Long-time racer Sam Williams of Kenmore, Ohio died October 29th from cancer, outliving his doctors’ predictions by more than 10 months. He was 69 years old and raced motorcycles for 42 years.
Williams is survived by his wife of 44 years, Jan, along with sons Eric and Andrew, two grandchildren and a sister, Sandra.
According to Williams’ friends, he requested that there not be a visitation or funeral services, but a celebration of his life may be held in the coming spring.
Williams was well known for his fleet of green Kawasaki racebikes labeled with his competition number, 47. He was honored by friends with tribute events and displays of his bikes, during the Sam Williams Vintage Weekend at Nelson Ledges Road Course in May and AMA Vintage Motorcycle Days at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course in July.
Links to videos from those events are here:
Coverage of his appearance at AMA Vintage Motorcycle Days at Mid-Ohio in 2011–when Kawasaki was the featured marque–appears here, including an account of how he got converted from riding dirt bikes into being a road racer:
http://accelerate.presspublisher.us/issue/sep-oct1…
An obituary appeared on the website of Akron Beacon Journal: