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I make this post not for sympathy, but to share how my love for cars, racing, dirtbiking, and people came about in honor of my dad. My dad, Ed Smith, had a passion for the big block cars of the 60s. An owner of two Corvettes, a land and water floating 6-wheeler, old Ford trucks and Chevy classics, he built the house I was raised in, built the log cabin he lived in northern New Jersey with his own hands. He served our country as a Jet Engine Repairman during the Vietnam War, and was a handyman, carpenter, and an electrician… he loved his backhoe (his fulltime job was in paving and excavating), but most importantly, he was a son, a brother, an uncle, a nephew, a friend, a husband.... and a wonderful dad... My brother and I spent most of our weekends racing around my dad’s log cabin on our motorcycles. We’d make trails from anything. We both considered competing as a sport on my RM80 cycle and my brother on his CR80 or Honda 250R 3-wheeler, but never did anything organized. I blew up my RM80 three times, each time we bored it over and made it a bit more powerful. Too bad the connecting rod was eroding, and kept shooting scraple into the combustion chamber. The love for speed and ‘control’ was in the blood, and these weekends were the catalyst for the “Scott” you all know today. My dad bought me my first car - a 1980 Volkswagen Scirocco S (fuel-injection!) that was burning oil and blowing smoke when we acquired it. He and my uncle, a mechanic all his life, stripped it down, diagnosed the issue, and wa-la, I was driving my first (of many to follow) car. The car he bought for a mere $50 we restored over the next year. 12 months after it was purchased, I sold it for $3650 – our first project. He and my brother tore down and rebuilt a few RX7s that my brother beat on during school. The garage was our 2nd home. After a few FWD debacles with deer and other vehicles, we bought my first RWD car - a 1991 Toyota Supra, followed by an 89'RX7, and lastly, my first Nissan - a red 1990TT that I've posted pictures of before. My dad helped me maintain the car… when the exhaust rusted, we installed my stage 3 upgrade. This was a bit too much car for me, as speeding tickets continued to pile up, forcing my insurance to an unheard of rate of almost $8k/year. My dad said that it'd be a shame to sell the car, so he insured it under one condition: I had to leave it in his garage until I cleared my license up and could afford it - fair enough. He’d call me on random weekends, telling me that he stood on the gas in third gear and, “once the turbos came on, he looked down and he was midway through 4th gear”… damn, damn…Well, my record slowly got better, when I moved to NM, then to CA with my Z. A few years later, I sold that 90TT for the black 94TT you know about. My dad visited me in CA last year, and although he was always a big V8 guy, after driving it he simply said, "WOW!" It was incredible... My dad and his wife visited me in CA one time. It was a wonderful visit that I wish we could do all over again. Last year, my brother and I flew him and another childhood friend from NJ to FL for the Homestead 500 NASCAR race. It was the most amazing time, and we were planning on the same this year. We had all our ducks in a row for a repeat trip, but unfortunately, September 1st was the worst day of my life. After visiting my sick late-uncle in late August, I spent the weekend at my dad’s cabin with my step-mom and introduced them for the first time to my girlfriend, Ashley. Little did I know that he would never work again after we left. The Monday we returned to CA, Dad didn’t go to work. After a week of testing, the call came on September 1st, that he was diagnosed with terminal pancreatic cancer. Later that day, my mom called and said that we had lost my uncle - a horrible day indeed. My dad successfully battled colon cancer 15 years ago, and never had another trace show since. Incase you don’t know, pancreatic cancer is very quiet, and nearly impossible to detect until it’s way too late. My dad fell into this category, and we lost him three months ago – almost to date - on September 26th. Following the news, my brother and I raced home to attend my Uncle Lou’s funeral, then spend a long weekend with my dad and brother; first at the cabin, then to western PA to see his buddy from Vietnam. Here are the last pictures from our last weekend of “Racing with Dad”. We had a great time, but it ended all too quickly. Taking the plane from CA to NJ… 
Arriving at Richie's, my dad’s buddy from the Airforce, house in Berlin, PA… about 15 minutes from where the 9/11 flight 93 went down… This is his “shed”, you’ll see the toys he has in there shortly… 
How about this as your lift? What better way to use a forklift: 
Notice the choice slogans on this puppy: 
and another one they are building: 
We attached a new exhaust pipe and baffle, this baby is ready to go.. 
Now load them up across the back of the pick-up. Screw them down into wood that’s attached to the body of the pick-up… too funny… 
Our arrival the first day at the ¼ mile track… 
My brother doing a test fit… 
Easy clutch change, not quite like a Z… 
Even go-karts get the famed red tape… go SpeedyZX 
We had some time until the races started, so we went to the 9/11 crash site the day before the anniversary of the tragedy… 
Here we are about 500 yards from where flight 93 went down…
the locals swear that the plane blew up in the air, long before it hit the ground... 
Although hard to see, we all signed in the log book… 
and noted some of the plaques given from various organizations… 
Now, back to the track where the nighttime races will ensue. There were 7different classes racing, from kiddies to adults, and from lots of rules and karts with cages to all-out no holds barred… the group my dad’s friends drive in is the 7th class.. they call themselves “THE OUTLAWS” (i.e. NO rules). Here are some of the people in the pits: 
There are two qualifying rounds, followed by a finale. The first round was 5 laps from an open grid. This was the first time my brother and I had driven these karts (30HP I think), and they were very powerful. One of the guys commented that they’d go over 90mph on straight pavement. We were clocking ~15s lap times on the ¼ mile course, which calculates to an average of 60mph. Out of the 8 in our group, I placed 6th and my brother 7th after the first round. We were gridded for the 2nd qualifying round, which consisted of 10 all-out laps. This is what happens when you mess with the Smith brothers… this guy got squeezed between me and my brother… off into the mud he went… J 
My brother ended up spinning into the mud as well, and he and I ended up finishing in 7th and 4th respectively… I was hoping for the pole position, but was very nervous after seeing the karts spin out so easily and go over the embankment into the mud below… Here we are, just before the final race… 
and 
Here we are in the last race – I think it was15 laps: 
There were a bunch of cautions which slowed us down a bit, but in the end, my brother and I finished 3rd and 4th respectively… Lucky for him – the top 3 positions actually get a payout… I tailed him hard, but didn’t want to spin him out… ;-) we’ll rematch again – dirt or pavement… September 11th:
My dad and Richie were corner-weighing the karts with the other “Outlaws”, so my brother and I returned to the track and our roots, and headed out on these 4-wheelers for a few hours… I took dozens of pictures, but here are the highlights: 
A few hours later, they returned with the karts for some fun-runs… My brother and I chased each other around for a while, but unfortunately, Richie went off-track and into a wall, bending the rear aluminum axle. Just like the partners in crime they always were, Dad and Richie attacked the axle to get it fixed for further punishment…My bro was in the red kart (FAST!) again.. 
We returned back to the cabin the next day – here is the home I’ve been talking about… 
Dad, Brian, and our very-close family friend, Eileen, on the front porch: 
Brian and I returned back to FL and CA for the following week of work. Dad’s sickness got worse almost immediately. That weekend we flew back to NJ to spend the last week with him. At 10pm on the 26th, he passed away. Oddly enough, their two cats never slept near each other. The morning after he passed, this is what I woke up to: 
His work honored him with filling his backhoe with flowers, lowering their flag to half-mass, and putting this sign up. 
Dad loved his home, life, people and family, and his automotive hobbies. We’ll miss him greatly, but his life lives on through his family, friends, and loved ones, and I suppose that most of all, through my brother and me. Please, at this holiday and New Years time, remember those whom you have loved and lost, and tell those around you how you feel. We were lucky to have the last 3 weeks with Dad to get to show and tell him how much we loved him. He said, “I’m not afraid of death, I’m just not quite ready to leave you boys”… Dad – you never left, I know you’re still watching over us all the time. I put his birth date as my new numbers…Incase you haven’t seen: 
God Bless, Scott Obituary: [ http://www.holcombefisher.com/obits/obit.cfm?obitid=173 ] 
____________________________________________________ Dad, you are my inspiration, and reason for living. May you find peace in your new place - 9/26/04. I miss you. 
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A son's last weekends with Dad... (Lots of pictures, D/U ok) - 
