NEWS

Sprint car driver Tony Elliott among 4 dead in S.C. plane crash

Curt Cavin
IndyStar
Tony Elliott, shown during a Hoosier Hundred qualifying run in 2009 at the Indiana State Fairgrounds, was one of four Indiana men who died in a plane crash Friday.

Longtime Indiana sprint car standout Tony Elliott was one of four people killed Friday in a plane crash in South Carolina.

The men were flying from Warsaw, Ind., to Clemson, S.C., to attend Saturday's Notre Dame-Clemson game.

Oconee County Coroner Karl Addis identified the men who died as 71-year-old Charles D. Smith; his son, 44-year-old Scott A. Smith; 51-year-old Scott D. Bibler; and Elliott, who was 54.

The elder Smith was a Warsaw councilman and former high school football coach. Bibler also used to coach high school football. Scott Smith was an attorney.

Federal Aviation Administration spokeswoman Kathleen Berger said the wreckage of the Piper PA-32 was found near Lake Hartwell on the Georgia-South Carolina border. Authorities have not yet given a cause for the crash.

Elliott owned a custom trailer company in Warsaw, but he was best known as one of the fiercest non-wing sprint car drivers of his era. In addition to winning USAC sprint car championships in 1998 and 2000, he won 26 national races and was the Indiana Sprint Week champion in 1999. He holds the record for sprint car race wins (60) and track championships (eight) at Kokomo Speedway, which he long considered his home track.

"It's just a tragedy," said fellow driver Dave Darland, who battled Elliott for years across the USAC landscape. "He knew some tricks, and he was very good at learning tricks, and he could do what it took to win races.

"He was a very good race car driver."

Pat Sullivan, a longtime motor sports public address announcer, remembers Elliott as a driver from a different era.

"Yes, he was a 2-time USAC sprint champ, but beyond that there were years where he was without question the best non-wing sprint car driver in the land," Sullivan wrote in an email to The Star. "A real character in a 'larger than life, 1950's driver' sort of way.

"He truly was an Indiana short track icon."

Elliott was a two-time winner of the Hoosier Hundred, a USAC Silver Crown race at the Indiana State Fairgrounds. He won five Silver Crown races in all, plus nine national USAC midget races.

Tony Stewart, a three-time NASCAR champion, posted a message on his Facebook page Saturday that said Elliott was a “fierce competitor on the track, he was also a father, husband, son, brother and friend."

“Our thoughts and prayers are with the Elliott family at this time. Godspeed & Rest In Peace,” Stewart’s post said.

Elliott and his wife, Cindy, had four children.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.