Dan Lawson - A Racer's Racer

[Dave Smith]

On April 8, 2006, our good friend Dan Lawson was killed during an FFR Challenge Series race at Buttonwillow Raceway in Bakersfield, California.

Dan was the National Director of the Series for Factory Five and NASA. I spoke to Jerry Kunzman, who runs NASA, immediately after the accident and released information to the internet forums telling everyone that Dan was gone the next day.

Dan was a good friend, a good man and he was loved by everyone he met. Dan had been involved in competitive racing since the 1970’s and he was the quintessential racer. He was the racers' racer.

There are no platitudes to make us feel better. There are no words that can change this horrible reality. I read the posts that friends have left on the discussion forum and they say it better than I ever could. The outpouring of love is a reflection of the man himself.

2010 was the 10 year anniversary of the Factory Five Challenge Series and a great testimate to the passion and commitment that Dan had to the Factory Five community. Dan contribute tremedously to building the Challege Series. Dan and his brother Bob were also the very first entrants in the very first 25 Hours of Thunderhill, NASA's now famous world's longest endurance race. Many racers still run Dan's number on their cars in tribute.

We love you Dan. With all of our collective hearts we send out our fondest goodbyes… we will never forget you.

David Smith

Click here for a photo gallery of images of Dan Lawson. ("http://www.factoryfive.com/table/community/images/danlawson/gallery/rememberingdan.html)

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Dan Lawson at Thunderhill Raceway

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Dan with his brother Bob.

http://www.factoryfive.com/table/community/images/danlawson/gallery/Race.jpg

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Post race celebration, Factory Five Nationals at The Las Vegas Motorspeedway in 2003.

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Dan and crew after the very first 25 Hours of Thunderhill.

[riptide motorsport]

RIP Dan.

[vnmsss]

Dan Lawson was the first person I met when I made the decision to join the FFR Challenge Series, and the first person to greet me when I arrived at my first race at Thunderhill in 2006. He was gregarious by nature, a natural leader, and anyone that knew him might agree that he was definately a remarkable character. Dan was many things to many people....Father, brother, husband, uncle, son, fellow competitor, series leader, and a friend. He was a larger-than-life figure, and in many ways, his influence on the Series lives on today.

Working alongside his brother Bob, the Lawson Brothers Racing team, along with the support of their awesome crewmembers, left an indelible mark on not only the Factory Five Challenge Series, but on the greater FFR community. These guys were building and campaigning an FFR Challenge car at the first 25 Hours of Thunderhill, and their efforts served as one of the first racing efforts to bring the FFR community together around a single, collectively noble goal....To "Win the 25!" FFR builders and fellow Challenge Series racers from across the county, many of whom are now legendary within our community, travelled to the windswept and blustery Thunderhill Raceway in December 2003 to support this humble and big-hearted effort to field an FFR Challenge car in the longest closed circuit race in the world. The team raced courageously, and indeed endured a multitude of challenges to finish the 25 Hours of Thunderhill that year...A mighty feat indeed!

For those of us fortunate to race in the Series, and to know the genuine comradiere and passion we collectively share for these cars, Dan has come to represent perhaps the best of the best within us. He was a tough competitor for sure, and an insufferable kidder, with a warm, big-hearted smile and memorable laugh, and I consider myself among the fortunate few to have shared not only the racing surface with Dan Lawson, but to share in the legacy of the Series he helped build. Dan Lawson lived the notion of "paying it forward," and his legacy truly lives on.

Karen Salvaggio

[Big-Foot]

The driver's door of my Challenge Car (unfortunately taken after I crashed it) -
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We still miss you Dan....

[vnmsss]

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We were honored to run the #14 on our Challenge car, in honor of Dan Lawson at our first 25 Hours of Thunderhill in 2007.

[crash]

Well, I must confess that I never got to meet Dan, but, from what I understand, I am racing today in the PDG GTM because of his efforts.

Apparently he was developing what is now the PDG GTM when this tragic incident occured. Richard Migliori ended up "inheriting" the car and related other things, and that's pretty much what made it possible for Richard to do what he's doing with the PDG GTM, and for me to be currently driving it.

So although I did not know him personally, again, it is my understanding, that I owe this man a lot.

Dan- THANK YOU FOR YOUR CONTRIBUTIONS TO OUR SPORT!

R.I.P.

crash