If you have ever watched or listened to almost any form of motorsports in the past few decades you’ve probably heard a voice from Brooklyn describing the action. Odds are it was the Dean of American Motorsports writers, Chis Economaki. Economaki passed away Friday at the age of 92.
To be generous he had a face made for radio and a voice that could curdle milk, but had covered every form of motorsports since the age of 13 for various newspapers and magazines, as well as radio and television.
During the 60’s when NASCAR was a regional personality quirk in the US South, it was Economaki that ABC tapped to cover the races for Wide World of Sports. The few races that Wide World of Sports broadcast on several weeks’ delay, edited for length and barely covered with more than three cameras usually saw Chris Economaki in the pits. He covered the Indy 500, Formula 1, Le Mans and even demolition derby races for Wide World of Sports, becoming very much the voice of all motorsports on television.
The television coverage he did to reach the masses, but his real passion was as an ink-stained wretch. He wrote for, then edited, then owned National Speed Sport News until 2011.
It didn’t matter if it was stock cars, modifieds, midgets, sprints, big cars, drag racing, sports cars, Can-Am, Indy cars, F1, F2, or four guys running junkers around the hay bales, Economaki covered it and loved it. You can’t ask for a better career than that.
RoadDave 
My condolences on the loss of this godfather of auto racing, and my congratulations to you for bringing it to the public. I must admit to having seen this shortly after it happened, but feared to post anything at my little corner – I’ve abused my readers with enough memorials and teary salutes, so I thought I’d take it easy on my loyal throng! 🙂
Speaking of which, if good ol’ Mace is ever sitting around bored to tears this winter (that started last week in Canada, no?), I suppose I could chisel a small hole in my schedule for his .. um .. UNIQUE viewpoint. 😉