Kenny Smith | Part 1 - a good bet & waking up with silver feet!

About this episode

Kenny Smith shares his extensive motorsport career and personal stories in this engaging interview.

One of the all time greats of Motorsport from the Tasman region is finally on the pod. Ken Smith has been racing since 1958 and he’s still going! The family’s love for another kind of horsepower and how Kenny would sometimes hold up the motor racing schedule to check how his horse went. Competing against (and socializing after) with some absolute legends of the 60’s and early 70’s….Graham Hill, Bruce McLaren, Jimmy Clark, Jack Brabham and many more. His gravitation to single seater racing and winning the prestigious New Zealand Grand Prix for the first time in 1976. He then had an agonizing 14 year wait to do it again in 1990 and then another 14 year gap to his third in 2004. Even at age 84 Kenny is still razor sharp and the memories that surround us in his workshop where we recorded make for constant conversation starters.  How he helped bank roll a good portion of Roberto Moreno’s summer of racing in NZ without dipping into his own pockets.  (You can hear more about this in Roberto’s Feature Ep in our library). And a friendship with Jimmy Richards that dates back to their early days. We won’t get to every one of the 160…

People in this episode

Guest: Kenny Smith

Topics covered

• Motorsport history
• Racing legends
• New Zealand Grand Prix
• Horse racing
• Personal anecdotes
• Automotive passion

Keywords

• Kenny Smith
• motorsport
• New Zealand Grand Prix
• racing history
• automotive
• horsepower
• Graham Hill
• Bruce McLaren
• Jimmy Clark

Mentioned in this episode

Places: Tasman region

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