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My friends at Autosport; the Rolf Stommelen piece from this past week was amazing! Thanks so much. I was at Riverside in 83 when he was killed. As he was getting into the 935, my dad was telling me all about how crazy fast the guy with the glasses was. We were sitting in behind the pit wall, making eye contact with him as he got in the car for the final time. My dad was telling me all the great stories; 917, pole at Le Mans, arrows F1, etc, etc. We heard the crash as we walked towards the back straight and later saw the wreckage....
After I started reading mags and really getting into racing I was always looking for a story on Rolf; motorsport, which you'd imagine having something, never did. Only a few years ago did Autosprint dedicate a Cuore da corsa piece on him is when finally I saw something dedicated on Rolf Stommelen in print. Along the way I asked a lot of people in racing about Rolf, and their eyes lid up when talking about how much of a bad ass he was. I even asked Paul Newman about him at an Indycar race and my question generated a good 5-minutes out of him. Which was cool, because he was busting my balls about not having the correct pass and all of a sudden he forgot and went on and on. (Things you can get away with as a teenager). LOL
Thanks again for such a cool article, and keep them coming!
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