Fellows,
I very much regret to inform that racing historian Steve Estes - who had also been involved with racing in the American Midwest in several other roles - passed away last night. He got unwell unexpectedly at sleep at his home in Troy, Ohio. Although he was quickly helped, his life could not be saved.
Steve was a dear friend to many of us here at TNF, and provided enormous help to a number of our personal projects. Although his expertise was certainly short track racing, Steve was fond of just about any discipline of the sport - and, in fact, would be great person to have in any conversation. He was incommensurably kind and friendly. I cannot remember a single time that Steve did not volunteer to help when a racing subject came his way.
I met Steve over the internet nearly ten years ago and since then we had exchanged thousands of e-mails. He became a member of the Motorsport Memorial board of editors in 2005 and made extremely valuable contributions to our project. We at the board can be a bunch of big-headed guys, and Steve - besides everything else he did for us - was our unofficial peacemaker. Sadly we never met in person.
Steve was also the man behind the Racers at Rest, a project dedicated to place new - or restore old - tombstones and markers for racing drivers. Just a week ago Steve and his peers completed their twelfth mission, placing a marker at the tomb of Francis Marion Knox, who died in accident at the Amarillo Fairground in Texas in 1933. Until last week the only thing that had marked Knox's grave was a single rock.
Below is a picture of Steve at the Dayton Speedway, one of his favorites places on Earth.
I'll miss you a lot, my friend.
Sal
