A True Hall of Famer named Smith

This is the Statt Mann Baby. Time to Scatt a little bit.

I met Malcolm Smith way back in 1975 when he won an event I helped organize, the Mojave 24 Hour Rally out of Big Bear Lake, California. He was in a loud, weirdly fast Mazda rotary pickup.

We stayed in contact until one afternoon we were literally bumping around El Mirage Dry Lake on the high desert when he almost yelled “STOP THE CAR!”

Turns out some kids were on dirt bikes jumping some of the exposed dunes and one missed. Malcolm jumped out of the car when we got to the kids. The boy’s foot was aimed in the wrong direction.

Malcolm took charge, stopping one of the buddies trying to remove the kid’s boot. He said that was the only thing holding his foot on.

We piled the kid into a pickup truck bed and he was hauled off to a nearby hospital. Don’t know what happened from there.

Malcolm won the Baja 1000 five times and the 500 four times. And that’s just the start of his brilliant resume racing bikes and cars in every kind of terrain imaginable.

Malcolm died a couple days before Thanksgiving. He was 83. He was the definition of Hall of Fame.

Rest in peace Malcolm.