After Hunter Smith scored the IMCA stock car feature win at Stuart International Speedway, he kept his true thoughts to himself. The journey to his first win in the class started in 2021, as a 14-year-old, whose father, Zack, urged him to quit baseball to go racing.
“My dad saw something in me that I did not,” Hunter, of Brush, Colorado, said. “We bought a used Monte Carlo and did just that.”
Zack Smith spent many years behind the wheel of hobby stocks and the mic at I-76 speedway. He gave up racing and transitioned to an announcer after the birth of his son Hunter. Zack felt Hunter would become the next generation to race in the family. Not only was Zack right, but Hunter quickly found success.
He became the youngest driver to win an IMCA national rookie of the year title in hobby stocks. The accomplishment prompted the Smiths to plan to move the entire family to Iowa so Hunter could continue to grow as a driver.
Then the unthinkable happened.
“We were out hunting and my dad had a massive heart attack,” Hunter said. “He was only 36 years old. I never thought that my dad would die. It’s how life works, I guess.”
Hunter wanted to continue racing.
“I looked at racing as this is what my dad wanted me to do,” Hunter said. “His dream was to have me be successful in racing. I wanted to continue that.”
Hunter’s grandfather, Rich, stepped up to keep the dream alive. In his second year in a hobby stock, Hunter earned 27 feature wins. The following season, he moved into sport mods, winning a second IMCA national rookie of the year title. In 2024, Hunter traveled to compete at storied Iowa tracks, such as Boone and Marshalltown. However, that dream of a move to Iowa stayed in the back of his mind.
Come 2025, Hunter texted Tripp Gaylord, a Colorado racer he grew up watching, to see if he knew of any jobs with racing-oriented businesses in Iowa. Tripp recommended reaching out to Zack VanderBeek of VanderBuilt Race Cars. After Hunter texted Zack, Zack invited him to Iowa for an interview.
“I got the job that week and moved to Iowa in August of 2025,” Hunter said. “I finished out the season driving in the sport mod division and took a couple rides in the stock car — it was all new to me. This year, I decided to focus on one class.”
That paid off already, with a win in May.
“I really did not expect my first win to come so quickly,” Hunter said. “I thought it would be July or August before I can get a win. It had been a year and a half since I won a sport mod feature.”
After celebrating in victory lane, his true feelings came out on the drive home with his girlfriend, Brooklyn.
“I wish [my father] was here to see it, me driving a stock car in Iowa and winning,” Hunter said. “Dad would be ecstatic, and so proud.”
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.
