William R. Wimble, 31, race driver, helped to rescue Marvin E. Panch from burning, Daytona Beach, Florida, February 14, 1963. At Daytona International Speedway a racing car Panch, 36, race driver, was testing went out of control while traveling at a very high speed and struck the guardrail. It then rolled down the banked track and overturned before stopping in the grassy infield. The vehicle’s three fuel tanks behind and under the cockpit contained approximately 30 gallons of fuel. Panch, who had escaped serious injury, released his seat belt and dropped to the curved roof of the cockpit. At the side of the car where flames had broken out, he tried without success to force open the door which was slightly ajar. Gusts of flames one to two feet long appeared inside the cockpit. Gahan, 36, race driver, William R. Wimble, and then Jerry A. Raborn reached the car and together attempted unsuccessfully to lift it at the side where Panch was endeavoring to open the door. Flames issuing from beneath the car increased in size, igniting Panch’s coveralls. Other persons arrived. While Stephen E. Petrasek and the speedway steward assisted the other men in raising the side of the vehicle, DeWayne L. Lund began discharging the contents of a fire extinguisher into the cockpit through the slight opening of the door. An outburst of flames then shot upward and drove the men back, some of them sustaining burns. Flames rose five to six feet in gusts from the under- side of the car, and others burned over the entire uppermost side. Heat was intense. Noting Panch still trying to open the door, the men ran back to their former positions at the car amid the gusts of flames. The others regained their holds on the car, which was hot, while Lund sprayed foam from the extinguisher before helping to lift the car. When the men raised the side of the car 18 inches, Panch pushed the door farther open and thrust his feet outside. Lund and Petrasek then drew Panch from the car. The flames on his attire soon were extinguished, although he suffered extensive burns. The men released their holds on the car and had moved back 10 feet when an explosion completely enveloped the vehicle in flames rising as much as 15 feet above it. Firemen put out the flames with the help of others. Panch was confined to a hospital for three months. Wimble sustained burns to both hands and wrists, which healed.
46393-4691Obituary
William Robson Wimble, 84, of Valrico, Fla., died April 24, 2016. He was raised in Lisbon, N.Y., and also lived in Brandon, Fla., before moving to Valrico.
Wimble gained fame as a championship NASCAR driver, but he also worked as a dairy farmer and was a principal for bulk-truck transportation and finance companies. He chronicled his diverse career in an autobiography, “I’ll Never Be Last Again: My journey from dirt-poor dairy farmer to NASCAR National Champion to Lifelong Entrepreneur.”
A 2010 story in the Tampa Bay Times recounted that Wimble was 19 and operating his grandfather’s 160-acre dairy farm in Lisbon when he became interested in racing.
“I used to work in the hayfield till noon on Friday, take a bath, pack and drive 330 miles to race,” he said in the story. “It made a long day, but I loved every minute of it.”
It was during his race career that he and four others rescued a driver from a burning race car at Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Fla., on Feb. 14, 1963. Wimble and the others each received the Carnegie Medal that November.
Wimble’s friend, Bill Harman, told The Daytona Beach News-Journal in April 2016 that Wimble was one of his boyhood heroes. Harman called Wimble a “gentleman’s gentleman.”
“I was a Billy Wimble fan when I started to watch races,” Harman said. “He could drive that race car. Later on, I ran races with Billy a lot of times. He was a darn good driver. Billy was as good as they come.”