I just found out a long time racer from the Pacific Northwest has passed away. Mike was a true character and always had interesting memories to share. I hadn’t seen him at the track for several seasons and hoped he was ok. Many of the old timers here may know him or raced against him in his glory years.
I am copying a portion of an email that was sent to us written by Andy Collin (many know him as Armadillo Andy), I know he won’t mind my forwarding of this
RIP Mike
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Like so many, I was shocked and saddened to learn of the passing of Mike Gilbert late last week. Now most of you loyal readers didn't know Mike or know anything about him. I'll confess that I never knew that much about Mike, he was just a racing friend. Mike was a two time SCCA National Champion in Formula Continental and Formula Ford. That is an especially big deal as to win you had to go to Road Atlanta to the Runoffs (aka the SCCA National Championship road races).
Locally Mike raced a Formula Ford and managed to encourage his daughter Cheryl Gilbert to do the same. Welp actually Cheryl races a Formula Vee and occasionally Mike's Ford when he let her. Many of y'all know Cheryl as she was very active in IRDC and Conference for years and now lives in Las Vegas. Last year she came up and raced one event and all enjoyed seeing her. Just today I got a call from Dennis Petersto chat about Mike. Dennis who some of you long time readers know was a steward for Conference, raced seriously and was a lead driving instructor at the ProFormance Racing School. Dennis and Mike were close friends and Dennis told me that Mike was a top baseball infielder long ago who almost made the majors. Who knew?
Mike was a driving instructor at the ProFormance Racing School and a few years ago moved out to Shelton to enjoy a quieter life.