Smithville had a reason to celebrate. The three Smith brothers — pictured from left to right with their father, Marvin, on the far right: Robert, Matt, and David — all took turns winning races.
The trio of brothers compete in the Delaware super truck division. Their triumphs occurred last weekend at Georgetown Speedway in Delaware. Matt, 36, won on Thursday night. Robert, 38, won on Friday. David, 33, won on Saturday.
“We’ve never had three races in a row,” said Matt. “Because of that, we never had three wins in a row.”
The Smiths’ roots in racing run deep. It started with their great-grandfather Charles West, who helped build Delaware International Speedway in Delmar.
Their grandfather, Marvin Sr., raced modifieds. Marvin, their father, competed in trucks.
“Racing is our big family event,” Robert said. “I have five kids who love it. Matthew has three. David has two. They are all there to cheer for us.”
They all live in Delmar, a town they affectionately call “Smithville.”
The brothers live among a row of houses and make a living raising chickens, corn and soybeans on the family farm. They also operate a trucking business. The Smith brothers are as close as they appear on the track.
“On Saturday night, there was .003 of a second between me and David,” said Robert. “He won; I was second. Matthew was fourth — he and the third-place truck were less than a truck-length behind us.”
While the wins are nice, the brothers just love to spend time together. For them, racing is a welcome respite from their busy lives.
“We don’t care if we are battling each other for 10th position — as long as we are battling each other, we’re having fun,” Matt said. “Racing is the only outlet we have [for that]. Other than racing, all we do is work.”
Mike Adaskaveg has written hundreds of stories since the website’s inception. This year marks his 54th year of covering auto racing. Adaskaveg got his start working for track photographer Lloyd Burnham at Connecticut’s Stafford Motor Speedway in 1970. Since then, he’s been a columnist, writer, and photographer, in racing and in mainstream media, for several outlets, including the Journal Inquirer, Boston Herald, Stock Car Racing, and Speedway Illustrated. Among Adaskaveg’s many awards are the 1992 Eastern Motorsport Press Association (EMPA) Ace Lane Photographer of the Year and the 2019 National Motorsports Press Association (NMPA) George Cunningham Writer of the Year.
