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Sad news in the world of Auto Racing

Hamilton, 49, dies after battle with neck cancer
By Ryan Smithson, NASCAR.COM
January 8, 2007
12:01 AM EST (05:01 GMT)


Bobby Hamilton, the 2004 Craftsman Truck Series champion and a four-time winner in the Cup Series, died Sunday. He was 49.

Hamilton, a native of Nashville, Tenn., had been battling cancer for nearly a year. He announced in March 2006 that he was undergoing treatment for neck cancer. He immediately turned over his driving duties in the Craftsman Truck Series to his son, Bobby Hamilton Jr.

"He will be greatly missed as a husband, a father, a grandfather, an owner and a friend," Hamilton's family said in a statement. "We want to thank everyone for their love and support of our racing operation and the outpouring of care and concern during his cancer battle. One of Bobby's greatest loves in life was racing and we will continue on in his honor."

Liz Allison, a family friend who co-hosted a radio show with Hamilton, said he was at home with his family in Mount Juliet, Tenn., when he died.

In addition to Bobby Jr., Hamilton is survived by wife Lori and a granddaughter.

Jim Hunter, NASCAR's vice president for communications, saw first-hand the unlikely procession of Hamilton's career from Nashville short track champion to multiple winner in NASCAR's top series.

"He meant an awful lot. He was old school and one of those guys that did it his way," Hunter said. "He was very popular in the garage area and in the industry because he worked real hard. He didn't believe anyone was owed anything."

Hunter said the news hit the sanctioning body especially hard.

"It came as a real shock. We knew [the cancer] was serious, and we knew he was fighting it, but you just never know these things," Hunter said. "He will be missed. He was a tough, tough guy."

Truck Series driver Brendan Gaughan recalled a day last fall when Hamilton took him aside and asked him to drive for his team.

"It floored me," said Gaughan, who eventually decided to turn down the offer. "He asked me to drive for his team, and it was quite an honor. That day will always sit in my head.

"He was a great driver and a great owner. My heart goes out to the BHR organization."

Hamilton was diagnosed with head and neck cancer in February after a malignant growth was found when swelling from dental surgery did not go down.

He raced in the season's first three events, with a best finish of 14th at Atlanta Motor Speedway, before turning over the wheel to his son.

"I love what I do; I love this business," Hamilton said when he disclosed that he had cancer. "NASCAR has been good to me, and I just don't feel comfortable when I am not around it."

Hamilton quit driving in the Cup Series after the 2002 season to focus on his thriving Craftsman Truck Series team. He went on to win the Truck Series title in '04.

"It is a terrible loss to us," said Larry McClure, Hamilton's team owner from 1998-2000. "I will miss him. I always thought of him as my friend."

McClure said he had talked to Hamilton just a few weeks ago.

"I asked him how he was dong and he said, 'Pretty good,' " McClure said. "Just amazing how it can turn like that."

Jeff Purvis, a fellow Tennessean and a close friend of Hamilton's, was shocked at the news of Hamilton's death. A longtime Busch Series regular whose career was curtailed by a 2002 crash, Purvis visited with Ken Schrader on Friday and they had discussed Hamilton's progress.

"We went to lunch and talked about Bobby," Purvis said. "[Schrader] had just left Bobby's shop and came from there to my house.

"[Hamilton] was kind of what racing was supposed to be about. He was a racer's racer. You could talk to him about chassis. He understood racing and the racecars, the event. He really understood racing itself."

Nextel Cup driver Sterling Marlin, a fellow Tennessee native, said a lot of people didn't know Hamilton well even though he was generous enough to give someone the shirt off his back.

"He always had a good vision," Marlin said in Daytona where testing begins Monday. "He always wanted to do things his own way, so he became his own boss, got into the trucks, and it worked out well for him."

Though he made his Cup debut in 1989 -- a one-race deal at Phoenix on Nov. 5 -- Hamilton probably is best known for the unusual way he broke into NASCAR's top series. He served as a stunt driver for the 1990 movie Days of Thunder, performing so well that he was soon hired to run the Cup Series full-time. He went on become rookie of the year in 1991.

His big break, however, came in 1995 when Hamilton was hired to drive the No. 43 of Petty Enterprises. He resurrected the ailing team with 10 top-10 finishes in 1995, and in '96, he won at Phoenix, which helped him finish a career-best ninth in points.

After winning at Rockingham in 1997, Hamilton moved to Morgan-McClure Motorsports for the 1998-2000 seasons. His only win during that time came in '98 at Martinsville.

"He was a good driver and a good businessman," McClure said. "We spent three years with him and it was great. He got us our last win. It was probably the last time the team was competitive, and he kept getting better and better."

Hamilton wrapped up his Cup career with a two-year stint driving for Andy Petree. Hamilton won at Talladega in 2001 -- a thrilling race that went green the entire way -- for Petree's first victory as a car owner, and Petree celebrated by diving across the hood as Hamilton drove into Victory Lane.

"He definitely raced hard," Gaughan said of Hamilton. "I remember that race when he won at Talladega when everyone was falling out of the seat [from the oppressive heat]. That was a testament to how tough he was."

Allison, the widow of former NASCAR star Davey Allison, said, "The thing I loved about Bobby Sr. so much is that he treated everybody the same. It didn't matter if you were one of the drivers he competed against or a fan he'd never laid eyes on before.

"He didn't have a pretentious bone in his body. I think that's why people were drawn to him. He was just very real and had a way of relating to everyone."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

-Bianca-

Sad.

Californian

That is very sad. RIP Bobby Hamilton!

luvin82029

Sad news Cancer takes another life in Auto Racing

Parsons, 65, dies after battle with lung cancer
NASCAR.COM
January 16, 2007
10:18 AM EST (15:18 GMT)


Benny Parsons, who charmed television audiences with his folksy demeanor as much as he impressed fans with his ability as a driver, died Tuesday at Carolinas Medical Center in Charlotte following complications from lung disease. He was 65.

The former self-proclaimed Detroit taxi driver-turned-NASCAR racer never forgot his humble rural North Carolina roots, and it came through in every aspect of his life.

Even though he gained fame as the 1973 Winston Cup champion and winner of the 1975 Daytona 500, Parsons understood that as a broadcast analyst, it was his job to aim the spotlight away from himself.

"I heard someone say this one time and I thought it was fabulous," Parsons said. "Everyone can't be stars. Someone has to sit on the sidewalk and clap as they go by.

"We announcers on TV that talk about sports are simply the people sitting on the sidewalk clapping as the parade goes by. We are no longer the stars. The guys on the racetracks and in football and basketball games -- those are the stars."

Still Parsons was a star in his own right. He was born in 1941 in Wilkes County, N.C., but resided for much of his life in Ellerbe, just a few miles up the road from Rockingham, home of North Carolina Motor Speedway. It was there that perhaps Parsons' greatest accomplishment as a driver took place in the 1973 season finale.

Holding a slim lead over Richard Petty, Parsons' car was heavily damaged in a Lap 13 accident. However, with help from a number of different teams in the garage area, Parsons was able to get back on the track, completing enough laps to finish 28th and win the title.

Parsons' racing career came somewhat by accident. When his parents moved north to Detroit following World War II, Parsons helped work at his father's service station.

One evening in 1963, a truck towing a racecar stopped at the station for fuel. Parsons was invited to join them and hopped into the bed of the pickup on the way to nearby Mount Clemens Speedway. According to the story, when the regular driver failed to show up, Parsons volunteered to drive.

Parsons made his first visit to Daytona that same year.

"I had become a huge race fan and had been going to the races with some guys that were running the ARCA series up in the Midwest. I didn't know a soul [in Daytona], and couldn't get in the garage area," he said.

"But I would buy my infield ticket for three or four dollars -- whatever it was to come in -- and just hang on the fence and watch those cars being pushed by. I would've paid anything I had in my pocket just to push -- you know, [Fred] Lorenzen's car and Ned Jarrett's car and Fireball [Robert's] car."

The highlight of the trip, Parsons recalled, was when he met H.B. Bailey's wife in the lobby of the hotel where they were staying.

"She slipped me a pit pass, so I got in for about two hours one day," Parsons said. "It was the highlight of my life, getting inside the garage area and getting close to those racecars."

Parsons quickly made a name for himself in the Midwest racing ranks, winning ARCA rookie of the year honors in 1965, then capturing the ARCA championship in 1968 and 1969.

He made his NASCAR debut in 1964, earning $250 for a 21st-place finish after his Holman-Moody Ford began overheating.

Parsons qualified for the first of 20 Daytona 500 starts in 1969, finishing eighth in the No. 88 Ford. He would go on to run the entire 1970 season in L.G. DeWitt's No. 72, posting the first of 21 career victories at Virginia's South Boston Speedway in 1971.

When David Pearson spun out while leading with two laps remaining in the 1975 Daytona 500, Parsons was there to take the checkered flag, giving Chevrolet its first win in that race since 1960.

Parsons also became the first driver to qualify a stock car at over 200 mph when he won the pole at Talladega for the 1982 Winston 500 at a speed of 200.176 mph.

After retiring as an active driver following the 1988 season, Parsons joined ESPN as a race analyst, winning an Ace Award in 1989 and an Emmy in 1996. He moved over to NBC and TNT when those networks began NASCAR coverage in 2001.

In July, Parsons revealed that he had been diagnosed with lung cancer. Parsons admitted he had been a smoker but had kicked the habit nearly 30 years before.

"The first thing everyone asks me is, 'Are you a smoker?'," Parsons said at the time. "The answer is that I smoked my last cigarette way back in 1978 and since then I've hated being around smoking. I don't even allow anyone in my foursome to smoke on the golf course."

After treatment, the 65-year-old announced in October that his cancer was in full remission.

"Three months ago my family doctor called me into his office and told me I had lung cancer," Parsons said at the time. "So Rick Hendrick told me if I was going to fight cancer, you have to get [oncologist Steven A.] Limentani. He helped Rick through his leukemia 10 years ago. So we did.

"The last three months we have been battling the disease. Then Wednesday, I had a scan and [Limentani] called me Wednesday afternoon with the best news: 'The cancer is gone ... see ya.' "

However, Parsons was unable to attend the Nextel Cup Awards Ceremony in New York as the cancer treatment reportedly left his left lung too damaged to function properly, according to a report in the Charlotte Observer.

He was admitted to the hospital for the final time on Dec. 26 as his condition progressively worsened.

Parsons was inducted into the International Motorsports Hall of Fame in 1994 and named one of NASCAR's 50 greatest drivers in 1998.


Watching racing will never same again

NikNak

Aww, sad losses.

-Bianca-

cls21c

Barbaro euthanized; owner calls it 'the right decision' - Horse Racing - Yahoo! Sports

-Bianca-

NikNak

Aww, that's sad.

-Bianca-

Since competitive eating is supposedly a sport these days and this is big news in the competitive eating world:

Yum.

caseman

COlts win super bowl 41
yehoo

caseman

mistake

NikNak

Eww! That's sickening.

Compulsive eating was just an episode storyline on Without A Trace.

-Bianca-

I really do always wonder where the weight goes on these people.

The best pro-eaters ( ) are all so skinny... are they purging it back up later? Addicted to exercise?

NikNak

I wonder.

This "sport" is being mentioned more often than not lately.

Weird.