Don Smith
Don Smith is a man driven by multiple interests but with one common denominator, to succeed in each of them. In High School he was a Student Body Officer carried this honor into college as well. When he was 13 he waw member of the cast in the play, Johnny Appleseed playing at the famous Bohemian Grove in San Francisco. After graduating from college, Don played semi-pro baseball and was offered a contract from the Brooklyn Dodgers to play in its rookie league. Instead Don enlisted int the Navy Reserve where he was called into active duty and served his country for four years before receiving a honorable discharge.
However, in addition to these actives Don was also a car nut. Still in High School, when he was 17 he bought his first car, a 1938 flathead V-8 powered Ford Coupe that saw some street racing miles and two years later he bought a 1956 Chevrolet Bel Air sedan with its new V-8 powered engine which quickly found its way to the drag strip. Don was not content to just own and race these cars at the track, in 1958 Don became a partner in the famous Champion Speed Shop out of South San Francisco, California. Still not enough, another of his prime 1958 projects was a full partnership in the Half Moon Bay Drag Strip.
Not content to just be a spectator, in 1959 at the wheel of the Champion Speed Shop AA/Fuel dragster, Don was among the first Northern Californians to break the 180 MPH barrier. In addition to driving the Fuel dragster, in 1962 Don was one of the three members of the Chevrolet Sponsored 409 Super Stock team. With other team members, Don Nicolson and Hayden Profit, this was one of the most successful of Chevrolets drag racing efforts at that time.
In 1963, Don took over complete ownership of the Champion Speed Shop and built it into one of the more prominent speed shops in the nation. In 1970 he sold Champion Speed Shop but the year before closing the sale, he had already opened the doors of High Performance Distributors (HPD), a wholesale distribution center. In 2004 Don repositioned HPD into DCS Consulting & Export, a prime import/export network shop within the performance industry, which he still heads up today.
In addition to his participation as a total enthusiast, participant and promoter of racing and speed equipment, Don has also served on several Specialty Equipment Marketing Association (SEMA) committees and served 14 years as a member of the SEMA Board of Directors to help promote the total industry.
To add to these accomplishments, Don was also founder/owner of San Francisco areas famous award-winning Guido’s Restaurant and winner of the Baccarat World Championship in 1992.