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OSWEGO, N.Y. -- When Shawn Muldoon slips behind the wheel ofhis 900-horsepower supermodified and goes racing, he never thinksabout what could happen.

'You can't worry about dying,' Muldoon said. 'If you'rescared, you shouldn't be in the car.'

Category talk:Racing drivers killed while racing. Jump to navigation Jump to search. Died Oswego Speedway Super Modified Driver Born: March 25. OSWEGO, NY (August 1, 2018) - Supermodified fans have spent several years discussing the potential return of Jim Shampine's iconic '8-Ball' to on track competition at the Oswego Speedway and this Saturday, August 4, it will finally happen when Jim's newphew Keith and car owner Chris Osetek will unveil an 8-Ball throwback scheme on. Dan Wheldon’s death brought back a grim memory for Oswego’s Joe Gosek. He has been a test driver at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

Four years ago, on a Tuesday, he felt chest pains while on thejob, ignored it for six hours, then went to the hospital andunderwent a heart catheterization.

'They said I had a heart attack, and I said, 'I don't thinkso,' said the 42-year-old Muldoon, a heavy equipment operator whoregularly logs 40-60 hours on the job. 'With a heart attack, youthink you're going to die. It was like heartburn, but it sucked.They spent a half hour on one of my valves, couldn't get it open.Then they wanted me to take two months off. Can't afford to do thatwhen you race cars.'

And so, after Muldoon was released that Friday, he went back towork on his No. 1 Chevy. On Saturday night, he went racing again.

'My doctor didn't know I was going to race,' Muldoon said. 'Itold him I'd give up racing when he gives up golf. He justlaughed.'

'He didn't want to lose any points,' Muldoon's wife, Suzi,said with a shrug. 'You've got to know Shawn. That's how he is.'

In Muldoon's mind, the decision to go back so soon and competeat speeds of up to 140 mph on what is billed as the fastestfive-eighths of a mile track in the world was a no-brainer. And atseason's end it was justified, at least in his own mind. He was2002 supermodified champion at Oswego Speedway, the proudest momentof his racing career.

'Winning the track championship my rookie year, it had neverbeen done in 52 years,' said Muldoon, who also competed forseveral years on dirt.

Clearly, racers are a different breed, and they sure need astrong heart. No matter what level they compete at -- from latemodels and supermodifieds to the IRL and Champ cars to Nextel Cupand Formula One -- one of the most vital organs in the body gets areal workout behind the wheel.

Auto racing carries a combination of significantcardiorespiratory stress and underlying psychological demands.According to results of tests performed immediately before the 1999and 2000 seasons in CART (now the Champ Car World Series), theaverage heart rate was between 143 and 157 beats per minute, oxygenconsumption was equal to somebody running an 8-minute to10-minute-mile, and energy expenditures on track were about 9-13times of those at rest.

Current IRL star Helio Castroneves can identify with theresearch. He had his heart monitored in his first year ofopen-wheel racing.

'It went up to 222 beats at the start, went down to 120, thenshot up to 188 when I spun,' Castroneves said. 'I noticed atremendous adrenaline rush. I knew I needed to start running alot.'

Speed isn't the sole cause of a rapid heart beat. Al Unser Jr.was monitored three years ago during a race, and his heart rate was'approximately 120 or 130, right in there' -- until it was time tomake a stop.

'You need to be able to relax in the car, but mine wouldactually go up to 170 beats in the pits,' Unser said. 'Everybodyhad their own opinions as to why that was. Is it giving up control?On the racetrack, I'm in control of everything, but when I come inthe pits I turn it over to my team.

'Do I get anxious because of that? Do I get anxious becauseI've been running 200 mph and now all of a sudden I've got to stopand wait, and I'm in anticipation of getting going again? I thinkit's a little bit of everything -- giving control over to the guys.And it's all high anxiety -- 'Get this right, get this right. Don'tmake any mistakes.'

There also is great risk of heat stress. Drivers sit in a hotcockpit and wear three-layer, fire-retardant driving suits, gloves,boots and helmets, plus fire-resistant underwear. That leaveslittle skin surface exposed to the environment, thus drasticallyreducing the body's ability to dissipate heat.

'Racing on a really hot day with high track temperatures andhigh in-car temperatures puts stress on the body and increasesmetabolic demands,' said Steve Olvey, former medical director forCART and now chief medical officer for Grand Prix Masters, aninternational series for drivers over 45 who competed in FormulaOne for at least two years.

'Anything that does that is likely to increase heart rate. Howhigh it goes depends on age and how good a shape you're in. Adriver who is more than 40 and out of shape and competing in acompetitive series on a really hot day is at risk for some type ofcardiovascular problem like a heart attack. I would expect them tohave abnormally high heart rates as a result. It behooves alldrivers to be in as good a physical condition as they can.'

'If I had chest pains, I wouldn't race,' said Muldoon, whodoesn't exercise and smokes, though he's down to half a pack ofcigarettes a day. 'I wouldn't want to hurt anybody else. If you'renot 100 percent, there's no reason to be in the car, especially atthe speeds we're going.'

If anything, Muldoon possesses a terrific case of tunnel vision.He races on even though he's well aware that his old friend, TonyWhite, died of a heart attack during a heat wave last summer atOswego Speedway. White, the track's limited supermodified rookie ofthe year in 2002, was 37 when he lost consciousness during aSaturday night feature only hours after the temperature soared to90 degrees.

'We had just sat down, and that's when it happened,' saidWhite's older brother, Wayne, who went to school with Muldoon. 'Ithought something was seriously wrong. He just barely tapped thewall, and the car veered up to the outside and just kept goinguntil it stopped on its own.'

Ironically, Tony White was in just about the best shape of hislife after taking some time off from racing.

'He was a heavier guy and he smoked, we all do, but he had justlost probably around 65 pounds,' Wayne White said. 'He had workedreal hard because he wanted to go racing again and be in good shapeto go. A year before, he thought he was having some problems. Hehad gone to the doctors and they gave him a clean bill of health.Everything checked out real good. He was in great spirits, excitedabout the new car.'

Instead, a 110-car funeral procession marked the end of hislife, and the Tony White Memorial is now an annual event at thespeedway.

And Tony White is not alone. The Joe Winne Memorial race is runeach summer at Accord Speedway in the Hudson Valley region of NewYork state. The race is in memory of Joe Winne Sr., atough-as-nails, small-block modified competitor for two decades whodied of a heart attack at age 45 during a practice session in 2000.

That same year, 65-year-old Lou Lazzaro, of Utica, N.Y.,collapsed after a race at Fonda Speedway and died two days later.Lazzaro, who had bypass heart surgery four years earlier, suffereda massive stroke that left him in a coma and died of an inoperableblood clot on the brain.

That Muldoon continues to compete probably stems partly from thefact that racing is in his blood. His father, Jim, raced at Oswegoin the 1970s and his brother, Mike, is in the track's hall of fame.

'It ain't the money, definitely. My dad had six kids and nomoney,' said Shawn Muldoon, who is searching for a primarysponsor. 'It's just for the love of racing. It's like anadrenaline rush. It's different.'

Or perhaps there's something alluringly macabre in all this. Aweek after Lazzaro died, his No. 4 was retired and, after one lastvictory lap, family members and friends spread his ashes around thehalf-mile oval in upstate New York where he won 113 feature racesduring a remarkable career spanning six decades.

'Tony always told me if he was going to die somewhere, he'drather die doing what he loved doing,' Wayne White said. 'That'swhere he was. In his own way, he'd be happy. It's just sad at thesame time.'

'It's the way I hope I go, not laying in a bed with cancer,'Muldoon said. 'Just like that, you're done. And it wouldn't matterwhen it happened.'

Copyright 2006 by The Associated Press

This story is from ESPN.com's automated news wire. Wire index

Richard Ernest Evans (July 23, 1941^[1] – October 24, 1985), was an American racing driver who won nine NASCAR National Modified Championships, including eight in a row from 1978 to 1985. The International Motorsports Hall of Fame lists this achievement as 'one of the supreme accomplishments in motorsports'.^[2] Evans won virtually every major race for asphalt modifieds, most of them more than once, including winning the Race of Champions three times.^[1] Evans was elected to the NASCAR Hall of Fame on June 14, 2011. As one of the Class of 2012, Evans is one of the Hall's first 15 inductees, and is the first Hall of Famer from outside NASCAR's premier series.

• 5Awards and honors
• 6Motorsports career results
  • 6.1NASCAR

Early career[edit]

Evans left his family's farm in Westernville, New York at age 16^[3] to work at a local garage in Rome, New York. After he found early success in street racing, then became a winner in drag racing, an associate suggested he try building a car to race at the nearby Utica-Rome Speedway. He ran his first oval-track car, a 1954 Ford Hobby Stock numbered PT-109 (after John F. Kennedy's torpedo boat in World War II), in 1962. He advanced to the Modifieds, the premier division, in 1965, winning his first feature in the season's final night.^[4]

National championships[edit]

In 1973, Evans became the NASCAR National Modified Champion. In 1978, the 'Rapid Roman' won a second title and did not relinquish his crown during the next seven years. Evans took over four hundred feature race wins at racetracks from Quebec to Florida before he was killed in a crash at Martinsville Speedway while practicing for the Winn-Dixie 500 tripleheader in late 1985 (three races in one day—a 200-lap Modified race, a 200-lap Busch Series race, and a 100-lap Late Model race). Before his fatal crash, Evans had clinched NASCAR's inaugural Winston Modified Tour (now known as Whelen Modified Tour) championship.

Regional championships[edit]

In 1982, NASCAR created the Whelen All-American Series, then known as the Winston Racing Series, to reward successful short-track racers and to provide incentives for them to support their local weekly short tracks, known now as NASCAR Home Tracks. A region-based series when Evans competed (now an international series, based on individual state and provincial champions), Evans won the Northeast Region championship all four years that he competed in it, from 1982 through 1985, but did not win the national championship.^[5]

Fatal crash and legacy[edit]

On October 24, 1985, Evans, who had clinched the 1985 National Modified title the week before at Thompson, was practicing for the Winn-Dixie 500 Modified Feature at Martinsville Speedway in Martinsville, Virginia (the races featured 200-lap Modified and Busch Grand National, and a 100-lap Late Model feature), when he crashed heavily in turn 3. The 44-year-old perished in the accident. The racing world was devastated by the loss of Richie, but his devoted fans have done much to keep his memory alive. Years later other deaths came in the Whelen Modifieds including Charlie Jarzombek at Martinsville in 1987, Corky Cookman at Thompson in 1987, Don Pratt at the Pocono R.o.C. in 1989 and Tony Jankowiak at Stafford in 1990, occasional competitor and two-time defending track champion Tommy Druar in a Lancaster event in 1989, Tom Baldwin, Sr. at Thompson in 2004, and John Blewett III at Thompson in 2007. As a result, officials made more safety features. Evans' crash, along with other fatal crashes in the late 1980s, led to questions about excessive frame rigidity of the Tour Modifieds, and safety changes resulted. In particular, straight frame rails were phased out, with new chassis required to have a step-up which could bend in hard impacts rather than transmitting all its impact force to the driver.

Though not recognized at the time, many racing safety experts have concluded that Evans' death resulted from the same type of 'head-whip' injury and resultant Basilar skull fracture, which also claimed the life of Dale Earnhardt in 2001.

Evans was the father of six children: Jodi Lynn (Evans) Meola, Janelle Ralaine (Evans) Walda, Jill Ann Evans, Jacqueline Marie (Evans) Williams, Richard Edwin Evans (who has raced under the moniker 'Richie Evans Jr.') and Tara Denise (Evans) Farrell.

Evans' signature orange Modified paint scheme (GMC truck color Omaha Orange; black numbers with white shading) was replicated in 2003 on a Busch Series car driven by New Jersey native Martin Truex, Jr. in his first year on the series driving for Dale Earnhardt, Jr.'s Chance 2 Motorsports. Steve Park also ran a Richie Evans tribute paint scheme for Tommy Baldwin Racing's No. 36 entry at the 2010 Coke Zero 400 at Daytona.

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It was heard during the draw for an IROC race a few years back that they called the color of one of the cars 'Evans Orange.' That car carried a small '61' on the bumper cover in the same font used on Richie's last race cars. Descarca seriale gratis. Ray Evernham, Jr. raced against Richie in the Modifieds and also wrote the foreword in the 'Richie! The Richie Evans Story' by Bones Bourcier; he also worked on them at the IROC shops in his native New Jersey and was involved with that aspect.

John Bisci's input:

'GM Omaha Orange matches his early coupes. Yes, people say it's Dupont Swamp Holly Orange but it's hard to find. When Richie built his last coupes and first Pintos, he switched to Ford Grabber Orange. Also, you have to watch what you use as a primer underneath – it bleeds through the orange or tints it. Never use gray primer under the orange! Richie used red oxide primer which would tint the oranges a little darker..'

On June 14, 2011, Evans was elected to the NASCAR Hall of Fame. He is the first driver who competed primarily in Modified-type cars to be elected to the HOF.

On January 20, 2012 Evans was inducted into the NASCAR HOF, during which Darrell Waltrip said to the Evan's family during his acceptance speech, 'You know Richie Evans I want to congratulate the Richie Evans Family, great job tonight. I watched Richie win race after race after race at Martinsville and in my world is what I call A wheel man and Richie Evans was the best wheel man I ever saw and when he raced at Martinsville.'

Awards and honors[edit]

Track championships[edit]

(30 championships at 11 tracks in 4 states. All were in the Modified division on paved tracks.)^[4]

• Thompson Speedway (Thompson, CT): 5 (1980–81, 1983–1985)
• Utica-Rome Speedway (Vernon, NY): 4 (1972–74, 1978)
• Holland Speedway (Holland, NY): 4 (1978–80, 1982)
• Spencer Speedway (Williamson, NY): 4 (1977–78, 1983, 1985)
• Fulton Speedway (Fulton, NY): 3 (1970–71, 1974)
• Shangri-La Speedway (Owego, NY): 3 (1975, 1977, 1982)
• New Egypt Speedway (New Egypt, NJ): 2 (1979, 1982)
• Stafford Speedway (Stafford Springs, CT): 2 (1980–81)
• Chemung Speedrome (Chemung, NY): 1 (1978)
• Oswego Speedway (Oswego, NY): 1 (1983)
• Riverside Park Speedway (Agawam, MA): 1 (1980)

Other acknowledgements[edit]

• NASCAR Connecticut State Champion (1980–1981)
• NASCAR Winston Racing Series Northeast Region Champion (1982–1985)
• New Smyrna World Series of Racing Modified Champion (1977, 1979–1981, 1983–1984)
• 2-time Daytona International Speedway Modified Race winner (1979–1980)
• 3-time Modified Race of Champions winner

1973 – Trenton (NJ) Speedway (1.50 mile track)

1979 – Pocono (PA) Raceway (2.50 mile track)

1980 – Pocono (PA) Raceway (0.75 mile track)

Feature race victories[edit]

(481 feature wins known in Modifieds and 2 in other divisions, at 40 tracks in 14 states and provinces. One track with incomplete records has none of Evans' wins there included.)^[4]

• Shangri-La Speedway (Owego, NY): 66 (1972–85)
• Spencer Speedway (Williamson, NY): 49 (1969–85)
• Fulton Speedway (Fulton, NY): 42 (1968–77), and 1 Limited Sportsman win (1970)^[6]
• New Smyrna Speedway (New Smyrna Beach, FL): 39 (1976–85)
• Stafford Motor Speedway (Stafford Springs, CT): 38 (1975–85)
• Utica-Rome Speedway (Vernon, NY): 33 (1965–78)(http://www.uticaromespeedway.com)
• Riverside Park Speedway (Agawam, MA): 32 (1978–84)
• Thompson Speedway (Thompson, CT): 32 (1975–85), and 1 Supermodified win
• New Egypt Speedway (New Egypt, NJ): 23 (1976, 1978–1980, 1982–85)
• Lancaster Speedway (Lancaster, NY): 22 (1969–76)
• Albany-Saratoga Speedway (Malta, NY): 17 (1970–76)
• Islip Speedway (Islip, NY): 17 (1970–83)
• Oswego Speedway (Oswego, NY): 13 (1972–85)
• Holland Speedway (Holland, NY): 11 (1977–85)
• Martinsville Speedway (Martinsville, VA): 10 (1973–1983)
• Monadnock Speedway (Winchester, NH): 3 (1978–81)
• Pocono Raceway (Pocono, PA): 3 (1979 on 2.5-mile superspeedway, 1972 and 1980 on 3/4-mile oval)
• Bowman Gray Stadium (Winston-Salem, NC): 2 (1979–80)
• Caraway Speedway (Asheboro, NC): 2 (1973, 1979)
• Chemung Speedrome (Chemung, NY): 2 (1978)
• Daytona International Speedway (Daytona Beach, FL): 2 (1979–80)
• Freeport Stadium (Freeport, NY): 2 (1972, 1976)
• Hickory Speedway (Hickory, NC): 2 (1978–79)
• Oxford Plains Speedway (Oxford Plains, ME): 2 (1982, 1985)
• Seekonk Speedway (Seekonk, MA): 2 (1979, 1983)
• Trenton Fairgrounds Speedway (Trenton, NJ): 2 (1973, 1978)
• Catamount Stadium (Milton, VT): 1 (1970)
• Plattsburgh Speedway (Plattsburgh, NY): 1 (1971)
• Devil's Bowl Speedway (West Haven, VT): 1 (1971)
• Twin State Speedway (Claremont, NH): 1 (1985)
• Deux Montagnes Speedway (St. Eustache, Quebec, Canada): 1 (1979)
• Evans Mills Speedway (Evans Mills, NY): 1 (1970)
• Franklin County Speedway (Calloway, VA): 1 (1979)
• Kingsport Speedway (Kingsport, TN): 1 (1979)
• Metrolina Speedway (Charlotte, NC): 1 (1974)
• Riverhead Raceway (Riverhead, NY): 1 (1985)
• Star Speedway (Epping, NH): 1 (1979)
• Wall Stadium (Wall Township, NJ): 1 (1971)
• Weedsport Speedway (Weedsport, NY): 1 (1971, Evans' only win on dirt)
• Capital City Speedway (Stittsville, Ontario, Canada): multiple wins (records incomplete, none included in total)

Recognition[edit]

• Named No. 1 on NASCAR's Modified all-time Top 10 list (2003)^[4]
• Only retired number in NASCAR in any series – No. 61 on the Whelen Modified Tour (Unofficial).
• As part of NASCAR's 50th Anniversary celebration in 1998, Evans was named one of NASCAR's 50 Greatest Drivers of All Time.^[4]
• Selected by fans as NASCAR Modifieds' Most Popular Driver nine times^[1]
• International Motorsports Hall of Fame (1996)^[2]
• National Motorsports Press Association (NMPA) Hall of Fame (1986)^[4]
• New York State Stock Car Association Hall of Fame^[4]
• New England Auto Racers Hall of Fame inaugural 1998 class^[4]
• FOAR SCORE Hall of Fame: 1986 – inaugural class^[7]
• Oswego Speedway Hall of Fame (2000)
• As part of the 25th anniversary of the NASCAR Weekly Series in 2006, Evans was named one of the series' All Time Top 25 drivers.^[8]
• Nominated in the class of 2010 as one of the potential 5 inaugural inductees to the NASCAR Hall of Fame, July 2, 2009.
• Evans' No. 61 was retired at his home track – Utica-Rome Speedway in Vernon, New York in 2008.
• Nominated in the class of 2011 as one of the potential 5 inductees of 2011 to the NASCAR Hall of Fame, July 1, 2010.
• In the 1985 IROC Series, every orange car featured a '61' on the rear fender to honor Evans and his orange No. 61 car.
• Elected to the NASCAR Hall of Fame on June 14, 2011 with Cale Yarborough, Darrell Waltrip, Dale Inman and Glen Wood.
• Inducted to the NASCAR Hall of Fame in Charlotte, NC on January 20, 2012.

Motorsports career results[edit]

NASCAR[edit]

(key) (Bold – Pole position awarded by qualifying time. Italics – Pole position earned by points standings or practice time. * – Most laps led.)

Whelen Modified Tour[edit]

Drivers Killed At Indianapolis 500

Further reading[edit]

• Zanardi, Pete. Stock Car Racing, April 1974. (Richie Evans biography article.)

References[edit]

1. ^ ^abcBourcier, Bones, '61 at 61', Speedway Illustrated (ISSN 1528-4182), Volume 3, Number 8, August 2002.
2. ^ ^abInternational Motorsports Hall of Fame website, last verified September 17, 2007. 'Archived copy'. Archived from the original on 2008-08-27. Retrieved 2008-10-31.CS1 maint: Archived copy as title (link)
3. ^RICHIE EVANS, Modified Stock Car Racing Legend Retrieved 2014-09-07.
4. ^ ^abcdefghBourcier, Bones. RICHIE!: The Fast Life and Times of NASCAR's Greatest Modified Driver (1st ed., 2004). Newburyport, Massachusetts, USA: Coastal 181. ISBN0-9709854-6-0.
5. ^Schaefer, Paul. Where Stars Are Born: Celebrating 25 Years of NASCAR Weekly Racing. Coastal 181, Newburyport, Massachusetts, USA, 2006. pp. 8, 14–15, 20–22, 27–28.
6. ^Bisci, John. Remembering, 2 October 2002 edition, covering weekend of September 11–12, 1970. 'Archived copy'. Archived from the original on 2008-10-11. Retrieved 2007-10-31.CS1 maint: Archived copy as title (link)
7. ^Hall of Fame page of FOAR Score (Friends of Auto Racing) website 'Archived copy'. Archived from the original on 2006-12-05. Retrieved 2007-04-10.CS1 maint: Archived copy as title (link), retrieved 16 April 2007.
8. ^Schaefer, Paul. Where Stars Are Born: Celebrating 25 Years of NASCAR Weekly Racing. Coastal 181, Newburyport, Massachusetts, USA, 2006. pp. 163–170.
9. ^'1985 NASCAR Winston Modified Tour Results'. Racing-Reference. Retrieved November 16, 2017.

External links[edit]

• Richie Evans driver statistics at Racing-Reference