Biographical: He
was 6th in the Drag News national rankings, preparing
for a race that was to be held the following week challenging
Don Garlits in a best two of three race for the No.
1 ranking at Lions Drag Strip. He was killed during
time trials when his car was buffeted by a gust of
wind as it approached the finish timing lights at a
speed between 160-70 MPH. It began to drift to the
left side of the track. It got off onto the side of
the race track, hit an embankment, soared twenty feet
through the air, and flipped before landing on rocky
ground and disintegrating. His body was still strapped
in the driver's cage, but lying twenty feet from the
bulk of the wreckage. He was dead on arrival at El
Cajon Valley Hospital. He was a resident of Northridge,
California.
