Original News Article
Ronnie Sox, a drag racing legend from Burlington, died in Richmond, Va., after a bout with cancer.
Sox, 67, died at 7:55 p.m. Saturday at his home, his wife, Diane Sox, said.
"Ronnie and I were basically on top of the world," Herb McCandless, a former racing teammate, said Sunday night. "I told everybody that Ronnie had the best job in the world and I had the second-best and I didn’t care. "Just being around him and racing with him every day was just unbelievable. He’s probably one of the most recognizable names in drag racing even though most of it happened in the ‘60s and ‘70s." Friends said Sox told them last week not to visit anymore because his health was deteriorating. Buddy Martin, who was part of the Sox and Martin team, saw him Thursday.
"It’s not that he didn’t want to hear from the people," Martin said. "I just don’t think he wanted people to see him in that condition. I think he wanted people to see him as he was in the past. He was a proud man, and rightly so. He was just the best out there."
Diane Sox said her husband’s kidneys stopped functioning because of the cancer.
"He died very peacefully and he died at home in his sleep," she said. "He was a trooper. He fought it all the way to the very end." The racing team of Sox and Martin became popular and dominated in the 1960s and 1970s. Sox did the driving and Martin handled the business end.
Word of the driver’s death was met with sadness on Web site message boards dedicated to the sport. Locally, fans remembered fondly the days when Sox brought recognition to the community. "When I was in the Navy out on the West Coast, people from San Diego would hear I’m from Burlington and would say, ‘You know Ronnie Sox?’ " said Don Dodson, a long-time fan of Sox and resident of Gibsonville. On Jan. 30, Sox, in a handwritten letter posted on his Web site, thanked well wishers who supported him through his illness.
"Drag Racing has been just about all my life … nothing feels better than to leave that starting line," he wrote. "… The thing I miss most is my relationship with the fans. It amazes me after all the years the great fan support. It really helps me get through these trying times and I really appreciate all the good words and letters." The National Hot Rod Association rated Sox as the No. 15 greatest driver of all time. In that ranking, he was considered the best four-speed driver ever. "None of it would have ever happened without Ronnie because he was the driver to get the recognition and he got it started," McCandless said. "Ronnie was known everywhere in the country." Dean Sox said his father helped develop one of the biggest racing operations on the East Coast, headquartered in Burlington. "We owe all this to him," Dean Sox said. "What he and Buddy did for that sport. And he never got caught up in the hype."
SOX AND MARTIN WERE together from 1963-80, minus a few years, and again periodically into the 1990s. After that, Sox competed in exhibitions. The duo forged a relationship with Chrysler. "We were winning so much at the end of 1971 that NHRA made us carry more weight than the Fords or Chevrolets," Martin said. "They changed the rules in drag racing because nobody could beat them," Dean Sox said.
His prominence crossed into other areas of motor sports. His spirits were lifted a couple of weeks ago by a telephone call from stock-car legend Richard Petty, his son said.
Dean Sox, who was crew chief for his father in 1981, said he has a 1973 replica Duster that he hopes to take to car shows to help keep the memory of his father in fans’ minds.
His father’s accomplishments were countless, including: A member of six drag racing Hall of Fames; a five-time world champion and threetime runner-up; a member of the 1964 U.S. drag racing team in international competition; on the cover of the first issue of Super Stock magazine in 1964; and a 1972 White House meeting with President Richard Nixon.
EARLIER THIS MONTH at a drag racing car show in Las Vegas, there were 23 poster prints of Sox and Martin auctioned off and, coupled with special copies, raised $60,000 for the American Cancer Society. Sox communicated to the crowd on the public address system via speakerphone.
"(The money) couldn’t help Ronnie, but maybe we can help somebody else in Ronnie’s name," McCandless said. His last known public appearance came earlier this year at a car show in Greensboro. "His fans were definitely what kept him going," Diane Sox said. "They kept him going like no tomorrow. We used to get 50 or 60 e-mails a day, cards and letters. That just made his day."
Sox had a personality that connected with fans of all types, McCandless said.
"In the pit areas, we never roped our cars off," he said. "It was the best racing team in the country at the time, but they never treated people any different. The fans just never forget it because you take five minutes of time and give it to them."
In 2002, Sox was honored with a Distinguished Service in Sports Award as presented by the Sports Development Council in Alamance County.
"He was an icon," Dodson said. "People of this town, everybody thought the world of him."
FUNERAL ARRANGEMENTS
are incomplete. Diane Sox said she intends to have a visitation this week in Richmond, followed by two days of visitation and a memorial service in Burlington.
Diane Sox said survivors include his father, Willard Miloe Sox of Burlington; sons Dean Sox and Jeff Sox of Mt. Olive; son Mike Page of Mebane; daughter Rhonda Poleo of Alamance County; and brothers Tommy Sox and David Sox and sister Sandra Binkley, all of Alamance County.
Contact By: Bob Sutton at bob_sutton@link.freedom.com
