Chip Mead

17/3/1950 - 31/3/1993

Record updated 31-Mar-20

He stared out racing in the late 1970s in Formula Super Vee, Formula Atlantic and Can-Am but is best remembered as a sportscar driver, he was an IMSA regular who took many class wins including the 12 Hours of Sebring in 1987.He was killed in a plane crash in 1993, one day before Alan Kulwicki was also killed in plane crash.

Harry Talbott "Chip" Mead, Jr. was from Dayton, Ohio. He stared out racing in the late 1970s in Formula Super Vee, Formula Atlantic and Can-Am, finishing 7th in the 1977 Formula Atlantic championship. In 1974 he came to England where he purchased a Chevron B27 and raced with Doug Shierson Racing in the opening rounds of the British Formula Atlantic series before taking the car back to the USA to race there. He made 7 starts in the CART Championship Car series from 1980 to 1983 with a best finish of 9th place at the Spring race at Phoenix International Raceway in 1982. He attempted to qualify for the Indianapolis 500 twice but failed to find enough speed to qualify in 1981 and was bumped from the field the following year. After his experience in CART, Mead moved on to the popular IMSA Camel GT series. Through the late-1970s and 1980s he drove a wide variety of sports cars in IMSA and CanAm, from Porsche 911s to 934s and from the Fabcar Porsche to a Lola T711 Chevrolet. 1987 was his best year driving the Porsche Fabcar, often referred to as the Baby 962. The team came second in class in the 24 Hours of Daytona, won their class at the 12 Hours of Sebring, won their class again at the Miami Grand Prix, and took another second in the West Palm Beach GP. Racing against factory teams from Ferrari, Buick, Pontiac and Mazda, the Dayton, Ohio-based team were front runners all season, adding the California 500 at Sears Point to their record. Mead was awarded the Porsche Cup for their accomplishments. Mead ran a Real Estate Development business in St. Simons Island, Georgia, but then moved towards the end of his life to Saratoga, California where he owned an aircraft sales firm based in San Jose, California. On March 31, 1993, Mead as a passenger on a plane flown by a colleague was killed when the plane crashed near Livermore, California. Mead was survived by his wife Caroline (Quintard) Mead, his mother Mary Wilshire Mead, brothers Dan Mead, George Mead, Whit Mead, Dudley Mead and sister Mimi Mead-Hagen. His plane crash came one day before Alan Kulwicki's fatal plane crash on a black weekend for the sport.

historicracing.com