Oakwood Collegiate Institute - Oracle Yearbook (Toronto Ontario, Canada)

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J C. GRYFE

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PARAGON RESTAURANT LIMITED 994 ST. CLAIR AVE. WEST LEnnox 6-5070 84

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THE END OF THE RACE DEATH VIOLENTLY ENDS RACING ' S CINDERELLA STORY Ronnie Dean, the greatest figure to hit the sports car racing scene in manv years, died to- day in a freak accident when his new Cooper Climax went out of control in the final minutes of the U.S. Grand Prix. The wildly careening car rolled over and burned, with Dean trapped inside. Dean was half a lap behind the world s champion. Jack Brahbam, who won the race — As I read this article in the privacy of my own home, I once again wondered whether it had real- ly been an accident. No one would ever know, of course, but I didn ' t think it had been, and I was, after all, best qualified to voice an opin- ion; I had been the only one who had tried to understand Ronnie, his motives and desires. I glanced over the article once again and as I did, all the events of my relationship with Ronnie passed swiftly through my mind. Yes, his had been a Cinderella story all right. I remembered the first time I saw Ronnie. It had been at a small dirt race track in a little Ohio town. Ronnie was driving an old battered Chev, but oh, could he drive! He completely out- classed everyone else in the race, even those with more powerful cars. He finished three laps ahead of his nearest competitor. My curiosity aroused, I went down to the pit area to try to meet this driver. To my surprise, Ronnie Dean had a strikingly childish face, a little on the smallish side, and he looked no more than sixteen years old. Hi! I said. ' My name is Bill Wilson. Your drivingreally impressed me. The Bill Wilson? he asked; the sports car driver? ' I used to drive a little, I explained, but let ' s talk about you. Aren ' t you a little too young to be driving? I ' m eighteen, he explained proudly. He was very excited when I told him I thought he was a natural for sports car racing. We 11 have to see what your parents think about it, first, of course, I told him. I don ' t have any parents; I ' m an orphan, was his reply. I soon found out that his parents had died when he was an infant. He had left the orphanage three years ago and had been working in a garage, sleeping in the back room at night, and spending every spare moment working on his car. I ain ' t ever lost a race, he told me boldly, and I ain ' t going to either. He left after this brazen remark to bask in the praise of the crowd. After seeing him race twice more I was firmly convinced that he had the makings of a great driver. Since retiring from racing the previous year, I had been looking for a hobby and now I had found it. I would take this boy and make him the first truly great driver to come out of the United States. I told Ronnie my plans and he was wildly en- thusiastic. When he first saw the Envoy Formula Junior I had bought, he couldn ' t wait to try it out. Usually it takes a new driver a few months to become accustomed to a racing car, it ' s sensitive steering, and great acceleration. But to my sur- prise Ronnie was driving like an expert after a week. Not only that, but he soon made himself accustomed to the mechanical system of the car, and was working on the engine, adjusting the gear ratios, not satisfied till he got every last ounce of performance out of the car. Although I advised him against it, Ronnie en- tered the first race held in the vicinity, for which the car was eligible. Racing against men twice his age, with much more experience Ronnie came back, after a poor start, gaining on every lap, to win by a close margin. Triumphs followed. In his first year of racing, Ronnie won all twenty races he entered, racing against drivers with greater prestige. All his spare time was spent around the pits, working on the car, talking with the drivers and mechanics, and driving. Ronnie was giving his whole life to racing! His food was the race, the competition. The air he breathed had to be the air of the pits, charged with excitement. One day I confronted him with a big surprise. I wrote a letter to the Porsche factory and I have just received their reply. They want you to drive on their factory team. Ronnie was overwhelmed with joy! His first race in the capacity of a member of a factory team was at Harewood Acres, in the Carling 300. This race, was his first out of the country. Here I saw Ronnie drive the best race of his young life, playing it cagey and cautious, and pulling ahead in the final stages to beat Peter Ryan, also driving a Porsche RS60. Later, when I talked to him, he seemed overly cocksure. He only talked about the car ' s performance and how it could be improved. Ronnie ' s next big assignment was a race at Watkins Glen, New York. He swept his own class the RS60, leading his nearest competitor by al- most five laps. The winner of the Formula 1 class was Jack Brahbam, who was world cham- pion at this time. Ronnie was completely cap- tivated by the Formula 1 cars and by Brahbam s performance. From this time on, his greatest ambition was to beat Brahbam in a Formula 1 car. This race at Watkins Glen was the one that brought Ronnie into international prominence. In the weeks following the race, three major maga- zines featured articles on Ronnie, bringing out the Cinderella qualities of his career, the orphan who had won every race he had entered. Although greatly excited, the ambition to beat Brahbam never left his mind. When the invitation to join the Cooper factory team reached Ronnie, he almost skyrocketed. The chance to drive the most powerful Formula 86