson

Professional dirt track racer Clint Smith will be the grand marshal for the Christmas Parade in Haralson on Saturday.

Community and church organizations are participating in the parade, which is being organized by Haralson resident Eric Spencer. "The parade will start at 5:30," Spencer said.

Parade participants will organize in front of the historic Haralson School, which now houses the local Community Action for Improvement Head Start program.

"Racing just seems like it was what I was meant to do," said Smith, who lives in Senoia. A four time Southern All Star Series champion, Smith has been racing for 27 years. He holds the record with the most championship titles of any other driver for the Southern All Starseries.

Smith races in 60-70 events each year and has had hundreds of first-place victories. In 1989 and 1990 Smith won back-to-back track championships at the Seven Flags Speedway in Douglasville

In between Southern All Star title runs Smith maintained his achievements in the sport by being named champion of the Hav-A-Tampa Racing Series.

"The Hav-A-Tampa Series was the cream of the crop at the time (in dirt track competition)," Smith said. "It had the biggest races, the most TV coverage, and the most money." Because he did not miss any of the series competitions from its inception in 1990 until 1998, Smith had been called "the iron man of Hav-A-Tampa" by racing enthusiasts.

Smith has also finished well in some of the largest and most celebrated dirt track events in the United States.

Smith has raced in famed events like the Dirt Track World Championship, The Dream and World 100 at Eldora Speedway in Ohio. In 2007, he was called upon by Tony Stewart to provide a car and assistance to Jeff Gordon for The Prelude. The Prelude is an event preceding The Dream every June where drivers from NASCAR and even the NHRA come together and drive dirt late models.

During the off-seasons of 1993 and 1996, Smith accompanied three other American drivers on seven week racing tours in Australia. During those tours, the drivers formed a U.S. team that competed against a four-member Australian team in test matches.

Smith is a second-generation driver. His father, Roscoe Smith, who was active in the sport during his son's younger years. He brought Smith to his first racing event when he was only two weeks old.

Smith spent his youth building and repairing cars in his father's shop. By age 12, Smith had accumulated an expansive knowledge of both the internal and the external components of racecars. He drove in his premier competition when he was 15.

Less than a year later, he had his first victory at Senoia Speedway. Smith raced with his family until 1986 when he joined Buddy Green Racing of Macon, first of several racing teams. In 1989 Smith joined with Virginia Matthews of Tyrone to form Smith and Matthews Racing, a partnership which lasted four years. Since that time, Smith has partnered with Ives Brothers Racing of Quitman, North Carolina-based Dunn-Benson Ford, Eastern Kentucky-based Tim Logan Racing and Turkey Creek Snacks with Laddie and Gayle Fulcher of Thomaston.

Smith's wife, Kim and their daughter, Jenna, travel with Smith whenever they can.

The parade will be followed by lighting of the community Christmas tree. Also, a facet of earlier Haralson Christmas celebrations is coming back for 2009.

"We're going to do the angels again this year," Spencer said. People will be able to get an angel placed on the tree for $2 -- with proceeds going to Susan G. Komen for the Cure, the world's largest grassroots network of breast cancer survivors and activists. The Komen organization -- which has its headquarters in Dallas, Texas -- has invested almost $1.5 billion on research since the foundation was founded in 1982.

The names of those who are honored with an angel will be read at the Christmas gathering. Angel requests must be postmarked by today.

Checks for angels may be made to "City of Haralson," and the city will send a check to Susan G. Komen for the Cure, Spencer said. Angel orders may be sent to Eric Spencer, P.O. Box 181, Haralson, GA 30229.