Elizabeth and John Fitch celebrate a win with the Cunningham C4R. Photo John Fitch collection.
John Fitch, one of America’s greatest drivers, died on October 31st at the age of 95. Shortly after, I received two short remembrances, one from Carl Goodwin and the other from Eric Davison. I was struck by how similar both sketches were in scope and nature; both Carl and Eric captured his kindness and sincere, warm personality. John’s racing life is well known by our readers and also covered in Carl Goodwin’s book “They Started in MGs”.
Below, a side of John Fitch rarely seen from two of our finest contributors.
By Carl Goodwin
It was a great pleasure to know and work with John Fitch for the last 28 years of his life. Some of it was for magazine articles but most of it was as the volunteer publicist for his company Impact Attenuation LLC, which held and developed John’s designs for energy-absorbing safety barriers to be used in racing (www.racesafety.com).
It was not always glamorous. But all of it was interesting. In fact Fitch was the most interesting person you could ever know. If only you could have been with us.