KEEPING THE SPIRIT ALIVE SINCE 1999
Dick Atkins
23/4/1936 - 13/11/1966
One of the best sprint car drivers of his era and was just begining to shine in the USAC Championships when he was killed at Ascot Park when Don Branson's car bounced off the wall back into his path. Branson died instantly and Atkins passed away the next day from what at first were believed to be burns. However an autosy revealed that the cause of death was a fractured skull.
Dick Atkins died 54 years ago, he was 30 , He would have been 84.
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Good looking and popular with the crowds of California race fans, Richard Charles (Dick) Atkins was one of the best sprint car drivers of his era and was just begining to shine in the USAC Championships. Atkins won the Sacramento Mile, champ-dirt car race in the heydey of many super talents.In 1966 he qualified for the 1966 Indy 500, but was later 'bumped' and didn't race and just three weeks before his fatal accident he won his first USAC Championship race. Then on 12 November 1966, Don Branson lost it in a corner at Ascot Park (Gardena). Branson's car bounced off the wall back into the path of Atkins. Branson was killed instantly and Atkins died the next day from what at first were believed to be burns. However an autosy revealed that the cause of death was a fracture to the rear of his skull.
Soon after this accident, his close friend J. C. Agajanian, called on USAC to make rubber bladders in fuel tanks madatory.
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Renaud de Montaignac 1851 - 1898 -
Wilhelm Werner 1874 - 1947 -
Bob Burman 1884 - 1916 -
Tony Sugden 1932 -
Larry Rice 1946 - 2009
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Derek Bell 1941
A former Formula One driver from England who raced for the Ferrari, McLaren, Surtees and Tecno. Bell is best know for his sportscar racing, winning Le Mans five times and the Daytona 24 hour race, three times. -
Mike Fisher 1943
An amateur racer who participated in 2 Grand Prix. His racing was interrupted by the Vietnam war during which he flew a number of different fighters. In 1994 he was assigned to the Pentagon and was CART's executive vice-president of racing for three months during 1997. -
Lloyd Ruby 1928 - 2009
Often reffered to as the best driver never to have won the Indy 500, he led the 500 in five occasions. A works driver for Ford in sportscars he had better luck winning the Daytona 24 Hour race twice. He took partin two Grand Prix, once at the Indy 500 when it counted as a round of the World Championship and in the 1961 US Grand Prix. -
Bob Said 1932 - 2002
Bob Said started racing in 1952 in the USA but turned his attention to Europe where he raced with Maston Gregory. He raced in the American Grand Prix in 1959 at Sebring, driving Paul Emery's ancient Connaught. He lost everything in 1962 but rebuilt his fortune and took up winter sports, participating in the Winter Olympics in 1968 and 1972 in the bobsleigh event. He then became an Emmy award winning producer. He died of a heart attack while watching the OSCARs on TV. -
Phil Hill 1927 - 2008
The only American-born driver to win the Formula One World Drivers' Championship (Mario Andretti, an Italian American driver, won the World Drivers' Championship in 1978, but was not born in the United States). He also scored three wins at each of the 24 Hours of Le Mans and 12 Hours of Sebring sports car races.