former NASCAR / Motorsports writer/reporter, Ben Blake, passed away. Blake covered NASCAR for many years with some of the outlets being the Richmond Times-Dispatch and RACER among others. Blake was one of the panelists on the defunct show Pit Bulls which aired on Speed in 2005. Blake also wrote or co-wrote five motorsport-related books, including the only authorized biography of Dale Earnhardt.(USA Today’s Nate Ryan’s Twitter)(9-30-2014)
UPDATE From RACER: We learned today of the passing of Ben Blake. Ben was one of the best and brightest writing for RACER and he knew he had big shoes to fill as he took over the RACER NASCAR beat following the death of his friend Gerald Martin in 1999. Ben also worked closely with our RACER Special Projects editor Steve Nickless and produced much of the content in our Penske Motorsports race programs for California Speedway, Michigan Speedway, North Carolina Motor Speedway, Nazareth Speedway and Homestead Miami Speedway from 1997-1999. He also was a key player on the original RACER.com team in our Charlotte office where he joined Bill King, John Gardner, Eric Mauk and John Davison and the rest of our RACER crew in California in re-launching Speedvision.com (later known as SPEED.com) for network founder Roger Werner in January 2000. Ben was a wonderful writer and he was passionate about telling the real stories of NASCAR racers, mechanics and team owners. He wrote from the heart and we’re proud that he sometimes made people in very high places nervous because he wrote it like it was, without any hint of political correctness. We believe they admired the fact that he would not be intimidated. Sure, Ben could drive us crazy on deadline but once we received his brilliant words it was always worth the battle to get them. Our sympathies go to Ben’s family and his many friends in racing. He was truly one of a kind and we are forever grateful to have had him on our team. – Paul Pfanner, Founder and Executive Publisher (RACER), no word on services or any other info
