Netjets US Spring 2023

OWNER’S PROFILE
DRIVEN TO
GREATNESS
Paralysis hasn’t stopped Sam Schmidt from starting
a racing company, growing a charitable foundation
or driving 150mph on the Indianapolis Motor
Speedway Oval. // By Heidi Mitchell
WHO KNEW THAT getting an off-road bike as a
Christmas present would change the trajectory
of Sam Schmidt’s life? At the age of five, young
Sam became obsessed with the two-wheeler,
graduating in the ensuing years from bikes to
dirt track to open-wheel race cars by the time
he was a teenager. “A lot of families get into
golf or tennis or football, but, for my family, it
was motorsports,” explains Schmidt, who spent
his childhood in California and now resides in
Henderson, Nevada.
His father was paralyzed in a racing accident
when Sam was 11. Sam took a 15-year hiatus
from the sport. “They said my dad would
never walk or talk again, but he is the type of
guy who, if you want him to do something,
tell him he can’t,” explains the former hospital
administrator, business scion (he purchased
his father’s auto parts company in 1989—two
years after completing his MBA at Pepperdine
University), and serial entrepreneur, with
stakes in diverse undertakings such as Arnette
Sunglasses, Copart, Precision Healthcare, and
SpeedVegas, among others, across the years. “I
guess the nut doesn’t fall far from the tree.”
Fate, too, didn’t skip generations. While
in college and grad school, Schmidt pursued
professional racing, back when that required
spending hours not in a simulator but on actual
tracks. “I raced everywhere I could on the
West Coast. I had a coach. I worked on the
cars myself,” he recalls. As with other sports,
like the rodeo, if a racer earns enough points
throughout the year, he heads to the national
championships. In 1993, Schmidt won the
amateur SCCA National Championship, by
1997 he had turned pro and joined the Indy
Racing League. He raced in three consecutive
Indianapolis 500s and gained his first pole
position and victory at the Las Vegas Motor
Speedway in 1999. But providence had other
plans for Schmidt, and, during training for the
2000 season, Schmidt made a critical error
and crashed into a wall. He blew apart his C3
WHEEL DEAL
Sam Schmidt with his latest
McLaren 720S Spider at the Goodwood
Festival of Speed in the U.K.
SCOTT ROBINSON
38 NetJets