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Jason Priestley Born In Vancouver, BC, Canada - August 28th, 1969

August 28, 2015, 12:00 am
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August 28th, 1969
Jason Priestley
(photo credit: Alan Langford via photopin cc)
Born in Vancouver, BC, Canada.
He is an actor, race car driver and Indy car team owner, best known as the virtuous Brandon Walsh on the television series Beverly Hills, 90210 and for his role starring as Richard "Fitz" Fitzpatrick in the show Call Me Fitz.

Priestley's hobbies include race car driving. On August 11, 2002, he was seriously injured during a practice run at the Kentucky Speedway when his Indy Pro Series car crashed into a wall at nearly 180 miles per hour. After the accident he was initially transferred to University of Kentucky Chandler Medical Center where he was admitted to Trauma ICU in critical condition. After being stabilized he was then transferred to an Indianapolis hospital where he made a quick and full recovery.

Priestley was an owner of the FAZZT Race Team, which is competed full-time in the Indy Car Series in 2010 with Canadian racer Alex Tagliani. The number is 77 and the sponsor was Bowers & Wilkins speakers. In 2011 Sam Schmidt Motorsports bought out the team and welcomed the 77 to the stable. The team qualified on the pole with Alex Tagliani. In October 2011, 2 – Time Indy 500 Champion Dan Wheldon took the wheel starting in Kentucky. At the Las Vegas race, he lost his life in a 15 car melee in turn 2.

Jason Priestly "I’m really just a guy who loves to compete. Before I was old enough to drive a car, I raced sailboats. I have been an athlete my whole life and always had a strong competitive spirit. Driving race cars for me was just what I did. I raced as a professional for 11 years. I had a great career - stood on a lot of podiums and sprayed lots of champagne. I loved every minute I spent in a race car and miss it every day. But not to worry, it is a young man’s sport and I’m not so young anymore."
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Former World Champiom James Hunt Born In England - August 29, 1947

August 29, 2015, 12:00 am
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August 29, 1947 - June 15, 1993
James Hunt
photo credit: Serbian car fans via photopin cc
Born in Belmont, Sutton, Surrey, England.
The 1976 Formula One World Champion, Hunt became a media commentator and businessman after retiring from racing in 1979.

Beginning his racing career in touring car racing, Hunt progressed into Formula Three where he attracted the attention of the Hesketh Racing team and was soon taken under their wing. Hunt's often action-packed exploits on track earned him the nickname "Hunt the Shunt". Hunt entered Formula One in 1973, driving a March 731 entered by the Hesketh Racing team. He went on to win for Hesketh, driving their own Hesketh 308 car, in both World Championship and non-Championship races, before joining the McLaren team at the end of 1975. In his first year with McLaren, Hunt won the 1976 World Drivers' Championship, and he remained with the team for a further two years, although with less success, before moving to the Wolf team in early 1979. Following a string of races in which he failed to finish, Hunt retired from driving halfway through the 1979 season.

After retiring from motor racing, he established a career commenting on Grands Prix for the BBC. He was known for his knowledge, insights, dry sense of humour and his criticism of drivers who, he believed, were not trying hard enough, which in the process brought him a whole new fanbase.

June 15, 1993, Hunt died from a heart attack at his home in Wimbledon, London, England, at the age of 45. Two days previously, Hunt cycled from his home to Television Centre, to comment on the 1993 Canadian Grand Prix.

The movie Rush, a 2013 British-German biographical sports drama film, centered on the rivalry between Hunt and Niki Lauda, during the 1976 Formula One motor-racing season. 
(photo credit: engyles via photopin cc) 
In the book, James Hunt: The Biography, Niki Lauda stated that "We were big rivals, especially at the end of the season, but I respected him, because you could drive next to him, 2 centimeters, wheel-by-wheel, for 300 kilometers or more, and nothing would happen. 
He was a real top driver at the time."

Early in their careers Hunt and Lauda shared a one-bedroom flat in London, and were close friends off the track. Lauda, in his autobiography To Hell and Back, described Hunt as an "open, honest to God pal". Lauda admired Hunt's burst of speed while Hunt envied Lauda's capacity for analysis and rigour. In the spring of 1974, Hunt moved to Spain on the advice of the International Management Group. While living there as a tax exile, Hunt was the neighbour of Jody Scheckter, and they also came to be very good friends, with Hunt giving Scheckter the nickname Fletcher after the crash-prone bird in the book Jonathan Livingston Seagull. Another close friend was Ronnie Peterson. Peterson was a quiet and shy man, while Hunt was exactly the opposite, but their contrasting personalities made them very close off the track. It was Hunt who discovered Gilles Villeneuve, whom he met after being soundly beaten by him in a Formula Atlantic race in 1976. Hunt then arranged for the young Canadian to make his Grand Prix debut with McLaren in 1977.

Hunt's lifestyle was as controversial as some of the events on track: he was associated with a succession of beautiful women; he preferred to turn up to formal functions in bare feet and jeans; he liked to drink, and also used cocaine and marijuana; and he lived an informal life near the beach in Marbella. He was regularly seen attending nightclubs and discos, and was generally the life and soul of the party. Hunt was an expert ball game player, and regularly played squash and tennis. He also played on the Formula One drivers' cricket and football teams and appeared on the BBC's Superstars more than once.

He was inducted into the Motor Sport Hall of Fame on January 29, 2014.


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The Wendell Scott Story

August 29, 2015, 12:00 am
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August 29, 1921 - December 23, 1990
Wendell Oliver Scott
(Photo; "WendellScottRetiredNASCARDriver" by Source.)
Born in Danville, Virginia, USA.
From boyhood, he wanted to be his own boss. In Danville, two industries dominated the local economy: cotton mills and tobacco-processing plants. Scott vowed to avoid that sort of boss-dominated life. He began learning auto mechanics from his father, who worked as a driver and mechanic for two well-to-do white families. Scott raced bicycles against white boys. In his neighborhood, he said, "I was the only black boy that had a bicycle." He became a daredevil on roller skates, speeding down Danville's steep hills on one skate. He dropped out of high school, became a taxi driver, married Mary Coles and served in the segregated Army in Europe during World War II.

After the war, he ran an auto-repair shop. As a sideline, he took up the dangerous, illegal pursuit of running moonshine whiskey. This trade gave quite a few early stock car racers such as Junior Johnson and Big Bill France their education in building fast cars and outrunning the police. The police caught Scott only once, in 1949. Sentenced to three years probation, he continued making his late-night whiskey runs. On weekends, he would go to the stock car races in Danville, sitting in the blacks-only section of the bleachers, and he would wish that he too could be racing on the speedway.

The Danville races were run by the Dixie Circuit, one of several regional racing organizations that competed with NASCAR during that era. Danville's events always made less money than the Dixie Circuit's races at other tracks. "We were a tobacco and textile town, people didn't have the money to spend," said Aubrey Ferrell, one of the organizers. The officials decided they would try an unusual, and unprecedented, promotional gimmick: They would recruit a Negro driver to compete against the "good ol' boys." To their credit, they wanted a fast black driver, not just a fall guy to look foolish. They asked the Danville police who the best Negro driver in town was. The police recommended the moonshine runner whom they had chased many times and caught only once. Scott brought one of his whiskey-running cars to the next race, and on May 23, 1952, Southern stock car racing gained its first black driver. Some spectators booed him, and his car broke down during the race. But Scott realized immediately that he wanted a career as a driver.

The next day, however, brought the first of many episodes of discrimination that would plague his racing career. Scott repaired his car and towed it to a NASCAR-sanctioned race in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. But the NASCAR officials refused to let him compete. Black drivers were not allowed, they said. As he drove home, Scott recalled, "I had tears in my eyes." A few days later he went to another NASCAR event in High Point, North Carolina. Again, Scott said, the officials "just flat told me I couldn't race. They told me I could let a white boy drive my car. I told 'em weren't no damn white boy going to drive my car." Scott decided to avoid NASCAR for the time being and race with the Dixie Circuit and at other non-NASCAR speedways. He won his first race at Lynchburg, Virginia, only twelve days into his racing career. It was just a short heat race in the amateur class, but for Scott, the victory was like a barb on a hook. He knew that he had found his calling.

He ran as many as five events a week, mostly at Virginia tracks. Some spectators would shout racial slurs, but many others began rooting for him. Some prejudiced drivers would wreck him deliberately. They "just hammered on Wendell," former chief NASCAR photographer T. Taylor Warren said. "They figured he wasn't going to retaliate." And they were right, Scott felt that because of the racial atmosphere, he could not risk becoming involved in the fist-fights and dirty-driving paybacks that frequently took place among the white drivers.

Many other drivers, however, came to respect Scott. They saw his skills as a mechanic and driver, and they liked his quiet, uncomplaining manner. They saw him as someone similar to themselves, another hard-working blue-collar guy swept up in the adrenalin rush of racing, not somebody trying to make a racial point. Some white drivers became his close friends and also occasionally acted as his bodyguards. Some Southern newspapers began writing positive stories about Scott's performance. He began the 1953 season on the northern Virginia circuit, for example, by winning a feature race in Staunton. Then he tied the Waynesboro qualifying record. A week later he won the Waynesboro feature, after placing first in his heat race and setting a new qualifying record.

Scott understood, though, that to rise in the sport, he somehow had to gain admission to the all-white ranks of NASCAR. He did not know NASCAR's celebrated founder and president, Bill France, who ran the organization like a czar. Instead, Scott found a way, essentially, to slip into NASCAR through a side door, without the knowledge or consent of anyone at NASCAR's Daytona Beach headquarters. He towed his racecar to a local NASCAR event at the old Richmond Speedway, a quarter-mile dirt oval, and asked the steward, Mike Poston, to grant him a NASCAR license. Poston, a part-timer, was not a powerful figure in NASCAR's hierarchy, but he did have the authority to issue licenses. He asked Scott if he knew what he was getting into, that NASCAR had never had any black drivers, and he was going to be knocked around. Scott responded "I can take it." Poston approved Scott's license. Later he confided to Scott that officials at NASCAR headquarters had not been pleased with his decision.

Scott met Bill France for the first time in April 1954. The night before, Scott said, the promoter at a NASCAR event in Raleigh, North Carolina, had given gas money to all of the white drivers who came to the track but refused to pay Scott anything. Scott said he approached France in the pits at the Lynchburg speedway and told him what had happened. Even though France and the Raleigh promoter were friends, Scott said France immediately pulled some money out of his pocket and assured Scott that NASCAR would never treat him with prejudice, that he was a NASCAR member, and as of now will always be treated as a NASCAR member. Instead of the fifteen dollars received by the other drivers, France gave him thirty.

Scott won dozens of races during his nine years in regional-level competition. His driving talent, his skill as a mechanic and his hard work earned him the admiration of thousands of white fans and many of his fellow racers, despite the racial prejudice that was widespread during the 1950s. In 1959 he won two championships. NASCAR awarded him the championship title for drivers of sportsman-class stock cars in the state of Virginia, and he also won the track championship in the sportsman class at Richmond's Southside Speedway. Even at this early stage of his racing, Scott would tell friends privately that his goal was to win races at the top level of NASCAR. For the rest of his career he would pursue a dream whose fulfillment depended heavily upon whether France backed up that promise.

In 1961, he moved up to Grand National. In the 1963 season, he finished 15th in points, and on December 1 of that year, driving a Chevrolet Bel Air that he purchased from Ned Jarrett, he won a race on the half-mile dirt track at Speedway Park in Jacksonville, Florida, the first Grand National event won by an African-American. Scott passed Richard Petty, who was driving an ailing car, with 25 laps remaining for the win. Scott was not announced as the winner of the race at the time, presumably due to the racist culture of the time. Buck Baker, the second-place driver, was initially declared the winner, but race officials discovered two hours later that Scott had not only won, but was two laps in front of the rest of the field. NASCAR awarded Scott the win two years later, but his family never actually received the trophy he had earned until 2010, 47 years after the race, and 20 years after Scott had died.

He continued to be a competitive driver despite his low-budget operation through the rest of the 1960s. In 1964, Scott finished 12th in points despite missing several races. Over the next five years, Scott consistently finished in the top ten in the point standings. He finished 11th in points in 1965, was a career-high 6th in 1966, 10th in 1967, and finished 9th in both 1968 and 1969. His top year in winnings was 1969 when he won $47,451.

Scott was forced to retire due to injuries from a racing accident at Talladega, Alabama in 1973. He achieved one win and 147 top ten finishes in 495 career Grand National starts.
(Photo; nascar.com)
He was posthumously inducted into the NASCAR Hall of Fame in 2015. He had also been inducted into the International Motorsports Hall of Fame in 1999 and the Virginia Sports Hall of Fame in 2000.

Scott died on December 23, 1990 in Danville, Virginia, having suffered from spinal cancer.

Legacy;

(Photo; "Wendell Scott 34 Chevrolet NASCAR Hall of Fame" by Mike Kalasnik)
A 1962 Chevrolet built by Scott for the movie Greased Lightning on display at the NASCAR Hall of Fame. The film Greased Lightning, starring Richard Pryor as Scott, was loosely based on Scott's biography.

Mojo Nixon, a fellow Danville native, wrote a tribute song titled "The Ballad of Wendell Scott", which appears on Nixon and Skid Roper's 1986 album, Frenzy.

Scott has a street named after him in his hometown of Danville.

Only six other black drivers are known to have started at least one race in what is now the Sprint Cup Series: Elias Bowie, Charlie Scott, George Wiltshire, Randy Bethea, Willy T. Ribbs and, most recently, Bill Lester, who made the field for races at Atlanta and Michigan in 2006. Those drivers have made a combined nine Cup starts.

As reported in the Washington Post filmmaker John W. Warner began directing a documentary about Scott, titled The Wendell Scott Story, which was to be released in 2003 with narration by the filmmaker's father, former U.S. Senator John Warner but instead Warner created a four set DVD entitled "American Stock: The Golden Era of NASCAR: 1936-to-1971" which documents many racers including Scott. The film included interviews with fellow race-car drivers, including Richard Petty.

Scott is prominently featured in the 1975 book The World's Number One, Flat-Out, All-Time Great Stock Car Racing Book, written by Jerry Bledsoe.

In January 2013, Scott was awarded his own historical marker in Danville, Virginia. The marker's statement “Persevering over prejudice and discrimination, Scott broke racial barriers in NASCAR, with a 13-year career that included 20 top five and 147 top ten finishes.”
(Photo; wset.com)

Hard Driving: The Wendell Scott Story Paperback 
by Brian Donovan (Author)

(www.amazon.ca)
Hard Driving is the dramatic story of one man’s dogged determination to live the life he loved, and to compete, despite daunting obstacles, at the highest level of his sport.Wendell Scott figured he was signing up for trouble when he became nascar’s version of Jackie Robinson in the segregated 1950s. Some speedways refused to let him race. “Go home, nigger,” spectators yelled. And after a bigoted promoter refused to pay him, Scott appealed directly to the sport’s founder, nascar czar Bill France Sr.France made a promise Scott would never forget – that nascar would never treat him with prejudice.For the next two decades, Scott chased a dream whose fulfillment depended on France backing up that promise. Persevering through crashes, health problems, and money troubles, Scott remained convinced he had the talent to become one of nascar’s best. Hard Driving documents a previously untold chapter in the history of integration, politics, and sports in America. It reveals how France, founder of the multibillion-dollar nascar empire, reneged on his pledge and allowed repeated discrimination against Scott by racing officials and other powerful figures. It details France’s alliances with leading segregationist politicians such as George Wallace, the reluctance of auto executives such as Lee Iacocca to sponsor a black driver; and the inspiring support Scott received from white drivers such as nascar champions Ned Jarrett and Richard Petty, who admired his skill and tenacity.
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NASCAR's "First African-American" Wendell Scott Is Born - August 29, 1921

August 29, 2015, 12:00 am
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August 29, 1921 - December 23, 1990
Wendell Oliver Scott
(Photo; wendellscott.org)
Born in Danville, Virginia, USA.
He was the first African-American driver in NASCAR, and the first African-American to win a race in the Grand National Series (now the Sprint Cup Series), NASCAR's highest level.

Scott began his racing career in local circuits and attained his NASCAR license in around 1953, making him the first African-American ever to compete in NASCAR. He debuted in the Grand National Series on March 4, 1961, in Spartanburg, South Carolina. On December 1, 1963, he won a Grand National Series race at Speedway Park in Jacksonville, Florida, becoming the first black driver to win a race at NASCAR's premier level. Scott's career was repeatedly affected by racial prejudice and problems with top-level NASCAR officials. However, his determined struggle as an underdog won him thousands of white fans and many friends and admirers among his fellow racers.

He was posthumously inducted into the NASCAR Hall of Fame in 2015. He had also been inducted into the International Motorsports Hall of Fame in 1999 and the Virginia Sports Hall of Fame in 2000.

Scott died on December 23, 1990 in Danville, Virginia, having suffered from spinal cancer.

For more see; The Wendell Scott Story
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Peter Gethin Scores McLaren's 19th Straight Can-Am Win - August 30, 1970

August 30, 2015, 12:00 am
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August 30, 1970
(Photo; en.wikipedia.org)
Peter Gethin scores Team McLaren's 19th straight Can-Am win, when he drives a McLaren-M8D to victory at Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin, USA.
(photo credit: Dave Hamster via photopin cc)
Gethin made his debut in F1 for McLaren after the death of team founder, Bruce McLaren, who had been killed at the Goodwood Circuit earlier in the 1970 season. Gethin also raced for Team McLaren in the 1970 Canadian-American Challenge Cup series, driving the McLaren M8D that had been driven by Dan Gurney in the first three races of the season. Gethin won the one race, and finished third in the 1970 championship.
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Carl Edwards Wins NASCAR Nationwide At Circuit Gilles Villeneuve - August 30th, 2009

August 30, 2015, 12:00 am
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August 30th, 2009
Carl Edwards drove to a .393 second victory over Marcos Ambrose in the NASCAR Nationwide Series "NAPA Auto Parts 200 Presented by Dodge" at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
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Drag Racer Blaine Johnson Killed In Crash - August 31st, 1996

August 31, 2015, 12:00 am
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May 22, 1962 - August 31, 1996
Blaine Johnson
(Photo; spokeo.com)
Born in Santa Maria California USA.
Blaine, along with his lifelong crew chief and brother, Alan, were competitors in the NHRA Top Alcohol Dragster Series, a series which they entered in 1988. Johnson won four championships in that series from 1990–1993. At the time of his death, Johnson held a record 26 NHRA titles in the Alcohol Division, until he was later surpassed by Rick Santos.

He entered the Top Fuel class in 1994. However, on August 31, 1996 Johnson died from injuries sustained in a crash at the Mac Tools U.S. Nationals in Indianapolis. Johnson's engine exploded right as he reached the finish line. Debris from the engine cut down the rear tires; the thick rubber from the tires in turn sheared off the rear wing, causing a loss in aerodynamic downforce at the rear of the dragster, which caused Blaine to lose control. His out-of-control race car then slammed into a guardrail apex at around 300 m.p.h. Johnson's car was heavily damaged as a result of the incident. He was sent to Methodist Hospital in Indianapolis, but was pronounced dead on arrival.

Johnson was the first Top Fuel driver to die on track since Pete Robinson at the 1971 Winternationals, and would remain as such until 2004, when Top Fuel driver Darrell Russell was killed during an event in Madison, Illinois.

Johnson's final pass was a track-record run of 4.61 seconds, which remained for two years before Gary Scelzi, who succeeded Blaine Johnson as the driver of Alan Johnson's dragster would beat it. Johnson was also the Top Fuel national record holder at the time of his death with a 4.59 second elapsed-time, a record that would stand until 1999 when Larry Dixon would beat it.

Though Blaine did not get to compete in the last quarter of the season, he had amassed enough points to finish fifth in the season ending points standings. At the awards ceremony after the end of the season, Top Fuel Champion Kenny Bernstein gave his championship trophy to Blaine's brother Alan. According to Alan, that particular trophy is in "a place of honor" at his home in Santa Maria.

The day after his death, on the first day of Eliminations, his opponent Tony Schumacher, performed drag racing's version of a "missing man" formation, idling down the track out of respect to Johnson. During the final round, event winner Cory McClenethan, who was in the lane opposite Johnson during his last ride down the track, stated very clearly, "And I'll tell you something else, when I get up there and get that trophy, it's going to Alan Johnson. Blaine, we love you, buddy."

(Photo; competitionplus.com)
Memoria plaque for Blaine Johnson at entrance of Midway at IRP.

Throughout the rest of the 1996 and deep into the 1997 seasons, the drivers in Top Fuel, and even some in Funny Car, sported stickers on their cars that read "In Memory of Blaine Johnson". Many drivers continued to have black tape across their car numbers in mourning, and 1996 Top Fuel points Champion Kenny Bernstein dedicated the remainder of the season to the memory of Blaine. After Alan Johnson picked Gary Scelzi to replace Blaine, he designed the new Winston No Bull dragster, which carried on the windscreen "In Memory of Blaine Johnson" for the remainder of the car's life. Blaine's brother, and crew chief, Alan Johnson, went on to be the crew chief for both of Gary Scelzi's championships in Top Fuel, and was the crew chief for seven time Top Fuel Champion Tony Schumacher for six of his seven championships, amassing 9 championships as a crew chief. He is currently part-owner of Awesome Al-Anabi Racing, and has designed the top fuel cars of both Khalid Al-Balooshi, and Shawn Langdon.

On the National Hot Rod Association Top 50 Drivers, 1951–2000, Blaine Johnson was ranked No. 36.

(photo credit: twm1340 via photopin cc)
Blaine Johnson's last appearance at Denver.
In 1996, the NHRA established the Blaine Johnson Memorial Award, which is awarded annually to the person or group that best exemplifies the qualities of Blaine. The award is a small bronze bust of Blaine atop a wooden base, with a brass plaque etched with the winner's name and the words NHRA Blaine Johnson Memorial Trophy.

Since 1997, following the NHRA Finals in Pomona, the Johnson Family has hosted the Blaine Johnson Memorial Golf Tournament in which the race community and the public participate to earn funds for the Blaine Johnson Memorial Foundation. The Foundation was created by Blaine's family to provide funds for scholarships to students in the Automotive Technology Lab at Allan Hancock College that exemplify the drive and determination that Blaine exhibited on the track and in life. The foundation also provides material support to the department such as machines and tooling.
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Tribute To Elmer Trett

September 1, 2015, 12:00 am
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March 14, 1943 - September 1st, 1996
 Elmer Trett
(Photo; oocities.org)
Born in Keavy, Kentucky, USA.
Trett started drag racing in the late 1960s at Thornhill Dragway in Kenton, Kentucky. His first racing machine was his Harley-Davidson street bike. Trett owned a motorcycle performance shop in Hamilton, Ohio, and worked primarily on Harley-Davidsons. His family was always a big part of his racing, with his wife, Jackie, and daughters, Gina and Kelly, heavily involved in the family business. In the early part of the '70s, a magazine that featured a double-engined Harley inspired him and he built one and started his professional racing career.

He turned to Top Fuel in 1976 with the twin-engined Sportster. The development of the Harley reached its pinnacle in 1979 when he won his first title with sanctioning body DRAGBIKE. Lighter designs were beginning to eclipse Trett’s 900-pound, double-engined monster, so in 1980 Trett got backing from Harley-Davidson to develop a blown, single-engine nitromethane-burning V-twin. Unfortunately for Trett, Harley-Davidson was going through financial difficulties and was forced the next year to cut most of its racing programs, including Trett’s. Without the factory support, Trett had to make the difficult decision to switch to the more modern designs of the Japanese multi-cylinder machines. He chose Kawasaki.

It was during this period that the Tretts, seeking a little warmer climate, moved the race shop and their home to the mountain community of Demorest, Georgia.

Trett permanently etched his name in the drag racing record books when he became the first motorcycle drag racer to eclipse 200 mph after being clocked at 201.43 at the NHRA U.S. Nationals in Indianapolis in 1983. The 200 mph barrier was the most coveted milestone in motorcycle drag racing during this era and Trett became an instant celebrity in the motorcycling community for making the hurdle. He became one of the best-known racers in motorcycling and was featured on the covers of nearly all the top motorcycling magazines.

In a 1986 feature in Motorcyclist, Trett described the sensation of riding a Top Fuel motorcycle dragster - perhaps the most treacherous contraption in all of motorsports. “Making a pass on a top fueler is like being shot out of a rifle,” Trett said. “If your aim isn’t perfect, you’re going to miss the target.” He went on to explain that the bike consumed over three gallons of nitro/alcohol mixed fuel during its seven-second run.

Throughout the 1980s and '90s, Trett refined a series of motorcycles and continued to set records along the way. In all, he won eight national Top Fuel championships under three different sanctioning bodies.

Later in his career, Trett did everything he could to keep Top Fuel motorcycle drag racing alive. He took it upon himself to talk to riders in other classes and gave them a helping hand if they made the jump to the Top Fuel. Often this meant helping an archrival that he would have to race against, but Trett worked unselfishly for the benefit of the class of drag racing he loved so much.

Trett was a trendsetting genius in the world of drag bike racing.  During Trett’s career, his incredible home-built dragbikes reset, often shattering, the world elapsed-time and speed records over 15 times, including the legendary, long-standing record blast of 6.06 at the 1996 Prostar Pingel Thunder Nationals.  Trett was the first man over 200, 210, 220, and 230 mph.

The motorcycle drag racing legend and perhaps the greatest Top Fuel rider in the sport’s history, was killed on September 1st, 1996, when he came off his motorcycle at the top end of Indianapolis Raceway Park while making an exhibition run, one of his numerous endeavors to bring more attention to motorcycle drag racing. He was 53. Trett's crash came one day after the fatal crash of Blaine Johnson at the same track. A sad weekend for the motor sport community.

Trett's death came when he was well on his way to a ninth title, and on the verge of becoming the first rider to break into the magical five-second bracket. “He had made several record runs in the low sixes and most people believe he would have broken into the fives by the end of that year.” said Keith Kizer, president of AMA Prostar.

In addition to his induction into the AMA Motorcycle Hall of Fame, Trett also became the first motorcycle racer to be inducted into the International Drag Racing Hall of Fame.
  
(Photo; motorcyclemuseum.org)
For his influence and impact on the sport the NHRA recognized Trett as number 50 on its list of the greatest 50 drivers of all time, highly impressive considering the NHRA is an organization showcasing primarily four-wheeled vehicles.
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Legendary Top Fuel Rider Elmer Trett Killed At IRP - September 1st, 1996

September 1, 2015, 12:00 am
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March 14, 1943 - September 1st, 1996
 Elmer Trett
(Photo; oocities.org)
The motorcycle drag racing legend and perhaps the greatest Top Fuel rider in the sport’s history, was killed on September 1st, 1996, when he came off his motorcycle at the top end of Indianapolis Raceway Park while making an exhibition run, one of his numerous endeavors to bring more attention to motorcycle drag racing. He was 53. Trett's crash came one day after the fatal crash of Blaine Johnson at the same track. A sad weekend for the motor sport community.

Trett's death came when he was well on his way to a ninth title, and on the verge of becoming the first rider to break into the magical five-second bracket. “He had made several record runs in the low sixes and most people believe he would have broken into the fives by the end of that year.” said Keith Kizer, president of AMA Prostar.

In addition to his induction into the AMA Motorcycle Hall of Fame, Trett also became the first motorcycle racer to be inducted into the International Drag Racing Hall of Fame.
  
(Photo; motorcyclemuseum.org)
For his influence and impact on the sport the NHRA recognized Trett as number 50 on its list of the greatest 50 drivers of all time, highly impressive considering the NHRA is an organization showcasing primarily four-wheeled vehicles.

For more see our; Tribute To Elmer Trett
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Marcos Ambrose Born in Launceston, Tasmania, Australia - September 1, 1976

September 1, 2015, 12:00 am
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September 1, 1976
Marcos Ambrose

(photo credit: AmyKay1974 via photopin)
Born in Launceston, Tasmania, Australia.
He drives the No. 17 Ford FG X Falcon for DJR Team Penske in the V8 Supercar series. He won the series' championship in 2003 and 2004.

In 2006, Ambrose relocated to the United States to pursue racing in NASCAR, starting with the Camping World Truck Series. He moved up to the Nationwide Series in 2007, and later the Sprint Cup Series in 2008. In 2011, he earned his first Cup Series win at Watkins Glen International, becoming the first Australian driver to win in the highest level of NASCAR, and repeated that win in the following year.

In September 2014, Ambrose confirmed he would leave RPM and NASCAR at the end of the 2014 season with a purpose to return to Australia. Ambrose stated that it was for both personal reasons for his children and because he had accepted an offer to join DJR Team Penske, co-owned by NASCAR owner Roger Penske.
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Simona de Silvestro Born In Thun, Switzerland - September 1, 1988

September 1, 2015, 2:24 am
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September 1, 1988
Simona de Silvestro
(photo credit: Paul Henman via photopin cc)
Born in Thun, Switzerland.
She currently drives for Andretti Autosport in the IndyCar Series. Her nickname is the "Iron Maiden"

Simona raced for Newman Wachs Racing's Nuclear Clean Air Energy/Entergy team in the Atlantic Championship in 2008 and for Team Stargate Worlds in 2009. She won the Atlantic race at the 2008 Long Beach Grand Prix, making her the second woman to win in that series and providing NWR with its first win. She won four times during the 2009 season and led in points for most of the season. She ultimately finished third in the standings after retiring on the first lap during the season finale at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca.

De Silvestro participated in an IRL IndyCar Series test in December, 2009 at Sebring International Raceway, a joint effort between HVM Racing and Team Stargate Worlds. 

De Silvestro competed full–time in the IZOD IndyCar Series for HVM Racing for the 2010 season. On 22 May 2010, she qualified in the 22nd position for the 2010 Indianapolis 500. She finished the race in 14th position, and earned Indianapolis 500 "Rookie of the Year" honors. She finished 19th overall in the series standings and and was the resipent of the Tony Renna Rising Star Award. 

In February 2014, Formula One team Sauber announced that de Silvestro would join the team as an "affiliated driver" and would undergo a year-long training programme with the team, with the ultimate objective of racing in 2015. De Silvestro began testing with the team at the end of April 2014 at Fiorano Circuit. She had her first drive in the 2012 Sauber on April 26, and completed 112 laps during the test.

On 2 April 2015, de Silvestro announced she would drive the Andretti Autosport No. 29 Honda in the 2015 IndyCar Series season in an attempt to make the Indianapolis 500. De Silvestro finished fourth in the second race of the season, the Indy Grand Prix of Louisiana.

On 15 June 2015, it was announced de Silvestro would drive for Andretti's Formula E team at the championship's double-header finale in London.

It was announced on 19 August that she would partner Renee Gracie at Prodrive Racing Australia in the Bathurst 1000 for V8 Supercars.
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Richie Panch & Dale Singleton Die In Plane Crash - September 2, 1985

September 2, 2015, 12:00 am
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May 28, 1954 - September 2, 1985
Richie Panch
("RichiePanchNASCAR" by Source. Licensed under Fair use via Wikipedia)
Born in Daytona Beach, Florida.
Panch, who was following in his father’s footsteps as a NASCAR driver, was returning to Daytona Beach when his private plane crashed and killed him and others on board.

Panch, age 30, was flying a Piper PA-28-235-B plane and flew into heavy rain and squall line over Rion, South Carolina and came apart in mid-air. Pilot error, poor judgment and planning was blamed. Four people died in the accident, including Richie Panch's close friend Dale Singleton, a famous motorcycle rider, two-time winner of the "Daytona 200".

August 27, 1955 - September 2, 1985
Dale "Flying Pig Farmer" Singleton
Born in Dalton, Georgia, USA.
Dale was the David who twice slayed the factory racing team Goliaths by winning the prestigious Daytona 200 in 1979 and 1981 on privateer Yamahas. He also won the AMA Road Racing Championship in 1981. Singleton was one of the best-liked riders in the paddock. The friendly Georgian was dubbed the "Flying Pig Farmer" by a fellow racer. The press picked up the moniker and Singleton played into the myth by carrying baby pigs into the Daytona winner's circle during podium celebrations.
Even though Singleton was not really a pig farmer, it was his girlfriend’s family who raised pigs.

Racing earned Singleton the money to build a beautiful home in the foothills of Northern Georgia. He also had a large workshop where he prepped his race machines. Having reached the top in American motorcycle racing, Singleton retired from two wheels after the 1982 season and began to pursue a career in NASCAR racing.

For more see: Dale Singleton Tribute Page
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Robbie Buhl Born In Detroit, Michigan, USA - September 2, 1963

September 2, 2015, 12:00 am
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September 2, 1963 
Robbie Buhl
(photo credit: www.indycar.com)
Born in Detroit, Michigan, USA.
Buhl won the 1992 Indy Lights championship and caught the eye of John Menard's Team Menard in 1996, running as team mate to Tony Stewart for two seasons succeeding the late Scott Brayton. He scored his first win in what was once the closest finish in series history when he beat ex-MasterCard Lola F1 driver Vincenzo Sospiri by 0.064 seconds at the New Hampshire International Speedway.

He started his own team, Dreyer & Reinbold Racing, in 2000 and stunned the establishment with a win from 22nd in the grid the season opener at Walt Disney World Speedway. Mild to moderate success followed the next few seasons and he retired as a driver prior to the 2004 Indianapolis 500. He has continued as a team owner, with moderate success, failing to win any races, but his driver Buddy Rice finished 9th in points in 2007, the team's best points result since Buhl's 8th place finish in 2000.

Buhl's wife is the widow of former racer Scott Brayton. Robbie is a Founder and key Supporter of "Racing for Kids", a charitable foundation established to assist chronically ill children. Robbie makes a point of visiting sick children at hospitals on each stop of the circuit, bringing a bit of cheer to their lives in the process.
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Michel Jourdain Jr Born In Mexico City, Mexico - September 2, 1976

September 2, 2015, 12:00 am
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September 2, 1976
Michel Jourdain Jr
(Photo: www.autosport.com)
Born in Mexico City, Mexico.
Jourdain Jr. started racing cars in the Mexican Formula Junior series at the age of 12. He then moved to the Mexican Formula K and Formula 2 series.

In 1996, Jourdain ran several races in the Indy Racing League and the CART series, including the Indy 500. At the age of 19, he became one of the youngest drivers to race in both Champ Car and the Indy 500. Jourdain raced full-time in Champ Car from 1997–2004. In his early years, he was largely considered a back marker; however, after joining the Rahal team in 2002, he became a championship contender. Jourdain ended his Champ Car career in 2004 with 1 pole, 2 wins, and 9 podium finishes.

During the 2003 Baja 1000 Jourdain and his father, Michel Jourdain, Sr., raced a SCORE Baja Challenge class vehicle finishing 6th in their class with a time of 31:01.31.

Jourdain was supported by Mexican sponsors throughout his years in Champ Car. After losing his sponsorship following the 2004 season, Jourdain looked to the NASCAR Busch Series. Jourdain made 18 starts driving the number 10 ppc Racing Ford in 2005.
(Photo credit: reflexer via photopin cc)
He was able to notch one top ten finish, however in July ppc Racing announced that the team could not continue with a full season due to insufficient sponsorship. He ran two races later in the season for Keith Barnwell. Michel drove in his home race in Mexico City at Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez as well as two more races in the #15 in 2006 for Jill Burgdoff as well as 7 Craftsman Truck Series races in the Roush Racing #50 truck.

In 2007 Jourdain competed in the FIA World Touring Car Championship for SEAT Sport. A troubled season saw him finish the year down in 18th place on points. Later in the year he was signed to drive in the A1GP series for A1 Team Mexico, returning to open-wheel racing for the first time since his Champ Car days.

In 2010, he returned to NASCAR for the Nationwide Series race at Road America when he practiced the #98 for Paul Menard since he was away racing at Infineon. Jourdain also competed in the P-WRC class of the 2010 Rally Mexico where he finished 7th in class.

In October 2010 Michel and his co-driver Miguel Ángel Diez got the second overall in La Carrera Panamericana in a 1953 Studebaker, just 12.9 seconds behind from Harri Rovanperä.

The 2010 and 2011 World Rally season's saw him start eight rallies with a best finish of 14th in the 2011 Rally México.
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Paul Tracy Wins Molson Indy Vancouver - September 3rd, 2000

September 3, 2015, 12:00 am
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September 3rd, 2000
Paul Tracy of Toronto finished .384 seconds ahead of Kool/Team Green teammate Dario Franchitti to win the CART "Molson Indy Vancouver" at Pacific Place, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.

There were mixed feelings in the Team KOOL Green camp after the squad's dominant one-two victory. Winner Paul Tracy was overjoyed to have won in front of his rabidly enthusiastic home fans, but runner-up Dario Franchitti was left frustrated after losing the lead when he stalled in the pits. Tracy, who had been suffering all weekend with a fever, said he didn't think he had a chance to beat his team-mate.

"We were catching Dario a little bit but it seemed like things were going his way until the pit stop," said Tracy. "Winning in Toronto in 1993 was the biggest race of my career and this is as good as that."

Franchitti blamed difficulty with the pit lane speed limiter system for the incident that cost him victory. "I'm pretty disappointed," he said. "I've been using a different pit lane limiter. I didn't like it but the team told me to use it. I dropped the clutch and the engine just died."

The Scotsman also sounded frustrated by the team decision to order the two drivers to hold position in the closing stages. "I was going fast enough to keep Paul honest but I knew I wasn't allowed to pass him," he said.

Team boss Barry Green played down the significance of the team orders. "Our rules are that whoever comes out ahead after the final pit stops will come home in front," he said, "unless we're getting pressure from the rear. We didn't get a lot of pressure from anyone today though, it's a great day for the team."
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Tribute To Dick Trickle

September 3, 2015, 3:33 am
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October 27, 1941 - May 16, 2013
Dick Trickle

Born in Wisconsin Rapids, Wisconsin, USA.
Trickle raced for decades around the short tracks of Wisconsin, winning many championships along the way. Trickle competed in the ASA, ARTGO, ARCA, All Pro, IMCA, NASCAR, and USAC.

Eight-year-old Dick Trickle was playing tag with his cousin Verlon on the rafters in a house under construction when he fell two floors to the basement and broke his hip. He was transferred from a local hospital to the University of Wisconsin Hospital with slow recovery. His recovery was so slow that the doctors gave up and sent him home, presuming that he would be an invalid for the rest of his life. Trickle later began to walk, although he walked with a slight limp for the rest of his life.  He spent three years in a cast from his waist to his foot. While he was recovering as a nine-year-old, a friend took him to his first races at Crown Speedway in his hometown of Wisconsin Rapids, Wisconsin. "When I got there I was flabbergasted," Trickle said. "I thought it was the neatest thing. Free shows were nothing compared to it. That race never left my mind until I was 16. I knew I was going to drive a race car when I was 16."

Trickle was one of five children. His mother, Lauretta, struggled to provide food and clothing. His father, Leo, was a blacksmith who worked on farm equipment near their rural Wisconsin home before having a nervous breakdown and spending the last 50 years of his life in a mental hospital. Trickle's family lived on welfare, so there was no money available for racing. Trickle spent his summers working for area farmers, starting as a 13-year-old. He also spent a lot of time at the Rudolph Blacksmith shop that his father was a partner in. While his father was ill, his uncle Leonard ran the shop. "I worked part time at the shop to earn a nickel or dime," Trickle said. "At that age, it was mostly sweeping the shop, but I started to play with the welder and soon I could make an arc and then weld. I started junking machinery. I save some things getting a head start for when I would go racing at 16. I didn't have any money, but I had this pile of stuff to build a race car with. It was a hope chest. When I turned 16, I let the farmer I was working for keep most the money I earned until fall. That fall I collected my money and went down Main Street wheeling and dealing. I finally bought a 1950 Ford in good condition for $100. It was going to be my street car, but the urge to race got too strong and I cut up and made a stock car out of it. I did run the car a little bit before I cut it up and I ended up drag racing a classmate, Melvin Hunsinger, who had a 1949 Ford. He beat me. It seems kind of dumb when I already knew there was a car that could beat me. Eventually, I bought Hunsinger's 1949 Ford for $32.50 and put the motor in my car".

Trickle started out as the slowest car in a 100-car field at a Stratford, Wisconsin short track race.  He raced that car at the end of the 1958 season and throughout the 1959 season, after which time he built a 1956 Ford into race car using all of his knowledge that he had acquired. In his first time out with the new car, he finished second in the feature event at Griffith Park at Wisconsin Rapids. His competitors checked the rules and found out that Trickle was too young to race, even though he had already raced there for two years. He had to race at other tracks for a year until he was old enough to race at his hometown track. He raced for several years before deciding to race full-time. After working at several jobs after high school, he had worked for two years for a local telephone company. He had been uncomfortable climbing telephone poles as he was uncomfortable with heights. He transferred to a different part of the company. Two or three years later he discussed racing full-time with his wife Darlene who he married in 1961. Trickle felt that racing could be profitable, and they decided to make the change.

Trickle raced at over 100 events each year for over 15 years. He was racing at Tomah-Sparta Speedway when Francis Kelly noticed that Trickle was always in contention for winning the races, but he lost a lot of them because he had junky motors. One day Kelly approached Trickle and asked him what it would cost for Trickle to win. Trickle told him a new motor; Kelly asked Trickle to compile a list of parts that he needed. When Kelly asked who would assemble the motor, Trickle responded that he could but he was a junkyard mechanic. Trickle suggested that Alan Kulwicki's father Jerry Kulwicki, who was building motors for Norm Nelson's USAC stock cars, should build the engine.

A big turning point in Trickle's career happened at the National Short Track Championship race at Rockford Speedway in 1966. Trickle said, "The cars in that area were fancier and looked like they were ahead of us. The didn't treat us bad, but they sort of giggled at us kids with the rat cars. After two days, they look differently at those rat cars. I won and pocketed $1,645. Before, I questioned spending the money to travel that far. But if you could win, that was a different story." Trickle started the 1967 season by winning at State Park Speedway and ended the season with 25 feature victories including wins at Wisconsin Dells Speedway (now Dells Raceway Park) and Golden Sands Speedway (near Wisconsin Rapids).

Road America - #42 Dick Trickle 1968 Ford
(photo credit: Mike Traverse via photopin cc)
Trickle raced in United States Automobile Club (USAC) stock cars in 1968, and he won the series' rookie of the year award.

He toured on the Central Wisconsin Racing Association tracks in 1971. The circuit consisted of larger asphalt track racing on most nights of the week. CWRA regular drivers were able to run over 100 events in a year, and most did the tour with one car and one engine. On Thursday nights at the quarter mile State Park Speedway, he won seven features and lowered his July 1 14.27 second track record to 14.09 seconds on the following week. On Friday nights he raced primarily at Capitol Speedway, winning most nights that rain or his car did not break. Trickle went to Adams-Friendship on July 23 and won the feature after setting the track record. He held the track record at six tracks: Adams-Friendship, Capitol, Wausau, Wisconsin Dells, and La Crosse. He raced at the newly opened third mile Wisconsin Dells Speedway on Saturday nights. By the end of the year, Trickle had won 58 feature events. 

Trickle started his 1972 season by winning at Golden Sands Speedway near Wisconsin Rapids. Wisconsin's short track racing season starts in April. By May 13, he had twelve wins in thirteen events. He got this fifteenth win in twenty starts on May 27. Trickle became the winningest short track driver that year when he won his 67th race. 

Trickle won numerous special events outside of Wisconsin in 1973, including a 200-lap feature at Rolla, Missouri in April, following by winning a 50-lap feature the following day at I-70 Speedway near Odessa, Missouri. In May he won a 50-lapper at Springfield, Missouri and two more features at I-70 Speedway. Trickle used his purple 1970 Ford Mustang to win at the Minnesota Fair and at Rockford Speedway in September. He had a total of 57 wins in 1973. 

Sanctioning bodies put in a weight-per-cubic-inch rule, and Trickle's career had problems in 1974 and 1975. "Fords almost broke me. I couldn't get any pieces for racing at my level. It took two years of hard labor and depleting my funds to realize I couldn't do this anymore. I told myself either I had to change my program or get out of racing." Therefore, Trickle decided to use a General Motors car and engine. He bought a car for $13,000 on his word that he would pay for it by September. He won 35 or 40 races that year and paid for the car by July.

In 1982, Trickle won track championship at State Park Speedway in Wausau where he started out the season by winning the first two features and seven total. He also won the track championship at La Crosse Fairgrounds Speedway after winning three events in August. That season he won his first Miller 200 special event at the Milwaukee Mile. Trickle started racing out of state a lot more in 1983. Of all of Trickle's victories, his best memory was winning the 1983 World Crown 300 in Georgia. "It took three weeks of preparation and a lot of determination," he said. "It was the biggest payday of my career up to that point ($50,000)." He beat Jim Sauter by two car-lengths at the season opener, and won three straight races in May. After winning on June 1, LaCrosse business raised a $700 bounty for anyone who could beat him. Trickle skipped the following week, and returned the week after to lose to Steve Burgess. He did not win as much at State Park, but he did win the track championship. Trickle won ASA races at Coeburn, Virginia and Cayuga, Ontario in 1984, as well as the Red, White, and Blue state championship series at WIR and the Slinger Nationals at Slinger.

In 1989 Trickle made his full schedule debut driving the #84 Miller High Life Buick for Stavola Brothers Racing. 

(photo credit: Mike Traverse via photopin cc)
He was Rookie of the Year in NASCAR's Winston Cup (now the Sprint Cup) at age 48 (and a grandfather), becoming the oldest driver in Winston Cup history to do so. After being given the Rookie of the Year trophy at the NASCAR Awards banquet, he quipped "I guess I’d just like to thank everyone who gave a young guy like me a chance". 

His best career Winston Cup finish was third (5 times). He started 303 races, with 15 Top 5 and 36 Top 10 finishes. Dick also raced in the Busch Series, where he won two races. He had 158 career starts, with 24 Top 5 and 42 Top 10 finishes. 

In more than an estimated 2,200 races, Trickle logged one million laps and is believed to have won over 1,200 feature races. He was billed as the winningest short track driver in history. Trickle's career highlights include racing to 67 wins in 1972, winning seven ARTGO Championships in nine years between 1979 to 1987, winning back to back ASA AC-Delco Challenge championships in 1984 and 1985, the 1968 USAC Stock Car rookie of the year, and winning the 1989 NASCAR Rookie of the Year award in what was then called the Winston Cup (now Sprint Cup). Trickle was nicknamed the "White Knight" as referenced by his sponsored Super America paint scheme, when he raced in Wisconsin. An interesting read I found was in the book entitled The Golden Age of Wisconsin Auto Racing.

Trickle died May 16, 2013, from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound. The incident occurred at 12:02 p.m. at Forest Lawn Cemetery in Boger City, North Carolina. The Lincoln County Communications Center received a call, apparently from the victim, saying that "there's going to be a dead body. Suicide." When the 911 operator asked who was about to commit suicide, Trickle responded: "I'm the one." Police attempted to call his phone back but there was no response. Trickle was found dead beside his pickup truck. His granddaughter, who died in a car accident, was buried in the same cemetery. Trickle's family later released a statement which in part said: "He had been suffering for some time with severe chronic pain, had seen many doctors, none of which could find the source of his pain. His family as well as all those who knew him find his death very hard to accept, and though we will hurt from losing him for some time, he’s no longer suffering and we take comfort knowing he’s with his very special angel."

The message also said: “Dick’s passion in life was his racing. He touched many lives throughout his career, provided memories for many that will last a lifetime. Many thought when he retired he would continue as a car owner, but he was a driver at heart; he wanted to be behind the wheel and be in control of his destiny. We believe he felt himself no longer able to be behind that wheel of life or be the man he only knew how to be because of the pain and suffering.”

He left a wife, Darlene, and three children, Vicky, Chad and Tod. His nephew, Chris Trickle, was a race car driver before dying in a drive-by shooting. “We were building a team for Chris,” Dick's brother Chuck Trickle said. “When he got shot, I ended up selling the team to my sponsor. And they put Kurt Busch in the car. That’s how he got his start.”

NASCAR chairman Brian France released a statement saying "Dick was a legend in the short-track racing community, particularly in his home state of Wisconsin, and he was a true fan favorite. Personalities like Dick Trickle helped shape our sport. He will be missed."

A moment of silence was observed for Trickle during the start of the North Carolina Education Lottery 200 at Charlotte Motor Speedway on May 17. 

A tribute was held for Trickle at the July 2013 Slinger Nationals,  

(photo credit: royal_broil via photopin cc)
with his family telling stories about his career.

Trickle's Wisconsin friends and competitors, including Tom Reffner and Marv Marzofka, began organizing a Dick Trickle Memorial fund to build a memorial statue at Rudolph Community Park. The group is collecting money including securing the title sponsorship of a TUNDRA Super Late Model race at Golden Sands Speedway.

Wisconsin International Raceway - Dick Trickle Memorial poster
(photo credit: royal_broil via photopin cc)

Always smiling, always playing and always at full speed, he was a lot more than a race car driver with one of the most recognizable names in sports. Known for his chain-smoking, coffee-swigging and an infectious smile, Trickle never won a Sprint Cup Series race. But he left a legacy of funny tales, impressionable memories and sadly, some puzzling questions.Trickle drilled a hole in his full-face helmet so he could smoke during a caution period of a race. While others had bottles of water and Gatorade to help them during a quick break, Trickle rarely drove without a cigarette lighter on board. When asked how many times he’d smoke during a race, he once said, “How many cautions were there?”

When he wasn’t racing, he seemed to find the best party. If not, he created his own. “Him and I liked to drink beer and have fun,” Chuck Trickle said. “He was out there getting rowdy and drinking and having fun. If you were there, you were having fun.”

Jim Sauter, who carved his own short-track career in the Midwest, worked with Trickle and Dave Marcis to set up the cars from the International Race of Champions. All three were from Wisconsin and they flew into Daytona Beach the night before a test. They met at their traditional place, the local Waffle House. “That was our thing,” Sauter said. “I remember when we ordered he called the waitress back and asked if he could get a couple extra scoops of grease on his. We all laughed so hard. “Those are the kind of memories I have of Dick Trickle.”

Even in death, thinking about Dick Trickle brings smiles to the faces of friends and fans. There were too many funny stories, too many laughs and so much life to remember.

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Earl Ross Born In Fortune, Prince Edward Island - September 4, 1941

September 4, 2015, 12:00 am
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September 4, 1941 - September 18th, 2014 
Earl Ross
(Maritime Motorsport Hall of Fame Photo)
Born in Fortune, Prince Edward Island, Canada.
Canadian Motorsport Hall of Fame and  Maritime Motorsports Hall of Fame member, and the only Canadian to have won a NASCAR Cup Series race, Earl started his racing career in the late 1960's, driving hobby cars, then he began racing a late model stock car for the McKichan brothers at Delaware Speedway.

He was known for being one of only four non-American drivers to have won a NASCAR Cup Series race (the others being Juan Pablo Montoya, Mario Andretti, and Marcos Ambrose). Ross' only NASCAR win came at Martinsville Speedway on September 29, 1974 during the Old Dominion 500. His car was owned by the legendary Junior Johnson and sponsored by the Canadian-owned Carling-O’Keefe Breweries. After qualifying 11th, Ross beat Buddy Baker to the line by more than a lap, thus making him the first and still the only Canadian to have ever won a Winston Cup event. Ron Fellows however has wins in the Nationwide Series and the Camping World Truck Series. At that time, Earl was the first rookie to win a Grand National race since Richard Petty accomplished the feat several years earlier.

The win was the push needed for Ross, who could only afford to run a partial schedule, win the Winston Cup "Rookie of the Year" in 1974. After competing in only 2 events in '75 and '76, Ross retired from NASCAR racing. He recorded 1 win, 5 top-5's and 10 top 10's in 26 races.

Ross competed in a number of regional racing series throughout the 1960s, 1970s, 1980s and 1990s, including time on the ASA circuit (Bob Senneker, Mark Martin, Rusty Wallace and Alan Kulwicki were competing at the same time) and CASCAR Super Series (which later became the NASCAR Canadian Tire Series) against Canadian legends like Don Thomson Jr. He also participated in regular Friday night racing at Delaware Speedway before his ultimate retirement in the late 1990s.

Earl Ross died on Thursday, September 18th, 2014, at his home in Ailsa Craig, Ontario, Canada. He was the age of 73.

In a statement released in Daytona Beach, NASCAR paid tribute to the Canadian.
“NASCAR extends its condolences to the family and friends of Earl Ross, a true racer whose considerable on-track success helped grow the sport internationally."

“Ross was the first Canadian driver to win a race in what is today known as the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, and he did it at one of NASCAR’s most historic tracks for one of NASCAR's most historic owners. His 1974 win at Martinsville for Junior Johnson helped lay the foundation for the sport's tremendous growth in Canada, and beyond.”

Earl Ross was inducted into the the P.E.I. Sports Hall Of Fame in 2008, the Canadian Motorsport Hall of Fame in 2000, and the Maritime Motorsports Hall of Fame in 2011

For more check out; Norris McDonald on Earl Ross at wheels.ca
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Jochen Rindt Dies During Italian Grand Prix Practice - September 5, 1970

September 5, 2015, 12:00 am
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April 18, 1942 - September 5, 1970
Jochen Rindt
(Photo credit; "Rindt at 1970 Dutch Grand Prix " by Evers, Joost / Anefo / neg. stroken)
Rindt was a German-born racing driver who represented Austria during his career. He is the only driver to posthumously win the Formula One World Drivers' Championship, after being killed in practice for the Italian Grand Prix in 1970. He competed in 62 Grands Prix, winning six and achieving 13 podium finishes. Away from Formula One, Rindt was highly successful in other classes. In 1965 he won the 24 Hours of Le Mans race, driving a Ferrari 250LM in partnership with Masten Gregory from the United States of America. He was a close friend to Jackie Stewart, and was a neighbour to the Scotsman in Switzerland.

During practice for the 1970 Italian Grand Prix in Monza, near Milan Lotus team leader Colin Chapman and Rindt agreed to follow the lead of Jackie Stewart and Denny Hulme and run without wings in an attempt to reduce drag and gain a higher top speed. The more powerful flat-12 Ferraris of Jacky Ickx and Clay Regazzoni had been up to 10 mph faster than the Lotus at the previous race in Austria. Rindt's team mate John Miles was unhappy with the wingless setup in Friday practice, reporting that the car "wouldn't run straight". Rindt reported no such problems, and Chapman recalled that Rindt reported the car to be "almost 800 rpm faster on the straight" without wings.

On the following day, Rindt ran with higher gear ratios fitted to his car to take advantage of the reduced drag, increasing the car's potential top speed to 205 mph. On Rindt's fifth lap of the final practice session, Hulme, who was following, reported that under braking for the Parabolica corner, "Jochen's car weaved slightly and then swerved sharp left into the crash barrier." A joint in the crash barrier parted, the suspension dug in under the barrier, and the car hit a stanchion head on. The front end of the car was destroyed. Although the 28-year-old Rindt was rushed to hospital, he was pronounced dead. Rindt was in the habit of using only four points on the five point harness then available and did not wear the crotch straps, as he wanted to be able to get out of the car quickly in the event of fire. As a result upon impact he slid under the belts and suffered fatal throat injuries. He was the second Lotus team leader to be killed in two years, as Jim Clark had been killed in 1968 in a Formula 2 race at Hockenheim. An Italian court later found that the accident was initiated by a failure of the car's right front brake shaft, but that Rindt's death was caused by poorly installed crash barriers.

At the time he died Rindt had won five of that year's ten Grands Prix, which meant that he had a strong lead in the World Championship. At that stage he theoretically could have been overtaken by Ferrari driver Jacky Ickx. However Rindt's Lotus team mate who succeeded him, Emerson Fittipaldi, won the penultimate Grand Prix of the year at Watkins Glen, USA, depriving Ickx of the points he needed to win the title, and so Rindt became motor racing's only posthumous World Champion. The trophy was presented to his Finnish widow Nina Rindt, daughter of famous Finnish racer Curt Lincoln. Although popular legend favors the myth that Jochen had already promised Nina he would retire from F1 if he won the world championship, he had changed his mind before Monza and had told Nina that he would continue in Formula 1 for at least one more season if he became World Champion.
(Photo; www.octetort.com)
Rindt is buried at the central cemetery in Graz, Austria.


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Donnie Allison Born In Miami, Florida, USA - September 7, 1939

September 7, 2015, 12:00 am
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September 7, 1939
Donnie Allison
(photo credit: MikeKalasnik via photopin cc)
 Born in Miami, Florida, USA.
NASCAR Grand National/Winston Cup driver, during the 1960s, 1970s and early 1980s, Allison is possibly most remembered for his involvement in a final-lap crash and subsequent fight with Cale Yarborough at the 1979 Daytona 500. Allison was leading the race on the final lap with Yarborough drafting him tightly. As Yarborough attempted his signature slingshot pass at the end of the backstretch, Allison attempted to block him. Yarborough refused to give ground and as he pulled alongside Allison, his left side tires left the pavement and went into the wet and muddy infield grass. As a result, Yarborough began to lose control of his car and contacted Allison's car halfway down the backstretch. As both drivers tried to regain control, their cars made contact several more times before finally locking together and crashing into the outside wall in turn three. After the cars settled in the grass, Allison and Yarborough began to argue. After they had talked it out, Bobby Allison, who was lapped at that point, pulled over and began defending his brother, and a fight broke out. It all happened on the first nationally televised NASCAR race. Richard Petty, who was over half a lap behind at the time of the crash, went on to win the race. The fight made headlines all across America. The publicity was instrumental in the growth of NASCAR.

Allison managed to get ten wins in NASCAR Sprint Cup Series competition with his first coming at the 1968 Carolina 500 at Rockingham Speedway and his final at the 1978 Dixie 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway. Allison would suffer serious injuries at the 1981 Coca Cola 600, this would end his career in NASCAR for the most part.

Donny was part of the "Alabama Gang," and is the brother of 1983 champion Bobby Allison and uncle of Davey Allison. He was inducted in the International Motorsports Hall of Fame in 2009.

Achievements
1970 World 600 Winner
1971 Winston 500 Winner
1970 Firecracker 400 Winner
1975 Snowball Derby winner

Awards
1967 Winston Cup Series "Rookie of the Year"
1970 Indianapolis 500 "Rookie of the Year"
International Motorsports Hall of Fame (2009)
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Chuck Rodee Born in Dixmoore, Illinois, USA - September 8, 1927

September 8, 2015, 12:00 am
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September 8, 1927 - May 14, 1966
Chuck Rodee
Born in Dixmoore, Illinois, USA.
Rodee won the Fort Wayne Indoor midget car title in 1955 at the 1/10 mile cement track, and finished third in the USAC National Midget championship. He repeated with Fort Wayne championships in 1957 and 1958. He collected his fourth track championship in 1966 before his death. He finished second in the 1956 USAC National Midget points, and third in 1965.

He drove in the USAC Championship Car series, racing in the 1957, 1958, 1960, and 1962-1965 seasons. He finished in the top ten 4 times, with his best finish in 5th position in 1965 at Atlanta. He had 16 career starts, including the Indianapolis 500 races in 1962 and 1965. He finished in 32nd in 1962 after crashing to avoid Jack Turner, and 28th in 1965.

Rodee died while attempting to qualify for the 1966 Indianapolis 500. He spun on a second lap warm-up and backed the car into the wall exiting Turn 1. The impact appeared minor but the rigid chassis transferred virtually the entire force of the crash to the driver. Rodee suffered a ruptured aorta and lapsed into a coma. He was pronounced dead after emergency surgery failed to save him.

He was inducted in the National Midget Auto Racing Hall of Fame.

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