FIRST PERSON/OPINION
Via e-mail:
The world lost a legend Wednesday. Ron Scrima of Racing Engine Service passed away at the age of 76. He was truly one of the last of a vanishing breed.
Many of you know Ron for his success in the motorcycle engine building business. However, he was actually better known in the drag racing field. He was responsible for some of the most innovative designs of Funny Cars and Dragsters in history. Some of his designs are still in use today. Ronnie, as he was known in the drag racing world, built professional drag race cars for the biggest names in drag racing. He built one of the first streamlined dragsters, called The Scrima-Liner. He also built Don Purdomme’s 1970 ‘Cuda funny car, which became famous during the Mongoose & Snake era. He has at least one dragster in the Drag Racing Hall of Fame.
Fortunately for the Texas motorcycle racing community, Ron and his family moved from Van Nuys, California to Arlington, Texas in the late 1970s. He was responsible for the success of over half of the riders in the CMRA Hall of Fame, and many more outside of it. A list of some of the riders includes Colin Edwards, Ronnie Lunsford, Jamie James, Doug Polen, Britt Turkington, Michael Martin, Josh Hayes, Laroy Montgomery, Mike Smith and many others.
Ron was a self-taught engineer. He was instrumental in the training and success of both Steve Upchurch and me. He was a great mentor and an even greater friend. We ate lunch nearly every day over the last few years but he didn’t talk much about his early life in drag racing. I now realize that it was because he was humble. Ron became the best at his craft in two different fields during one lifetime.
Ron is my idol and he will live in my heart forever.
Rest In Peace, Ron Scrima.
Jim Cambora
Alvarado, Texas
FIRST PERSON/OPINION
Via e-mail:
Dear Friends and Family, Sorry to be so informal with an e-mail. Would love to have to talked to each of you, but no time right now.
Ron passed away Wednesday at about 3:45 p.m. He had been in an intensive care unit since Sunday night. He developed pneumonia and could not respond to treatment because his white blood count was under one. They tried for several days to get his blood count up, but the highest it would go was a 1.4. He had nothing to fight the illness with, but he sure did try. He was on a breathing machine and just taking it off to treat his mouth his numbers would fall. We went ahead with diaysis yesterday because the doctor said without that he would have been gone in four or five days. He died during dialysis. A peaceful, “just went to sleep” death.
My kids are all here with me and I will probably go back with Kellie and Steve to Colorado on Sunday to spend the Thanksgiving holiday there.
Ron is being cremated as per his wishes. We will be having a memorial service at our church on Saturday at 2:00 p.m. Our church is Crossroads Christian Church, 6450 S. Highway 360 in Grand Prairie. It will be held in the chapel.
If you are considering flowers would you consider instead making a donation to the Multiple Myeloma Reseach Foundation? The website is www.MMRF.com . Ten years ago there was no help for Myeloma patients. With the research this organization has developed, they now have treatments that allow patients to go into remission for years, and they keep finding new drugs to help. Ron and I joined a Myeloma support group and had an opportunity to meet a roomful of people with the disease who are living normal lives because of this research. Unfortunately, by the time we discovered that Ron had MM, he was fighting two diseases at one time – Multiple Myeloma and End Stage Renal disease caused by this type of cancer.
Love you all,
Lois Scrima
Arlington, Texas