Marin motor sports: Novato native Smith suffers setback in Sonoma

Despite starting near the back after missing qualifying due to yet another mechanical failure in practice, Novato native Dave Smith began Saturday’s ARCA General Tire 200 at Sonoma Raceway on the charge, moving up through skill more than car performance.

Smith didn’t even take the green the week before on the Portland International Raceway road course due to gearbox issues so at Sonoma he was prepared hold back the reins a bit if he had to.

“It was pretty fragile, that car. I’ve been driving it leaving a little bit on the table to see if we could soldier through to a top ten. That was the strategy,” Smith said.

Using the road-course style of heel-and-toe braking to not upset the finicky tranny while others braked with their left feet, Smith could race hard without it taking a toll.

“What I had to my advantage was the track knowledge, knowing the line,” Smith said. “I could see that a lot of competitors were making mistakes and I was able to gobble them up with a very sub-par car. My braking and downshifting into 7 and 11; I was feeling pretty solid with that.”

Smith was putting cars in his mirrors that would eventually finish inside the top ten, and redemption in the opening race of the NASCAR Toyota/Save Mart 350 weekend was a tangible possibility.

But on lap 21 the No. 77 Global Office Inc/King Taco Toyota Camry locked into second gear heading onto the short start/finish straight.

“I limped it around in second gear all the way around, came in to pit,” Smith said. “I was thinking that maybe they could jack it up — the linkage bars get caught up sometimes. Then they go, ‘It’s internal.’ Then we’re done.”

And this was just when his race strategy was falling into place.

“Then you’re just praying for cautions, because when you get cautions the field packs up and you get a chance to overtake people again,” Smith said. “And it gives the car a rest, too, under cautions because that car needed to rest. It wasn’t a car that was going to be a fire-breathing beast all the time.”

But it did cough up another transmission.

“We were kind of Band-aiding the car together to finish in the top ten, but we came up short,” Smith said, finishing 26th.

Despite the frustration, Smith loves driving the big stock cars as opposed to the nimble, high-tech, Porsche Cayman GT4 Club Sport he races or shares often each year.

“They’re analog. They don’t have any electronics, no anti-lock brakes. It’s all you throwing around the car,” Smith said of the rumbling stock cars. “It’s all you trying to tame a wild horse around here. You’re slipping and sliding. The guy that can stay mentally focused is the guy that can end up doing pretty well.”

Smith did his part, but his steed came up lame again.