I'm really sorry to hear this news,I've known Noyce since the late 70's when I first started working on sprint cars at Ascot, every week we would exchange hello's and usually stop and talk for few moments (if you could get Noyce to only talk for a few minutes)LOL. I will miss seeing him at the races and my condolences go out to his family and many friends.
R.I.P Noyce,now you can watch all your old friends race at the big track upstairs.
Terry James Jr.
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Western Sprint Car Racers Lose A Friend. Noyce Naylor Passes Away by Bobby Kimbrough December 14, 2011
Noyce Naylor, a man that was larger than life but a friend to all. It is with a very heavy heart that we report on the passing of Noyce Naylor on Monday, December 12, 2011. Sprint Car racing has lost a true friend. “He was one of those guys that were larger than life,” said Vicki James, daughter of Sprint Car icon Walt James. “All of us old timers from the CRA, and there’s not many of us left, used to travel around together. Noyce was always there, whether it was work or play, to lend a hand,” James added. Noyce Naylor and wife Jenni loved Sprint Car racing, and they supported it with every fiber of their soul. Everyone that knew Noyce and his wife are saying the same things on open wheel messages boards across the country. “They never missed a race”, “you could always find them at the track”, “Noyce always had a smile and a quick one-liner” and the often repeated, “I will miss his laughter.” By all accounts, Noyce had one of those voices that carried, and a laugh to go with it. He worked with and for some of the greatest teams that raced on the West Coast. Midget and Sprint car owner Bill Hicks told us, “He worked for our team and the #00 Sprint car. Before that he worked with Bob East and did a lot of stuff with the Morales Brothers and their Tamale Wagon.” These past few years Naylor was associated with Alexander Racing in the CRA. First with driver Tony Jones and recently with young gun Nic Faas. When it came to Noyce and wife Jenni, Hicks told us, “Sprint Car racing was their life. Their passion. Noyce was more than a team member, he was a friend. He was a friend to everyone. When his wife Jenni passed away about a year ago, racing was all he had left. I saw him at this year’s oval nationals and he told me that he didn’t feel well, that he was sick and didn’t know why. I don’t think we realized that it was this serious.” As the shock wears off, more people are starting to share their favorite Noyce Naylor stories, and they all seem to have the same common elements of his loud but friendly voice and a deep belly laugh. If a man is measured by what people say about him after he is gone, then Vicki James is correct about Noyce, He was larger than life.
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Sorry to hear about Noyce, he was a good friend to many of us.
REST IN PEACE
John Bellegante, Joe Gunderson senior, Joe Gunderson jr.
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