Racing Photographer Rich Young Passes
Racing photographer Rich Young (seated) at the Phillipsburg Mall event (2018).We are sad to learn of the passing of racing photographer Rich Young.
A quiet man, Rich was from the Washington NJ area, and served his country proudly in the Navy. He was a long time race fan, and considered Tony Siscone to be his favorite driver.
While you may never have had the chance to have met Rich, I'm sure those reading this are familiar with Rich's work from behind the camera as he generously allowed many of his images to be displayed here in The Vault in what we call the "Forever Young" section. It's there that Rich's images can be found of many of our favorite cars from the late 60's and beyond... from Flemington, Harmony, Langhorne,, Middletown, Nazareth, Trenton, Oswego, and Wall.
The "Forever Young" section really came about from a chance meeting thanks to Rich's long time friend Joe "Sparky" Cryan. It was about 10 years ago that Joe introduced me to Rich at a Phillipsburg Mall "Dirt Track Heroes" event, and explained that Rich had all of his original photographs from the 60's - 80's from the area speedways. After learning more, I did my best to explain to both, how much I thought those who visited our site would appreciate seeing Rich's work, and Rich agreed that it was time for others to enjoy the images too.
We all agreed to meet one morning in Flemington (Rich, Joe Cryan, Kevin Eyres, and myself) to discuss the idea further, including how to get all of the images scanned, and what type of layout on how the images should be presented in The Vault. It was from that meeting that a plan was put in place for Joe to take on the job of scanning each photo, followed by emailing the newly created "digital images" to us here in The Vault, along with track, driver and date information. From there, we'd organize the images by track, and post them as received. It was because of that initial meeting, the effort of Joe Cryan, and the willingness of Rich Young to have his original images enjoyed by all reading this, that the Forever Young section was created.
I am very sad to hear of the passing of our friend Rich Young, and will always be grateful for the images provided, but will feel some level of comfort in knowing, as friend Joe Cryan offered, "Rich really enjoyed that Joe was able to put his photos on the site."
We'll always remember our friend Rich Young, and we hope you will remember him as well, each time you stop by to revisit Rich's images, as I know he would enjoy.
