Caterham Cars Founder perishes

Although I know very little about the English make affectionately known as Caterham Cars, sadly I was informed of the news that its company founder Graham Nearn has passed away at the age of 76 this past Saturday. (October 24th, 2009)

Yet there seems to be an outpouring of fondness for the late Mr. Nearn, the “Godfather” of the Caterham Super 7, who I had the privilege of meeting once some half dozen years ago, albeit I had no idea of the man’s stature in the zany world of Automobile Manufactures, nor any inkling that a half century ago he’d started Caterham as a Lotus Agent for Colin Chapman’s lightweight (Fenders) Sports Car known then as the Lotus 7.

Nor do I know anything about a long forgotten British Television Show called: The Prisoner, which apparently was originally aired back in the mid 1960’s before spawning a whole new generation of fans with its rebroadcasting on Britain’s Channel 4 (BBC?) in the early 1980’s. (Circa 1983) Only learning about said TV show whilst searching for news upon Graham’s untimely death and having found an interesting interview.

The Vanishing point – Not a number

Thus further learning that Graham had ultimately built a Prisoner Replica nearly two decades ago, having tracked down Patrick McGoohan and hashed out a deal over breakfast in LA, as Nearn and McGoohan unveiled the Caterham Prisoner Edition 7 in October 1990 for the Birmingham Motor Show. As Graham had ambitious plans of a limited production run of 500 for the Prisoner replica which apparently peaked at the modest number of 47 when sales orders dried up.

And there’s a photograph (the photograph?) of Prisoner star McGoohan and Graham Nearn in the brief article titled: Steward of the 7, as the above interview mentions how Graham had been an “Extra” in the TV show and telling the producers he wasn’t really worried about the daily wages, he just really wanted a photo of him alongside McGoohan, which he’d use to promote sales of the Lotus 7, having just been granted a Concessioner’s deal in 1966, before ultimately taking over the automobiles manufacturing in 1973.

Yet, even today, this most iconic English Sports Car in varying forms of build and now known as the Caterham (Super) 7 is still in production a half century later and revered by many motoring enthusiasts around the world…

Bidding Adu

As far as I know…I never met the man, who I’ve only heard and read good things about; including always being willing to help anyone out, enjoying his work and always having a smile on his face… (Or even a mischievous grin, eh?)


(Iowa Finish – SSP)

Who am I talking about? Well I first read of his untimely demise at So here’s What I’m Thinking, (or SHWIT according to the “Dawg”) in a story titled: With a Heavy Heart.

As it was really touching to hear Meesh recall how although Steve Snoddy and her weren’t “best bud’s,” nevertheless, Steve had come to her rescue in a moment of dire frustration – helping her save her just snapped racecar photos when her CF memory card (whatever a CF card is?) had erroneously frozen up and nobody seemed able or willing to help her rectify this…

Even going so far as to burn her a disc copy on the spot and then asking Meesh if everything was ok camera-wise before deleting his backed up copy off of his computer the next time they crossed paths several months later!

(Marco – SSP)

And thus, I have to say just how impressive I find this gesture of helpfulness to be to another purveyor of written word and photographs… As I’m just totally blown away by his kindness towards a “Fellow Blogger," as apparently this was just another typical moment in Steve’s life...

Thus, I was happy to hear don Kay bring up Steve’s name this past Tuesday on his Autosport Radio Show, where his guest Ron McQueeney talked a little bit about Steve Snoddy, saying how he probably shouldn’t bring up the fact that Steve had originally come to his attention as somebody who was famous for taking not-so PG13 Pic’s in the Speedway’s revered Snake Pit way back in the day…

As I said before, I probably never met the man, nor needed his assistance in taking any pictures… But I like to believe that Steve’s helpfulness is just one example of what Ron McQueeney described as a facet of all of his IMS Photography staff’s willingness to help us Kodachrome challenged picture takers.

HELL! Who knows? Could it have been Steve behind the lens who took those awesome Pic’s of Davey Hamilton & Mwah that most glorious day back in ’07?

And apparently Steve’s funeral has already been held and those wishing to make donations may do so in honour of Steve Snoddy at:

IRL Ministries
PO Box 24297
Speedway, IN 46224-0297

C/O Steve Snoddy

Hey Steve! What should I set the F-Stop at for this action shot of Danica…?

Teddy Mayer

This past weekend, Teddy Mayer passed away in England at the age of 73. Perhaps you’ve heard of him? As he was the guiding force that helped Bruce McLaren begin his own racing concern in 1963, when Bruce McLaren Motor Racing Ltd was formed. And when Bruce died in 1970, it was Teddy who took over the reigns of Team McLaren, leading the organization to the dizzying heights of Formula 1 World Champions; with Emerson Fittipaldi winning the 1974 Driver’s title and James Hunt securing the 1976 Driver’s crown, along with hitting the trifecta in ’74, as it was to be Team McLaren’s very first F1 Driver’s title, Constructor’s crown and Indy 500 victory.

Yet it was also Teddy who guided McLaren Cars into the realm of Indy Car racing, which I’ve scribbled about previously in McLaren at Indy. And it was Mayer who ultimately hired Johnny Rutherford as his team’s lead driver, while it was Peter Revson who provided McLaren’s first Indy 500 pole position in 1971, before finishing runner-up. Yet it would be Roger Penske’s customer chassis with Mark Donohue at the keyboard who’d give McLaren Cars their first Indy 500 victory in 1972.

Thus the stage was set between the AAR Eagles of Dan Gurney’s construction vs. McLaren Cars during the early 1970’s, as they’d swap turns in victory lane the next four years, as Rutherford and Team McLaren would be victorious in 1974 and 1976, with Johnny scoring his second 500 victory from the pole, along with being runner-up in 1975. Yet rules changes would make the mighty Offenhauser obsolete, as Tom “The Gasman” Sneva would break the 200mph barrier in 1977 when capturing pole aboard Team Penske’s customer McLaren powered by the Cosworth V-8 lump.

Thus by 1979 the bloom had gone off of McLaren as the ground effects era had been unkind to the once dominant team and Teddy would ultimately leave the McLaren concern in 1982...

:For those of us who had the honor to meet Mayer, two things stand out: his sense of humor and his ability to include anyone he saw at a race track with a warm hand-shake or a smile as he greeted them, be it a volunteer worker to the drivers to team owners and series chiefs.”
(Source: Motorsport.com)

For more on Teddy Mayer, see; Teddy Mayer, a remarkable man, passes away

Paul Newman

As many of you may know by now, Paul Newman passed away on Friday, September 26th at the age of 83... As typical, I first heard the sad news on the Friday practice coverage of this year’s inaugural Singapore Grand Prix.

And what could I possibly say about such a legendary figure? As I only know of Paul Newman first thru the camera lense and secondly as the team co-owner of Newman/Haas Racing... Who for many, many years were one of the “Enemies,” as first Mario and later Michael, were always potential winning threats. And PL was partially responsible for bringing “BLOODY NIGE” (Nigel Mansell) to CART at what most likely was its zenith, actually causing more buzz over CART then the series he’d left as reigning World Champion; Formula 1! Newman got even further rave reviews from myself over his fortitude of staying away from the Speedway for 12yrs; Saying he had a problem with the management... And Newman/Haas Racing is arguably one of the most successful Indy Car teams of all time, with 107 victories and 8 Championships.

And I certainly haven’t seen all of Mr. Newman’s cinema work, nor hardly very much of the some 60 odd films he took part in, yet I’d have to say the film that left the most indelible mark upon me was his performance in The Sting, followed much later on when he came back once again as a pool hustler in The Color of Money...And somewhere along the line I saw the wonderful film Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.

Yet, I also recall watching him kick ASS in the SCCA Trans Am racing series, when he drove an all black, un-sponsored #4 Roush Ford Mustang to victory, as many may not know that Newman was quite serious about his racing career and won four SCCA National Championships between 1976-86 behind the wheel of Bob Sharp Racing Datsun’s/Nissan’s, most notably 280Z’s, as the actor had gotten the racing bug while preparing for his role in the film Winning (1969) and it would take a further three years for Newman to find the time to get his racing license and win his first event behind the wheel of a Lotus Elan. Paul would capture his first SCCA title in D Production in 1976 followed by the C Production crown in ‘79 and two GT1 titles in 1985-86.

“In the 1970s, Newman, admittedly bored with acting, became fascinated with auto racing, a sport he studied when he starred in the 1972 film, "Winning." After turning professional in 1977, Newman and his driving team made strong showings in several major races, including fifth place in Daytona in 1977 and second place in the Le Mans in 1979.”

Newman made history by winning the Daytona 24hrs at the age of 70 in 1995 and his final major racing event was the 2005 Rolex 24 at Daytona at the age of 79, which I recall being the cars number, when he climbed behind the wheel of a Daytona Prototype with fellow drivers Sebastian Bourdais and Cristiano Da Matta, as I also seem to recall the car had hastily painted on flames after the car had caught on fire.

Thus, while I missed the first ten minutes of last night’s Speed Freaks program, it was a quite well done show, with a two hour tribute to the legendary Paul Newman, with the first guest being none other then Mario Andretti, who was followed by Kyle Petty. Having run long with the first two guests, Christian Fittipaldi was next on the line, followed by current Newman Haas Lanigan drivers Justing Wilson and Graham Rahal, followed by Stanton Barrett, a very brief interview with Gil De Ferran and a written statement by Tony Stewart.

Tony Stewart:
”Paul Newman was a phenomenal individual who made a profound impact throughout his life. His acting skills are well-known, but equally impressive was his desire to give back and help those who just didn't get the same shake out of life that we did,"

Besides his most impressive charity work for the Hole in the Wall Gang, of which in typical Newman understatement, I wasn’t aware that he’d personally help open a branch in Carnation, WA in 2007... I find it most impressive how Paul Newman & Carl Haas left Bruno Junqueira’s seat open for him after his terrible accident at Indianapolis in 2005...

Paul Newman

Phil Hill

Ah, the life of a humble scribe... As I was going’ bleary eyed from having spent the whole day (yesterday) nucel bangin’ ze ‘Ol keyboard... And thus I’ve not check any of the traditional newswire services the past few dazes... As around 8:35PM I made a quick search about my favourite blog sites (Full Throttle, My Name is IRL and Pressdog) and was blown away to see that Marc’s lead story at Full Throttle was about American F1 World Champion Phil Hill’s death...

Thus, I’ll have to scribble a more elaborate story about the Great Messer Hill in the near future, but in the meantime, please check out; Racing Legend Phil Hill Passes

Racing tragedies

Unfortunately it seems to be a fact of life in motor racing, that every year there are tragedies ultimately concluding in death… As I was searching’ the newswires last evening, a cold chill swept over me as I learned of Scott Kalitta’s horrible death… As his Toyota Solara erupted into flames during Saturday night qualifying at Englishtown NJ, while ironically, this weekend’s French GP has made ample note of Toyota F1 founder Ove Anderson’s death, as the 70yr old “Swede” perished behind the wheel during a vintage car race in South Africa… As once again symmetry seems to have worked in its mysterious ways as I wasn’t even aware that Toyota had an NHRA program. While even more ironic was the fact that Kalitta had begun and ultimately ended his NHRA career at Old Bridge Township Raceway Park.

Also, spare a thought for the family of the 49yr old track worker Roy Hiatt who was killed earlier this season at Anderson Raceway, during the annual running of the Little 500. Hiatt was struck by a race car, when for reasons unknown entered the track early during the caution period and had his back to the oncoming racing car.

Also, don’t forget Eric Medlin of John Force Racing having perished in a violent testing crash last year, when his Goodyear tire exploded during a routine 315+ mph pass…

Sadly, I suppose all of the above would tell us that the show must go on…

UPDATE:
Last night on Speed Freaks, it was reported that Dino Crescentini had lost his life in a Vintage Car race at Mosport, as newswire reports claim that his car, a Wolf Dallara Can Am once driven by the late Gilles Villeneuve barrel rolled several times on the straightaway…

Jim McKay

Sadly it was reported recently that famous TV announcer Jim McKay passed away on June 7th at the age of 86. Although his legal name was Jim

McManus, he changed his on-air name after being tabbed to host an early TV show called The Real McKay…

For me, McKay is the first voice I recall giving me interest in motor racing, as I’ve previously commented towards hearing him call the Indy 500 way back in the early 1970’s for ABC’s Wide World of Sports before Indy was broadcasted live. You may recall that this was the show with the famous tag line’ “The Thrill of Victory and the Agony of Defeat,” which legendary producer Roone Arledge first scribbled on the back of an airplane napkin… As Wide World of Sports was originally intended to be a one-off summer television program, yet with Jim McKay at the helm and Chris Schenkel alongside, the show was a smashing success as McKay became synonymous with the Olympics and was the man to tell the world; “They’re ALL Gone!” during the 1972 Munich Olympics…

Jim McKay’s Wide World of Sports

Jean-Marie Balestre

Ex-FISA President Jean-Marie Balestre has died last week at the age of 86, as the ex-Motorsports journalist was known as the thorn in Bernie Ecclestone’s posterior…

When I first began following Formula 1, this most vocal Frenchman was the ONLY person of stature on the F1 grid with the audacity to tell Bernie to go stick it where the sun doesn’t shine, or more succinctly; F%%K YOU! Bernie…

Ironically, while Emperor Bernardo’s prodigy, Err, whipping boy Sir Maxxum has been accused of having his jollies while playing War games with some Germans… Jean Marie himself allegedly was in cahoots with the Nazi’s during World War II, which later became the basis of numerous slander-suits against Monsieur BLUSTERY…

As I recall him being a real Horses Arse or as Aunty Harriet sez: “The East end of a Horse going West!” when it came to his high-handed ways of manipulating not only Grand Prix, but those surrounding it, having even infuriated the brash Ayrton Senna.

Yet for all of his strong armed tactics during his reign as F1 supremo, Balestre did manage to get rid of the most UGLIEST and potentially dangerous chassis of Formula 1, when he finally managed to have the 1980-82 sliding skirts, no wings, rock hard suspension cars permanently banned. JMB was also the mastermind who returned F1 to normally aspirated engines as the turbocharged cars were becoming overly powerful…

Rafael Sperafico

Isn’t it sad how some drivers are afforded less attention then others, even in death? As I suppose it’s near impossible to keep track of and pronounce every racing driver’s untimely passing.

Nevertheless I was unaware of Rafael Sperafico’s untimely passing until coming upon the story buried in the mostly unread sections of a particular website.

At the youthful age of 27, Rafael was killed while competing in the final round of the Brazilian Stock Car Light Championship at the Interlagos circuit. Rafael’s cousins Ricardo and Alex Sperafico were both ex-Champ Car competitors, while cousin Rodrigo was the fourth member of best known Sperafico racers, of which 10 have competed in various forms of motor racing.

With Rafael running second, upon loosing control his car careened back onto the track directly in the path of oncoming competitors and died instantly upon being struck directly on the driver’s side of his race car. Ironically the accident occurred in the very same corner as Fernando Alonso’s heaviest Formula 1 crash to date, which occurred during the 2003 Brazilian Grand Prix.

“The race was red-flagged and terminated at the spot. The Stock Car Light championship is a feeding series to Brazil’s top racing rung, the Copa Nextel Stock Car, where several ex-international drivers like Antonio Pizzonia, Ricardo Zonta, Tarso Marques, Enrique Bernoldi, Luciano Burti and Hoover Orsi compete. On the Nextel race that preceded the Light event, Rafael's cousin Rodrigo Sperafico finished fourth to clinch this year's runner-up title…”

Evel Knievel

As many of you may know, the world’s greatest daredevil, none other than Robert “Evel” Knievel has passed away at the age of 69. Evel apparently died due to complications caused by Hepatitis C that he contacted thru one of his countless blood transfusions during his 16-17 operations.

Late last evening by accident, I was able to tune into a radio show I’ve never heard before. (Although I’ve seen it on the SPEED Channel) I got to listen to the Speed Freaks TV show via my “liddle ‘ol” Walkman radio. And it was hilarious as they played back the “Best” 20 minutes chunk of a 45-minute interview they’d done with the legend from six year’s ago. Along with a wonderful interview with J.C. Agajanian Jr., who told two quick but wonderful stories of his father’s dealings with Evel.

The “Juan” I enjoyed best was about a 50-car pyramid that Evel jumped in the Los Angeles Coliseum, which included a “teaser” demolition derby with pristine luxury cars… Such as Rolls Royce, Jaguar’s, etc.

Now these cars which had been used as part of the promotion had been “tweaked” for demolition derby duty, i.e.; all glass removed, fuel tanks drained and disconnected, etc. Driving the white Rolls was none other than Bobby “Slippery Liquids” Unser, whom managed to get the Rolls, stuck on one of the courses hay bales. Supposedly ‘ol Bobby was so infuriate with this that he got out of the car, disconnected the fuel line from the “Jerry cans” in the rear seat… Which immediately sent fuel flowing everywhere into the rear of the burl wood appointed Rolls. Then Bobby lit a match and threw it into the rear seat of the doused Rolls which immediately set the classic car onto fire… To which J.C. claims made every single newswire around the world with photos of this “”Dumb Yokel Yank’s” Rolls engulfed in flames!

Meanwhile, after the conclusion of the demolition festivities all of the cars were dragged into the center of the Coliseum where ramps had been built to the upper reaches of the stadium atop the seating, which Evel utilized to successfully clear the 50-car pyramid…

This was just “Juan ‘O” the countless exploits of the legendary No. 2 “Bad Ass” Evel Knievel, who’ll be truly missed…

Colin McRae

I found it disheartening to learn that former World Rally Champion Colin McRae has perished in a helicopter accident along with his five year old son and two family friends of whom one was a six year old boy this past weekend.

Unfortunately the Eurojet helicopter that McRae (39) was piloting erupted in flames upon impact, with their deaths having been confirmed this past Sunday morning.

Adding further insult to injury, this tragic accident occurred just a half mile away from McRae’s residence of Lanarkshire, Scotland and must surely be devastating to McRae’s wife and nine year old daughter whom were not aboard the stricken craft.

The extremely well liked Scot became the first British WRC Champion in 1995 along with winning 25 rallies before retiring from full time WRC competition in 2003.

While doing a few “one-off” WRC drives in 2005-06, McRae was busy pursuing other motorsports challenges. Having become a regular fixture of the Paris Dakar Rally as a Nissan “Works” driver, Colin had also been a regular competitor in the Race of Champions (ROC) along with contesting the X Games.

And this surely is another terrific blow for the WRC which in recent years has seen the passing of Champion Richard Burns along with the retirement of Marko Martin after the death of his co-driver.

McRae’s death follows the just announced news of current point’s leader Marcus Grönholm’s impending WRC retirement at the end of 2007…

Regazzoni

Former Ferrari & Williams Formula 1 driver Clay Regazzoni has perished in a fatal road accident near Parma, Italy. Regazzoni contested 132 Grand Prix's and finished runner-up to Emmerson Fittipaldi in 1974, just 3 points shy of winning that years World Championship for Ferrari. Regazzoni captured 5 Poles and 5 Victories during his accident shortened F1 career…