Richie Evans


Richard Ernest Evans, was an American racing driver who won nine NASCAR National Modified Championships, including eight in a row from 1978 to 1985. The International Motorsports Hall of Fame lists this achievement as "one of the supreme accomplishments in motorsports". Evans won virtually every major race for asphalt modifieds, most of them more than once, including winning the Race of Champions three times. Evans was elected to the NASCAR Hall of Fame on June 14, 2011. As one of the Class of 2012, Evans is one of the Hall's first 15 inductees, and is the first Hall of Famer from outside the now NASCAR Cup Series.

Early career

Evans left his family's farm in Westernville, New York at age 16 to work at a local garage in Rome, New York. After he found early success in street racing, then became a winner in drag racing, an associate suggested he try building a car to race at the nearby Utica-Rome Speedway. He ran his first oval-track car, a 1954 Ford Hobby Stock numbered PT-109, in 1962. He advanced to the Modifieds, the premier division, in 1965, winning his first feature in the season's final night.

National championships

In 1973, Evans became the NASCAR National Modified Champion. In 1978, the "Rapid Roman" won a second title and did not relinquish his crown during the next seven years. Evans took over four hundred feature race wins at racetracks from Quebec to Florida before he was killed in a crash at Martinsville Speedway while practicing for the Winn-Dixie 500 tripleheader in late 1985. Before his fatal crash, Evans had clinched NASCAR's inaugural Winston Modified Tour championship.

Regional championships

In 1982, NASCAR created the Whelen All-American Series, then known as the Winston Racing Series, to reward successful short-track racers and to provide incentives for them to support their local weekly short tracks, known now as NASCAR Home Tracks. A region-based series when Evans competed, Evans won the Northeast Region championship all four years that he competed in it, from 1982 through 1985, but did not win the national championship.

Fatal crash and legacy

On October 24, 1985, Evans, who had clinched the 1985 National Modified title the week before at Thompson, was practicing for the Winn-Dixie 500 Modified Feature at Martinsville Speedway in Martinsville, Virginia, when he crashed heavily in turn 3. The 44-year-old perished in the accident. The racing world was devastated by the loss of Richie, but his devoted fans have done much to keep his memory alive. Years later other deaths came in the Whelen Modifieds including Charlie Jarzombek at Martinsville in 1987, Corky Cookman at Thompson in 1987, Don Pratt at the Pocono R.o.C. in 1989 and Tony Jankowiak at Stafford in 1990, occasional competitor and two-time defending track champion Tommy Druar in a Lancaster event in 1989, Tom Baldwin, Sr. at Thompson in 2004, and John Blewett III at Thompson in 2007. As a result, officials made more safety features. Evans' crash, along with other fatal crashes in the late 1980s, led to questions about excessive frame rigidity of the Tour Modifieds, and safety changes resulted. In particular, straight frame rails were phased out, with new chassis required to have a step-up which could bend in hard impacts rather than transmitting all its impact force to the driver.
Though not recognized at the time, many racing safety experts have concluded that Evans' death resulted from the same type of "head-whip" injury and resultant Basilar skull fracture, which also claimed the life of Dale Earnhardt in 2001.
Evans was the father of six children: Jodi Lynn Meola, Janelle Ralaine Walda, Jill Ann Evans, Jacqueline Marie Williams, Richard Edwin Evans and Tara Denise Farrell.
Evans' signature orange Modified paint scheme was replicated in 2003 on a Busch Series car driven by New Jersey native Martin Truex, Jr. in his first year on the series driving for Dale Earnhardt, Jr.'s Chance 2 Motorsports. Steve Park also ran a Richie Evans tribute paint scheme for Tommy Baldwin Racing's No. 36 entry at the 2010 Coke Zero 400 at Daytona.
It was heard during the draw for an IROC race a few years back that they called the color of one of the cars "Evans Orange." That car carried a small "61" on the bumper cover in the same font used on Richie's last race cars. Ray Evernham, Jr. raced against Richie in the Modifieds and also wrote the foreword in the "Richie! The Richie Evans Story" by Bones Bourcier; he also worked on them at the IROC shops in his native New Jersey and was involved with that aspect.
John Bisci's input:
"GM Omaha Orange matches his early coupes. Yes, people say it's Dupont Swamp Holly Orange but it's hard to find. When Richie built his last coupes and first Pintos, he switched to Ford Grabber Orange. Also, you have to watch what you use as a primer underneath – it bleeds through the orange or tints it. Never use gray primer under the orange! Richie used red oxide primer which would tint the oranges a little darker...."
On June 14, 2011, Evans was elected to the NASCAR Hall of Fame. He is the first driver who competed primarily in Modified-type cars to be elected to the HOF.
On January 20, 2012 Evans was inducted into the NASCAR HOF, during which Darrell Waltrip said to the Evans family during his acceptance speech, "You know Richie Evans I want to congratulate the Richie Evans Family, great job tonight. I watched Richie win race after race after race at Martinsville and in my world is what I call a wheel man and Richie Evans was the best wheel man I ever saw and when he raced at Martinsville."

Awards and honors

Track championships


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NASCAR

Whelen Modified Tour