Margie Smith-Haas

Margie (Mary Margaret) Smith-Haas is an American sportscar driver who raced at Le Mans in 1984 and 1985. She usually drove Porsches.

In 1984, she drove a Porsche 930 run by Charles Ivey Racing, sharing with Paul Smith and David Ovey. The car made it to just under half-distance before an oil leak triggered its retirement. The following year, she drove a J. Winther Denmark URD C83 prototype, which also did not finish. Its BMW engine expired after 141 laps, despite the best efforts of Margie, Jens Winther and David Mercer.

Le Mans was only a small part of Margie’s career. She was active in motorsport between 1978 1995, beginning when she was 28 years old and recently married to Paul Haas. The couple met competing in a time trial.

Her first major race was the Road Atlanta 500 Miles in 1979. She drove a Porsche 914 run by Personalized Porsche with Paul Haas and Wayne Baker. They were 27th overall and eleventh in class.

The Personalized Porsche car came out again for a second IMSA race, the Riverside 5 Hours in 1980. Margie was 26th, as part of a three-driver team with Paul and Jeff Scott.

A break from racing followed, but when Margie returned to competition in 1983 she was no less ambitious. She raced in Europe for the first time, beginning with the Monza 1000km in April. This was the first of four European Endurance Championship races she entered. Her car was a Group C Porsche CK5, shared with Tony Dron and team owner Richard Cleare. They retired early on with an oil leak.

She was scheduled to contest the Silverstone 1000km for Edgar Dören’s team but did not make the start, despite qualifying in 28th place. Her next event was the Brands Hatch 1000km, the first of two in a Charles Ivey Racing Porsche 930. Margie, Paul Smith and David Ovey took the Group B car to 15th place against the Group C leviathans, and then finished thirteenth at Mugello.

Having shared a track with motorsport royalty like Jacky Ickx and Bob Wollek for much of the season, Margie found herself among Hollywood royalty in April when she partnered actor Gene Hackman for the Riverside 6 Hours. She was driving a Toyota Celica run by Dan Gurney’s All-American Racers team. The event, which was overshadowed by the death of Rolf Stommelen, led to a 16th place for Margie.

She did some more European Endurance rounds in 1984, again in the Charles Ivey 930, but could not finish any of them, including Le Mans as mentioned above. Le Mans was not the only 24-hour she entered, however: she was part of a three-driver team for the Daytona 24 Hours, driving a Porsche 911 RSR for Team Dallas with Paul Gilgan and John Zouzelka. They were 27th, sixth in class.  

Later in the year she did her first race in the southern hemisphere. She was invited by Gebhardt Motorsport to drive its BMW-engined prototype at the Sandown 1000km in Australia, as part of an all-female team. Margie, Cathy Muller and Australian Sue Ransom managed 95 laps, somewhat under half-distance, before the car’s suspension gave way.

Margie’s 1985 Le Mans outing became her only big race of the year. She attempted to qualify for the Daytona 24 Hours in a Porsche 924 run by El Salvador Racing, but did not even make the official qualifying sessions. Her career was now in one of its leaner periods. In 1986, she tried to enter the Trans Am series in a Porsche 924, but the car was unreliable and never made the start of either race for which she officially registered.

She and Paul managed to get the 924 to two IMSA races in 1987, at Portland and Del Mar. They did enter more, but did not start. Margie was 27th in the Portland 300km and twelfth in the 45-minute Del Mar race, driving solo this time.

In 1988, she joined the American City Racing League, representing San Diego. This was the first year that the championship ran. Margie ran the three-car San Diego team that raced against similar teams from Hollywood, Sacramento and other US cities. Her own racing season was shortened as she spent the first part of it recovering from neck surgery after a road traffic accident.

She competed in the Sports 2000 class using a 2000cc one-make Sports 2000 car.. After a couple of seasons she became one of its leading drivers, finishing third in 1991 and winning the title in 1994 after leading for most of the season. This was the first win in a pro racing series for a female driver, in the USA at least.

Her last major sportscar race was the 1995 Daytona 24 Hours. Margie was back in a Group C car, driving a Spice SE90 for Screaming Eagles Racing. Her co-drivers included another Hollywood actor, Craig T Nelson. They did not finish following an accident.

Her last professional race looks to have been one of the ACRL rounds in 1996. She did four races in the series that year and was eleventh in the final standings.

She did return to the tracks briefly in 2002 for some races in the ACRL and was thirteenth overall.

After her retirement, she was a member of the all-female PPG Pace Car team attached to CART. At present, she runs a small company producing car-themed gifts, chiefly novelty cushions in the shape of famous racing cars.

(Image from bilmagasinet.dk)