Member Spotlight: Gil Smith

Many racers begin their journey with NASA in the High Performance Driving Event ranks. HPDE teaches the fundamentals of racing in a supportive environment as students usually move on to a spec class or Time Trial.

Organizing a weekend HPDE program and making it go seamlessly for the instructors and students takes a dedicated team. As a director in the HPDE program for the Mid-Atlantic Region, Gil Smith knows the program’s importance.

“You can see it, their hands are almost shaking or they’re white knuckled when they start (HPDE) and by the end of the weekend they’ve become completely transformed,” Smith said. “It’s a great feeling when people come back, and they say they thank you or praise you. There’s not a better feeling than that.”

For a typical Mid-Atlantic event, there will be 100 to 150 HPDE students with varying driving skills. HPDE is divided into four levels with HPDE1 for beginners up to HPDE4 for experienced drivers. The program starts with classroom instruction where students learn everything from the flags to following a line.

Students are paired on track with an instructor, who serves as part teacher and part therapist. Smith was an instructor for eight years and runs a Corvette in Time Trial, so he knows what it’s like sitting in either seat. The pairing of students and instructors takes a lot of work by administrators before the students arrive at the track, but the goal is always the same.

“We always strive for safety first and our second goal is for you to have the most fun you can possibly have in an automobile,” said Smith, who lives in Windsor, Va., with his wife, Laura. They have two adult daughters.

Instructors must attend a clinic before they can start working with students. Students fill out evaluation forms after an HPDE weekend to help improve the instruction quality.

Smith runs the HPDE3 program and is joined by Brian Haggard and Jack McAfee. Smith meets with the students and instructors before the classroom sessions and will spend the day troubleshooting any issues that come up.

“Gil was a perfect guy because he commands discipline and respect and he doesn’t take nonsense,” said McAfee, NASA’s Mid-Atlantic chief instructor. “He’ll run different exercises like side-by-side drills and different skills that these folks need to start learning if you’re thinking about getting into competition in the future.”

Smith started in drag racing and did some autocross and circle track racing before joining NASA about 15 years ago. He runs Time Trial in a Chevrolet Corvette, a favorite car since childhood when he got to ride in a family friend’s 1964 Corvette.

“From then on, I was hooked on Corvettes,” said Smith, who has owned six of the eight Corvette generations.

Running a Chevy Corvette Z06 in wheel-to-wheel racing can be expensive, which is one of the reasons why Smith sticks to Time Trial.

“Everything involved with that car is expensive from the brakes to tires,” he said. “It’s hard to keep it on track for 45 minutes.”

In Time Trial, drivers are looking to put down the fastest single lap, which usually comes within the third or fourth lap at the start because the tires start to lose grip. Staying out longer on the track just adds to the car’s wear and tear.

With one of the faster cars in the field, Smith will compete in TT1 or TTU depending on class size. Smith has won two NASA National Championships including one at Watkins Glen International in 2016 where he set a track lap record (1:57.584) in TT1 that still stands today. At the 2023 NASA Championships in Pittsburgh, Smith finished third in a weather-challenged TT1 class.

“I think Pittsburgh is one of the most challenging tracks I’ve ever really encountered, from the elevation changes and all the blind corners, it’s a very challenging track,” said Smith, who lists Watkins Glen and Virginia International Raceway among his favorite tracks. “I enjoy a challenge, but I never felt like I had the best lap. There’s always something I could have done better.”

The 68-year-old Smith calls himself an “old school seat of the pants driver,” so he doesn’t use data loggers or video to improve lap times.

“I’m out there for fun,” Smith said. “When I get out of my car, I get an ice water and a donut, I don’t go sit behind a computer for 30 minutes and analyze every move I made on the track.”

Smith is as competitive as the next racer, but he appreciates the camaraderie within NASA. Smith is in a group of Corvette owners who dub themselves the “Over the Hill Corvette Gang.” McAfee was one of the original founders of the group, bonding over their military service and retirement.

“Everybody got to know the three of us as Corvette guys and the other Corvette guys started coming over and began parking with us,” McAfee said. “We started having Friday and Saturday night cookouts and they started coming over one by one.”

The cookouts include chicken, steaks and loads of sides and it’s open to racers beyond Corvette owners. One of the racers owns Golden Corral restaurants and Smith jokes some of the cookouts look “like a wedding is going on.”

“It’s almost like a band of brothers over the years,” Smith said. “We’ve got guys that are basically retired (from racing) or their car is broken, they still come just to be part of the group.”

Smith won’t be making the trip to Utah for the 2024 NASA National Championships, he’ll be keeping an eye on the field of Time Trial cars. The Mid-Atlantic region should be well represented at Utah Motorsports Campus.

“Hopefully, we taught them well,” he said with a laugh.