Bill Billingsley
Armin Krueger Photo - Bob Mays Collection
Sedalia, Mo. (August 17, 1963) – Buzz Barton, a veteran 46-year-old driver from Tampa, Fla., came out of retirement on Saturday and won the 20-lap IMCA big car feature to kick off five days of racing at the Missouri State Fair.
Barton picked up all the marbles in a tragedy-stalked
program which saw the first fatality recorded on the state fair track since the
advent of International Motor Contest Association racing here in 1914.
Bill Billingsley, 28, of Oklahoma City died en route to a
local hospital of head injuries sustained in a vicious series of flips after
his car had collided with one driven by Walt Wyrembeck of Los Angeles on the
first lap of the third heat.
Although several observers counted 15 sideways rolls, the
front and back bars on the car held up and the car was virtually undamaged. A
physician at the scene said that Billingsley’s helmet came off n the first flip
and his head had struck the track surface multiple times.
Barton started second in the feature and wasted no time in
moving into the lead, picking off Jerry Blundy on lap four.
Blundy finished third after a battle with Harold Leep in the
Lempelius Offy, who finished second.
Favored Gordon Woolley of Waco, Tex., left the field on the fourth
lap when he lost a tire and hit the fence in the fourth turn. He was not
injured.
The feature was halted after 19 laps when Harvey Shane and
Roger Lane both spun and Carl Williams was unable to miss their halted
sprinters. No one was injured.
Results –
1. Buzz
Barton
2. Harold
Leep
3. Jerry
Blundy
4. Jay
Woodside
5. Pete
Folse
6. Harry
Ross
7. Dale
Reed
8. Ray
Lee Goodwin
9. Don
Brown
10. Harvey
Shane
11. Roger
Lane
12. Carl
Williams
I was at that race when I was 13 and remember it well. I counted 13 flips (end-overs). After the race, my dad and I went down to the pits to inquire if Bill was okay, and his wife and boys were putting the car on a trailer and told me Bill was dead.
ReplyDeleteGeneva, Bills wife, was my moms best friend, and we were at their house often both before and after this tragedy. They lived a few blocks from us in okc. My dad was a mechanic for several years in okc in the mar-car circuit, for Ruckman, and Madden.
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