‘It’s not being paralyzed that’s slowing me down’: How Forest Smith is thriving at Colorado National Speedway in spite of his handicap

Forest Smith has raced many types of vehicles for more than 25 years. In 2014, he decided to switch from asphalt stock cars to motorcycles. But he kept his modified car -- literally on a shelf in his garage -- for almost a decade. "After I was injured, and after about a year of just staring at it up in my garage, I thought, 'Well, maybe it's there for a reason,'" Smith said. In 2019, Smith crashed his motorcycle while competing in the Mint 400 off-road race in Las Vegas. He was left paralyzed from the waist down. The life-altering situation took him out of racing for more than a year as he grew accustomed to his new way of life. One of the changes was learning how to drive a car with hand controls. A fabricator by trade, Smith had always built his own race cars. He realized the hand controls were pretty simple, and he decided to find out whether they could be placed in his modified. "My whole life I've been a troubleshooter, so from that point, it was just a matter of how do I make this work without electronics?" Smith said. "Because there are several other guys that are paralyzed that are racing. ... But that's all with fully electronic throttle and braking and all that. "Mine's a little more rudimentary where it's still a cable. I just wound up welding a linkage system that works onto the steering wheel, and that's what I run the throttle with. So I basically squeeze the steering wheel to apply the throttle, and I have a brake lever off the left side of the steering wheel. "I'm basically driving with one hand, which I never was great at, but now I just do, and I kind of shift my left hand to brake as I need to." [caption id="attachment_475158" align="aligncenter" width="2560"] (Photo: Chet Strange/NASCAR)[/caption] Smith these days races at Colorado National Speedway, a NASCAR Advance Auto Parts Weekly Series track in Dacono, Colorado. He competes in the track's Grand American Modified series, which awards Division IV national championship points. When he first returned to a race car after his accident, though, Smith needed a full afternoon to feel comfortable with the new setup. His biggest concern was whether he would be able to feel if the car was loose or tight. "That feeling that people know the sensation of the car sliding before it slides, it's kind of there," he said. "My hand control could probably be a little bit better. It's probably a limiting factor for me now, just having control. We have more horsepower than we need, which I love; I always lobbied for that. But when it's an inch-and-a-half of squeeze, I'm still working on that. It's kind of like a light switch." Smith went to the first test session telling himself that if driving didn't feel right, he wouldn't try to push it. Not only did he want to make sure he was able to drive and compete again, but he wanted to make sure everyone else on the track was comfortable with his presence, too. "We went out for a practice, and I think the people there kind of knew," he said. "And I was really concerned with, are they going to accept you or not? Are they going to trust you? And I don't blame them. You're talking about very expensive equipment. Are they going to trust running side-by-side with this guy and wonder what his capabilities are? "But I think everyone feels good about it now. It did take a good afternoon, and I've raced long enough that I understand the limit. I'm not the guy that's going to go out and crash things. I know to back off a little bit and live to race another day. Whereas if I was younger, maybe that wouldn't have happened. I maybe might've overstepped my bounds a little bit. But being older, being in the handicap position, I wanted to make sure I that I gained the trust of my competitors back. "I think if you went and talked with anybody at the track without my knowledge, I think I have as good of a reputation as anybody else." [caption id="attachment_475159" align="aligncenter" width="2560"] (Photo: Chet Strange/NASCAR)[/caption] The fears of not knowing whether he could race -- or what others would think -- went away in that first afternoon. He said it was the best he'd felt since his injury. "I can't even begin to describe what a terrible situation being paralyzed is. But there are people that have it far worse. ... Being paralyzed is terrible. I'm not going to sugarcoat it whatsoever. There's so many terrible things about it, and it lets you know that you're paralyzed every second of every day. "Except when I got in the race car and you hammer the throttle. It all disappeared. "That was probably the most exhilarating. Plus I'm obviously an adrenaline junkie, so just feeling that itch for speed. Literally just not feeling injured. Feeling equal, not feeling like I'm in a chair. I'm no different than anybody else. I'm driving with my hands, but we're in the same car." RELATED: Forest Smith on MyRacePass Smith returned to racing full-time at Colorado in 2022. He finished ninth in the modified standings that season, followed by a fifth in 2023 and 11th in 2024. He's tied for sixth in the standings this year. "We work really hard," he said. "We're trying to get better, and it's not being paralyzed that's slowing me down. We have a good group of guys, too. They're just fast. The competition level right now is high at our track. That's a good thing. It makes you bring your A-game every time." Smith's first experience with racing came when he was 16 and working as an auto mechanic at a local Dodge dealership. The service manager there raced a sprint car at a small track in Denver. Smith had never been around race cars or been to a race, "but I went down with him and watched and just was like, I don't how to explain it," he said. "I don't know if I found racing or it found me, but once I'd seen it, I was just hooked. There's nothing else that's ever done that. I just felt like, this is what I should be doing." He got his first car in 1989, and other than the few years after his injury, he hasn't stopped. He said the sport -- both racing and working in the garage -- has been difficult to escape. He builds all aspects of the car in his own garage, something else he didn't think would be possible after getting hurt, but he's probably doing more now than he was before. "Even now, I should be working hard at making sure I can retire at some point," Smith said with a laugh. "I'm 56, and I want to be sure my wife's taken care of because she worked so hard at taking care of me and everything that we've done throughout her life. But here I am throwing money at tires for the car and doing all that. I'm not putting us in the poor house, but I could probably retire a year or two sooner if I wasn't throwing money at a race car. "But you have to enjoy life, too." [caption id="attachment_475161" align="aligncenter" width="2560"] (Photo: Chet Strange/NASCAR)[/caption] Smith's wife Cindy is his biggest help both in the garage and on race days. "If I didn't have a the wife that I have, there's no way," he said. "There's too much this life requires being handicapped. We've got four tires to mount to get ready for this weekend. There's not many gals that would come out and mess with tires and help do all the things, load the trailer, hook this up, all of that. "Being a racer almost requires you be a very selfish person, but for that to work, you need a selfless person, and my wife is very selfless. Otherwise it wouldn't work." Smith won the modified championship at Colorado National in 2010 and last won a race there in 2012. His goal this year is to first win a trophy dash race to collect his first trophy since returning to the car. Getting that win "will take a lot of emotional pressure off myself," he said. From there, he wants to get to Victory Lane in a main event. "And if we could put that together, then we'll see where it goes," he added. "Unfortunately you're a racer, so you can say that will be enough, but if that box got checked, then you'd want to win five. But I'm old enough now I can look at myself and be objective and chuckle and realize that it really is just about having fun. I just enjoy it, what we do. I can't imagine just sitting around watching TV or doing other stuff. "It kind of keeps me having fun, and I enjoy it and always have, and apparently always will."