In Memory Of Bill Riggins
SFR Flagging and Communications

Word has just reached the webteam from the business office and others, that On Wednesday, November 18th, long time SFR Flagging and Communciations crew member Bill Riggins passed away from a recent illness. The webteam extends their deepest condolences to his large family of relatives and friends.

As you may all know by now, our friend and fellow worker, Bill Riggins passed away on Nov 18,1998. Bill loved working the races and he was a good worker. In May of this year we had an email disscusion about the possibility of F1 coming to San Francisco. I thought I'd share his words with all of you. I don't think he'd mind.

Date: Fri, 15 May 1998 14:58:21 PDT

hi bruce,

thanks for the info -

>I found this in an Autosport article today....

do you subscribe to autosport ? i used to (paid for air mail even) back in the days when i had a permanent job. i haven't seen it recently, but i used to consider it THE BEST english language weekly racing magazine in the world !

now all i can afford is autoweek. they reported that willie brown met with bernie, and chris, during the long beach cart weekend.

during the early 60's, when i first lived in san francisco, i used to day-dream about a monaco-like street race thru golden gate park, down lombard street, "yumping" over the crest of the hills, some top speed blasts on market and/or van ness, etc.

but we've all learned so much more since then, haven't we ? i'm not insulted to be called a CYNIC ; but, i think of myself as a REALIST !

i can never forget the previous experiences of caesar's palace, dallas, and phoenix. as i remember, the city of phoenix had to pay for ALL of the expenses to put on the race, while bernie and the gp association had the rights to virtually all of the revenues, except for the spectator ticket sales, and phoenix lost multi-millions of $'s every year.

as i understand it, this is the exact reason that laguna seca turned down the offer to host a gp several years ago. they answered that they were a basically a non-profit, volunteer, and charity organization, and couldn't afford to lose millions of $'s on a race.

i guess long beach, detroit, vegas, dallas, phoenix - justified their financial losses, as getting them international publicity. after all the past controversy over a new giant's baseball park, and 9'ers football stadium, plus the current scandal over how much the raiders are costing the city of oakland - i'd guess that "da willie" would have an extremely difficult time convincing the voters and tax-payers of sf to spend millions, for a type of european-style racing that most of them have never even heard of.

from my perspective - NOT very likely !

>Another paper race? >I guess we'll have to wait and see.

i agree exactly !

>Pook is also looking into the possibilities of siting the race in >Atlanta......

road atlanta, i assume. don panoz seems to have lots of surplus millions to spend on racing, and improving his race track. he appears to me to be the most likely "sucker" ! but the track is out in the "sticks" (that was f1's supposed complaint against the glen), and how many local spectators could they draw ?

thanks again for the thought-provoking topic, and maybe i will see you this weekend at the sear's historics.

bill

When I first met Bil In the later '60's he was working in the computer industry. From comments he made to me over the years, he had "invented/created" computer things and/or worked with a company that he had a good salary with.

As far as a know, the last 10-12 years he had been living on the investments he had made during his computer years.

Always felt Bill was underrated. I found him to be RACE SAVY and a GOOD buddy!!!

I have worked with Bill with other organizations other than SCCA, including being his assignment coordinator and asking him to do things he REALLY either siad he COULD'T DO, or was UNWILLING to do. Found OUT!! He could do ANYTHING asked of him !!!

He just needed to be needed!!

I will miss Bill.

WE LOVE YOU BILL!!

I'd known Bill about as well as anyone, maybe a little less. But I had the privledge of working the turns with him off and on over the years when I was primarly a flagger. In the "old days", when there were enough people to work the "buddy system" you quickly learn whom you can trust and who you can't. I always found him to be someone I'd gladly work with again. We'd talk about the cars and the lines the drivers were taking to pass the time.

He began flagging SFR races in 1975 and a year later joined USARM. In 1983 Bill was chosen as their On Course Worker Of The Year, something he was very proud of. He loved racing and all the people he worked with. He was very much into the sport and even went so far as to get Autosport delivered by air-mail, something that was very expensive then and still is. If there is someone who loved the sport more, I haven't met them.

Back then Bill would have been considered a "decicated worker". He worked everything that came thru the region at both Laguna Seca and Sears Point for at least 10 years. And back then we had a LOT of races to work.

After I became a starter, I only saw him occasionally at the end of the day get togethers.

Someone who dedicated so much of his life to a sport he loved so much should not easily be forgotten.

God speed Bill,

Email The Web Team to post your memories of Bill. We'll do our best to see that it makes its way to his family.