Forum: HoseHeads Sprint Car General Forum (go)
Moderators: dirtonly  /  dmantx  /  hosehead

For some reason this time of the year, my mind seeks out memories of Kevin Gobrecht..

Maybe it because I had only recently met him and liked him.

Maybe it was because we were pitted next to the 93 that fateful night at I80.

Maybe its because he was the first fatality that I was witness to.

Maybe its a combination of alot of things..

But more than likely, it was because he was such a rising star that got taken away way too soon.

If you attend many races, you have seen hundreds of crashes just like Kevins.. but this one was different.

On this date, in 1999, Kevin was taken away from us. Let us not forget all the racers that have given their lives doing what most of us cannot or will not do.

Along another line, I was reading the thread about who has the most wins, and that led me to IBracins webpage.

http://www.ibracn.com/

There, I found a tribute page, which honors all our fallen heros, from 1960 to today.

Looking thru the whole thing, got me to thinking..

1966 was the single most deadliest year in sprint car history with 6 deaths.

1961-1965 and 1990- 1994 were the longest stretches without a fatality at 4 years.....up until now....

There has not been an on track fatality at a US track since Sept 28th 2007 when Jim Turner lost his life at Hanford Speedway in Ca..

Thank you to everyone that has made this sport safer for all the participants.... because it is working! It is deeply appreciated..

RIP GMan! Your memories live on..

http://www.kevingobrecht.com/pictures.html

My wife told me if I went to one more Sprint Car race 
she would leave me.................I'm sure gonna miss 
that ol' gal. 

Well said. The Gman was a class act and a great shoe.

darbo,

Sorry to hear that..

.

RIP Gman. Great guy, and a real gasser. LOVED watchin him in a sprinter. He TOTALLY DOMINATED micros here before he stepped up. Miss him greatly.

Be careful with the tribute page at Ibracn.com. I love the idea of it, and I love the site overall, but the tribute page is very incomplete. It's a work in progress, and it's a very exhaustive thing to list every sprint/midget fatality at every speedway. The first time I saw it I immediately recognized two guys that had been left off, most notably James McElreath. I pointed this out to Brad and he added them later. If you come across information on fatalities that he doesn't have, I'm sure he would appreciate you letting him know.

Sprint car fatalities were occuring we back into the '50s. And I can assure you that those four years in the early '60s were not free from fatalities. Thankfully the sport is safer now. I wish we could figure out a way to keep wheels out of the cockpit. If I remember correctly, isn't that how Kevin died?

I believe the steering wheel shaft came through the bottom of the steering gear box on the car that hit Kevin.

You can tell an ass... but, you can't tell 'em much

I came across another memorial type website a while back. It's a bit hard to navigate sometimes and I'm not sure how complete and accurate all the info is but there is still *LOTS* of good information on some *GREAT* individuals.

Check it out here: http://www.motorsportmemorial.org

Here's the Kevin Gobrecht page: http://www.motorsportmemorial.org/focus.php?db=ct&n=1579

On the business side of the fence, Kevin was very friendly, always upbeat, appreciative, and hungry for knowledge.

I remember delivering a car to him at Eldora and he was one of those people that you wanted to do whatever you could to help him, because his nature was so pleasant.

He was a great ambassador to the sport and was really hitting his stride at that point in his career when the accident took place.

But he left his positive mark on a lot of people along the way - from fans, fellow racers and those in the industry.