Chris Economaki

Christopher "Chris" Constantine Economaki (October 15, 1920 – September 28, 2012) was an American motorsports commentator, pit road reporter, and journalist. Economaki was given the title "The Dean of American Motorsports."Microsoft chose Economaki to author the auto racing history portion of its Encarta Encyclopedia.

Economaki was born in Brooklyn, New York. Economaki’s father was a Greek immigrant and his mother a great-niece of Robert E. Lee. He saw his first race at age 9 at the board track in Atlantic City. He was immediately hooked on the sport. He once attempted driving a midget car at a cinder track in Pennsylvania. "It wasn’t for me," says Economaki. "It was a really frightening experience. That was the first and last time I drove in competition."

He would hang around and help out some of auto racing's most famous drivers at the famous "Gasoline Alley" at Paterson, New Jersey. He helped Duane Carter with the setup on his outboard midget car in 1938 as an unofficial crew chief.

Economaki began his career in auto racing journalism at age 13 selling copies of National Auto Racing News newspapers, now known as the Speed Sport franchise. He wrote his first column at age 14 for the National Auto Racing News. Economaki became the editor of the National Speed Sport News in 1950. He began writing a column called "The Editor’s Notebook", which he continued to write over fifty years later. He eventually became owner, publisher, and editor of the National Speed Sport News. The newspaper was considered "America’s Weekly Motorsports Authority". His daughter, Corinne Economaki, took over as the publisher until the final issue of National Speed Sport News was published, on March 23, 2011. The National Speed Sport News Web site was sold in 2012 to Turn 3 Media, LLC (Ralph Sheheen, Curt Moon and Joe Tripp), with longtime colleague Mike Kerchner as current publisher, which includes the Web site and the expansion of the Speed Sport brand to a magazine and television show (MavTV).

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