RIP Chris Economaki
09-28-2012, 12:42 PM
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RIP Chris Economaki
http://www.autoweek.com/article/2012...news/120929850
By: Leo Levine on 9/28/2012
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UPDATE: Whoever you are, wherever you are, take a moment to think of Chris Economaki. Make it your personal tribute, however brief, to this grand old man of auto racing journalists because he left us late Thursday, Sept. 27 at age 91, and he left a hole in the motorsports firmament that can never be filled.
Whether you have ever read National Speed Sport News before or are a longtime subscriber, whether you realize it or not, a portion of your outlook regarding automobile racing has been formed by his weekly column. It was required reading for any serious racing journalist in this country, and his opinions invariably had some influence on all of us. We knew that he knew. He may have been a pedestrian writer, but as a reporter, commentator and interpreter of events, he had no peer.
What is perhaps even more important is that he knew how to evaluate motorsports as a reflection of the social conditions of a particular era. It was a rare talent that would normally require someone with a doctorate in sociology. Chris didn't have a college degree, but he was more erudite and more knowledgeable about the world around him than most people who have letters after their name.
The use of superlatives is inherently dangerous, as someone always seems to come along who knows of one bigger or faster, or whatever, but in the case of Chris it is a safe bet to say he was the most knowledgeable racing authority of all time, having spent nearly eight decades involved in--and in love with--a sport he saw grow from a county fair attraction to a staple of television programming on a worldwide basis.
To look at it one way, his passing was inevitable; all of us shall accomplish this sooner or later. What was important is how he lived, and that was spectacular. He was one of a kind: brash, funny, marvelously articulate. A great story teller, even in his 80s he could still outwork the younger competition. He had connections with anyone--and seemingly everyone--involved in the sport, from the top to the bottom of the racing food chain, from the smallest back-country dirt track to Indianapolis and Daytona.
Chris leaves behind two daughters, two grandchildren, a host of friends and admirers all over the globe, and left the National Speed Sport News, of which he was the heart and soul. He was there at the beginning in 1934, when as a 13-year-old he stumbled across its first issue being printed in a storefront in Ridgewood, N.J. He did everything from delivering it and hawking it at race tracks to becoming a correspondent, then editor in 1950 and later publisher, part owner and eventually editor and publisher emeritus, of the country's premier newspaper devoted strictly to competitive motorsports.
“The passing of Chris Economaki is a tough loss for me on both a personal and professional level, having known Chris throughout my life," said NASCAR CEO Brian France. "Many people consider Chris the greatest motorsports journalist of all time. He was, indeed, ‘the Dean.’ Chris was a fixture for years at NASCAR events, and played a huge role in growing NASCAR’s popularity.
"I’ll miss seeing him and of course, I’ll miss hearing that voice. Our thoughts and prayers are with his daughters Corinne and Tina and the rest of Chris’ family.”
LAT PHOTOGRAPHIC
Chris Economaki, shown in 2010, began watching car racing in the 1930s.
For the breadth of his career, try this: In 1936, while still in high school in Ridgewood, he hitchhiked to Long Island to watch Tazio Nuvolari win the 1936 Vanderbilt Cup. And he was still with us when Dario Franchitti won this year's Indianapolis 500. He saw his first 500, incidentally, in 1938.
He was born in Brooklyn, N.Y., in 1920 as a child of well-to-do parents whose fortunes were wiped out in the stock market crash of 1929, and who more or less came apart at the seams during the '30s. As such, he grew up on his own during the Depression, and although he went on to become successful financially, there was a side, hidden for the most part, that showed he never forgot the hard times of his youth. When he would leave a room, he would turn out the lights. It was a small thing, but it was indicative.
Chris spent his teenage years in north New Jersey.
He covered races all over the world, but his heart lay with the eastern dirt tracks of his youth--when, as he used to point out, before World War II there were only two paved ovals in America of more than a half mile, Indianapolis being one and Thompson, Conn.--five-eighths of a mile--the other. (Who else would know this?)
In the 1930s, racing cars were primitive creations and their ability to win lay more with their drivers than their designers. As a consequence, although he understood the advance of technology better than 90 percent of his colleagues, he always preferred the two-leaf spring, three-spring, four-spring single seaters of the '30s, cars that made the driver the determining factor, as opposed to the technical marvels of today that effectively rule out all but one or two entries in almost every event.
He worked with ABC's Wide World of Sports; he was with CBS and ESPN; and it can be said he was one of the catalysts in bringing television to racing. It is not an oversimplification to say he knew racing and knew how to speak about it, and when the networks began paying attention he was there.
In one sense, when you think of it, he was everywhere. From being an errand boy at Paterson, N.J.'s "Gasoline Alley" in the '30s, when garages could be rented for $1 a month, to the Avus in Berlin, when Sgt. Economaki of the 2nd Armored Division took his Jeep around the German circuit the week after VE Day, to Havana when Juan Manuel Fangio was kidnapped in 1960, to hundreds of those minor-league dirt ovals.
After all, there was always the chance he might find another Bob Swanson, who was always on his list of the finest drivers he had ever seen. Swanson was a midget driver in the '30s, who ran wheel-to-wheel with Nuvolari at the Vanderbilt Cup, and who was killed in a race in Toledo, Ohio, in 1940.
But Chris never forgot him.
Chris won't be forgotten, either.
Plans for services are pending. That information will be published when it is available.
Read more: http://www.autoweek.com/article/2012...#ixzz27mObE1hQ
By: Leo Levine on 9/28/2012
Related Articles
UPDATE: Whoever you are, wherever you are, take a moment to think of Chris Economaki. Make it your personal tribute, however brief, to this grand old man of auto racing journalists because he left us late Thursday, Sept. 27 at age 91, and he left a hole in the motorsports firmament that can never be filled.
Whether you have ever read National Speed Sport News before or are a longtime subscriber, whether you realize it or not, a portion of your outlook regarding automobile racing has been formed by his weekly column. It was required reading for any serious racing journalist in this country, and his opinions invariably had some influence on all of us. We knew that he knew. He may have been a pedestrian writer, but as a reporter, commentator and interpreter of events, he had no peer.
What is perhaps even more important is that he knew how to evaluate motorsports as a reflection of the social conditions of a particular era. It was a rare talent that would normally require someone with a doctorate in sociology. Chris didn't have a college degree, but he was more erudite and more knowledgeable about the world around him than most people who have letters after their name.
The use of superlatives is inherently dangerous, as someone always seems to come along who knows of one bigger or faster, or whatever, but in the case of Chris it is a safe bet to say he was the most knowledgeable racing authority of all time, having spent nearly eight decades involved in--and in love with--a sport he saw grow from a county fair attraction to a staple of television programming on a worldwide basis.
To look at it one way, his passing was inevitable; all of us shall accomplish this sooner or later. What was important is how he lived, and that was spectacular. He was one of a kind: brash, funny, marvelously articulate. A great story teller, even in his 80s he could still outwork the younger competition. He had connections with anyone--and seemingly everyone--involved in the sport, from the top to the bottom of the racing food chain, from the smallest back-country dirt track to Indianapolis and Daytona.
Chris leaves behind two daughters, two grandchildren, a host of friends and admirers all over the globe, and left the National Speed Sport News, of which he was the heart and soul. He was there at the beginning in 1934, when as a 13-year-old he stumbled across its first issue being printed in a storefront in Ridgewood, N.J. He did everything from delivering it and hawking it at race tracks to becoming a correspondent, then editor in 1950 and later publisher, part owner and eventually editor and publisher emeritus, of the country's premier newspaper devoted strictly to competitive motorsports.
“The passing of Chris Economaki is a tough loss for me on both a personal and professional level, having known Chris throughout my life," said NASCAR CEO Brian France. "Many people consider Chris the greatest motorsports journalist of all time. He was, indeed, ‘the Dean.’ Chris was a fixture for years at NASCAR events, and played a huge role in growing NASCAR’s popularity.
"I’ll miss seeing him and of course, I’ll miss hearing that voice. Our thoughts and prayers are with his daughters Corinne and Tina and the rest of Chris’ family.”
LAT PHOTOGRAPHIC
Chris Economaki, shown in 2010, began watching car racing in the 1930s.
For the breadth of his career, try this: In 1936, while still in high school in Ridgewood, he hitchhiked to Long Island to watch Tazio Nuvolari win the 1936 Vanderbilt Cup. And he was still with us when Dario Franchitti won this year's Indianapolis 500. He saw his first 500, incidentally, in 1938.
He was born in Brooklyn, N.Y., in 1920 as a child of well-to-do parents whose fortunes were wiped out in the stock market crash of 1929, and who more or less came apart at the seams during the '30s. As such, he grew up on his own during the Depression, and although he went on to become successful financially, there was a side, hidden for the most part, that showed he never forgot the hard times of his youth. When he would leave a room, he would turn out the lights. It was a small thing, but it was indicative.
Chris spent his teenage years in north New Jersey.
He covered races all over the world, but his heart lay with the eastern dirt tracks of his youth--when, as he used to point out, before World War II there were only two paved ovals in America of more than a half mile, Indianapolis being one and Thompson, Conn.--five-eighths of a mile--the other. (Who else would know this?)
In the 1930s, racing cars were primitive creations and their ability to win lay more with their drivers than their designers. As a consequence, although he understood the advance of technology better than 90 percent of his colleagues, he always preferred the two-leaf spring, three-spring, four-spring single seaters of the '30s, cars that made the driver the determining factor, as opposed to the technical marvels of today that effectively rule out all but one or two entries in almost every event.
He worked with ABC's Wide World of Sports; he was with CBS and ESPN; and it can be said he was one of the catalysts in bringing television to racing. It is not an oversimplification to say he knew racing and knew how to speak about it, and when the networks began paying attention he was there.
In one sense, when you think of it, he was everywhere. From being an errand boy at Paterson, N.J.'s "Gasoline Alley" in the '30s, when garages could be rented for $1 a month, to the Avus in Berlin, when Sgt. Economaki of the 2nd Armored Division took his Jeep around the German circuit the week after VE Day, to Havana when Juan Manuel Fangio was kidnapped in 1960, to hundreds of those minor-league dirt ovals.
After all, there was always the chance he might find another Bob Swanson, who was always on his list of the finest drivers he had ever seen. Swanson was a midget driver in the '30s, who ran wheel-to-wheel with Nuvolari at the Vanderbilt Cup, and who was killed in a race in Toledo, Ohio, in 1940.
But Chris never forgot him.
Chris won't be forgotten, either.
Plans for services are pending. That information will be published when it is available.
Read more: http://www.autoweek.com/article/2012...#ixzz27mObE1hQ
09-28-2012, 01:02 PM
#2
Three Wheelin'
RIP
I had the pleasure of spending a couple hours with him at a bar in Charlotte NC 15 years ago. I don't know if the rest of the place just didn't know who he was but it was two of the best hours of listening to stories I have ever experienced. He could put down the drinks!!
Lost a great one.
I had the pleasure of spending a couple hours with him at a bar in Charlotte NC 15 years ago. I don't know if the rest of the place just didn't know who he was but it was two of the best hours of listening to stories I have ever experienced. He could put down the drinks!!
Lost a great one.
09-28-2012, 07:48 PM
#6
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Lifetime Rennlist
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I remember when I first started watching car racing on TV Chris was the expert all the other broadcasters listened to, he is now with some of the best racers ever RIP.
Rich
Rich
09-29-2012, 11:12 PM
#7
Rennlist Member
He was the pioneer, and I've heard him speak about it and read his book.
I think he'll be best remembered for his famous interview intro question to drivers;
"What's it like out there?"
I think he'll be best remembered for his famous interview intro question to drivers;
"What's it like out there?"
