Rick was the back up starter for ten years and when NHRA's first chief starter, the late Buster Couch, retired, he got the call. Rick, now 70 and a Bakersfield native, was a drag racer himself competing in the Top Fuel category from 1962 to 1971. He started racing when he was just 22 in a street Corvette.
"Rick has been a staple of NHRA Drag Racing and a familiar fixture at the starting line at NHRA...events for the past 15 years," said Graham Light, senior vice president, racing operations for the world's largest motorsports sanctioning body. "The contribution he has made to the sport is immeasurable, and we wish him the best in retirement."Rick will leave extremely large shoes to fill, for he kept for a very long time a potentially very controversial job non-controversial. No one has been named as his replacement.
I guess Rick's retirement should not have come as a surprise. At the last race I attended he was seen in a bit of a hurry to send some cars off at the end of qualifying, so that he could go and join his wife for dinner. Who can blame him for wanting to spend more time with his lovely wife.
Thanks for the memories Rick!
Source: Drag Illustrated
Pictures courtesy of Drag Illustrated and NHRA
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