|
 |   |
|
EVENTS Fantasy Central Inside Game Multimedia Central Statitudes Your Turn Message Boards Email Newsletters Golf Guide Cities Work in Sports
CNNSI.com GROUP
COMMERCE |  |
Indy mourns Hoosiers reflect on native son Kenny Irwin
Posted: Sunday July 09, 2000 08:32 AM
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) -- Kenny Irwin Jr. was born and schooled here, and learned to race here as well. And if you ask John Bickford, stepfather of three-time NASCAR Winston Cup champion Jeff Gordon, he'll say it was in Indianapolis that Irwin enjoyed his finest hour. It came during qualifications for his first Brickyard 400 at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in 1998. "He was all but in tears that day," Bickford said. "Everyone pulling at him, all his friends here to watch him. I don't know if he ever had a bigger moment." Irwin was killed Friday after his car crashed into the third-turn wall at the New Hampshire International Speedway during practice for Sunday's New England 300. Friends say Irwin was just 6 when he entered his first car race. He raced quarter-midgets, pint-sized race cars that spin around tracks at 40 mph. Andy Hillenburg, an Indianapolis race car driver, remembers Irwin racing at a local club. He would later attend to Hillenburg's stock car school, but along the way he entered races across the country, working his way up.
A 1988 graduate of Lawrence North High School, Irwin was unassuming as a student, science teacher Sandy Tilton remembers. "Worked hard, but never mentioned what he did," said Tilton, a NASCAR fan who tracked Irwin's racing career. "I followed him more when he was out of school then when he was in." It was Irwin's determination that marked him as a racer. Bickford remembers spending hours building sprint cars with Irwin in Bickford's shop in Pittsboro. Irwin might have been shy in many circles, but not when it came to his profession and passion. "He was a kid who never gave up," Bickford said. Bob East remembers Irwin's ambition. "We worked with him through his learning stage," said East, the owner of Beast Enterprises Inc., which sold Irwin his first midget car and manages cars for Steve Lewis Racing, the team on which Irwin became the 1996 National Midget Series Champion. "He had as much desire as anyone," East said.
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
