Draft:Stuart Lyndon

= Stuart Lyndon =

Stuart George Lyndon (September 24, 1949 - June 2, 1985) was a New Zealand racing driver. He competed in the Winston West Series from 1978 to 1979, and the ARCA Permatex Super Car Series in 1985. This latter racing endeavor would see Lyndon driving the No. 69 Ford Thunderbird as an owner-driver; the car originally having possibly belonged to NASCAR Winston Cup driver Kyle Petty. He was killed in a racing accident at Atlanta International Raceway in 1985.

Early Career
Stuart Lyndon had been interested in racing since the age of three, and his early racing career saw him take to the dirt speedways of New Zealand between 1969 and 1974, winning one event at Gisborne Speedway on the Labour Day weekend of October 26-28, 1974 in a Holden Monaro. In addition to saloon cars, Lyndon was a bike racer and part-time Midget racer. Lyndon would spend two years in England before moving to the United States by way of Canada, in approximately 1977. His speedway bike racing career continued while in England, at Brands Hatch Circuit. His move was prompted by a comparative lack of opportunity in New Zealand, as well as the allure of the higher top speeds in stock car competition.

Stuart Lyndon spent the next eight years of his life in America. He raced in California, got married and moved to Arizona before finally settling in Asheville, North Carolina, working as a mechanic for NASCAR driver Bosco Lowe and Elliott Forbes-Robinson.  In 1978, he participated in his first race in the Winston West series (now known as ARCA West): the 1978 Winston Gardena 100 where his No. 69 Ford Gran Torino finished 13th in the 20-car field. 1979 would see him finishing 13th at Mesa Marin and capturing his only top-ten at Craig Road Speedway, finishing 10th. Lyndon would also unsuccessfully attempt to qualify for a Super Late Model race at Mesa Marin in late 1979. In either 1978 or 1979, Lyndon raced at Ontario, California, in the NASCAR Grand American Series, though the results are unknown.

Late Career and Death
In 1984, Stuart Lyndon acquired a Ford Thunderbird that had been built for Kyle Petty during his final year at Petty Enterprises before his move to Wood Brothers Racing. Lyndon used parts from his Ford Gran Torino that he had used in the 1978-79 ARCA West Series to complete what was essentially a "kit car", performing extensive suspension and engine work. His soon-to-be crew chief Rusty Jackson (misnamed 'Randy') stated that "Every penny he had was in that car." This car was given the same No. 69 as his previous ARCA West attempts, but for 1985 he would run select races in the full ARCA Permatex Super Car series alongside his boss and friend Bosco Lowe. The nature of their racing relationship is unclear; Lyndon was officially credited as the owner of the No. 69 car, but other sources claim he drove for Lowe. In 1984, Lyndon looked to enter a Busch Grand National race at Hickory, but this ultimately did not eventuate. Originally he planned to enter the 1985 Daytona 500, but was likely unable to prepare the car in time. Lyndon completed his first ARCA race at Atlanta International Raceway in March of 1985 with sponsorship from 'Bosco Lowe Enterprises Incorporated' (BLE Inc.), an auto wrecking yard, finishing 23rd. Plans to run the following race at Talladega fell through, instead he would return to Atlanta in June.

1985 Georgia ARCA 500k
Stuart Lyndon started the 1985 Georgia ARCA 500 33rd out of 40 cars. On lap 32, his Ford Thunderbird was gaining on Bosco Lowe's Pontiac and he made a move to pass him on the inside at turn 2, but as he did so, his car lost traction and he spun out heading towards the infield. Lyndon plowed into a dirt embankment at high speed, resulting in the total destruction of the car; including the roll cage, which failed completely and led to the driver going through the windshield. The sheet metal on the car was said to have flown off akin to an explosion. Davey Allison, who would go on to win the race, said "It was the worst wreck I've ever seen. When I went by him, he was laying half out the car and on the engine. After that I didn't look again. He hit so hard that part of the frame was still embedded in that bank. I called my pits and told them not to let the girls [his wife and daughter] look at the car when they brought it in. That's how bad it was." In the previous Winston Cup race at Atlanta in 1984, Terry Schoonover was killed in nearly identical circumstances after hitting the same stretch of inside dirt embankment. At Henry General Hospital, Stockbridge, Georgia, at 2:30PM EDT, Stuart Lyndon was pronounced dead of "multiple head injuries".

Aftermath
The 1985 Georgia ARCA 500 was originally planned to be broadcast, but following the death of Stuart Lyndon, this was ultimately not followed through with. In 2020, the YouTube channel 'digitalmanchris' posted nearly three hours of footage from the race. This is likely raw footage intended to be cut together at a later date for highlights, proven by the appearance of portions of this footage in the June 6th 1985 edition of ESPN's 'SpeedWeek' television program.

Rusty Jackson stated that the safety of the Ford Thunderbird was not to blame, declaring that no car would have survived such an impact considering how Lyndon "must have hit it [the wall] wide open." Richard Petty pointed out that "You bounce off concrete, even head-on, but in dirt, the car just sticks in there..."

Given that this was the second death at this same section of Atlanta International Raceway in as many years, Mike Helton (general manager of the track at the time) announced that the dirt embankment would be replaced by concrete. In 1990 the track was renamed Atlanta Motor Speedway, and the complex underwent a radical reconstruction in 1997 that led to Lyndon's crash site (and Schoonover's) now being located off the exit of turn four.

As of 2024, Stuart Lyndon is the only New Zealander to die in any NASCAR-affiliated series, and the only New Zealander to have raced in the ARCA West series. Lyndon was the first New Zealander to race a stock car on a superspeedway.

Motorsports career results
ARCA Permatex SuperCar Series

(key) ( Bold – Pole position awarded by qualifying time. Italics – Pole position earned by points standings or practice time. * – Most laps led. )