Engineer, team manager, tuner, driver, author

Former Navy pilot Carroll Smith was so far ahead of his time as a race engineer and car preparer that even today, his landmark 1975 book, Prepare To Win, is considered required reading for young engineers entering the sport. After a brief amateur driving career, the Oswego, NY native, went to work for 1992 inductee Carroll Shelby; as team manager, he oversaw the preparation of the Ford GT40s that won the 1966 and ’67 24 Hours of Le Mans. Next, Smith spearheaded Tony Adamowicz’s giant-killing 1969 F5000 championship run and Sam Posey’s 1970 Dodge Challenger Trans-Am program. Smith later consulted for the Ferrari Formula 1 team and managed the Moffat Ford outfit that won the 1977 Australian Touring Car Championship and Bathurst 1000. The success of Prepare to Win led him to write a series of racer “bibles,” including Tune to Win, Engineer to Win and Drive to Win. A longtime chief judge of the Formula SAE collegiate racecar engineering program, the “Carroll Smith Mentor’s Cup” was named in his honor.