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Thread: Bill Mitchell

  1. #1

    Bill Mitchell

    I am sad to report that Formula SAE has lost another icon. Bill Mitchell died at his home in Mooresville, North Carolina last Wednesday.

    Bill had been one of the senior Design Judges at the FSAE competitions in the USA for 15 years, and sponsored the Rookie Team award, often with a copy of his “Racing by the Numbers” software.

    Bill was a mathematician by training with degrees from CalTech and Stanford. He started in motor sports as a spectator, followed by several years as a flagger/corner worker/marshal with the San Francisco Region of the SCCA, for whom he also wrote a column in their magazine, The Wheel. This led to award-winning articles in the SCCA’s Sports Car magazine. To the end, Bill had a subtle way with the written word.

    In the early 80’s, Bill put his mathematics expertise to work on some of the first personal computers and began the development of his "Racing by the Numbers" program to calculate suspension geometry. And so began his involvement as a race engineer starting out in SCCA Club Racing and progressing through CART with Chip Ganassi’s team and TransAm with Tom Kendall and Roush Racing, and others.

    In the last few years, he has focused his time on his William C. Mitchell Software business.

    Bill was gentle and generous, and will be remembered as such, not only by those who knew him through Formula SAE, but by the North American motor sports community in general.

  2. #2
    Very sad, a true loss. I feel very lucky to have met Bill, and even luckier that we got to interact with him a fair bit because he gave our team a copy of his Racing By The Numbers suite when we won the rookie award in 2008. Bill was extremely generous with his knowledge and his products, and was simply a very kind soul. I'm sure that as with all kind souls he will be missed terribly by the many many people he touched throughout his life.
    _______________________________________

    Northwestern Formula Racing Alum
    Head Engineer, Frame/Suspension 2006-2009

    My '73 Saab 99 Road Race Build

  3. #3
    I knew Bill for many years , I have used his gear ratio program pretty much every day now for the last 13 years. Brilliant man for sure.
    scotty
    Taylor Race
    scotty@taylor-race.com
    taylor-race.com

  4. #4
    Senior Member
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    I am hear in Jamshedpur in India with Steve Fox working at the Delta Shootout and we have just got the sad news.

    To quote Michael, Bill was a kind and gentle man and it has been my pleasure to know and work with him in recent years.
    Bill was not in good health but that does not soft en the blow of losing him!

    Right now, I need to find a quiet spot and remember Big Bill as we all knew him.

    Sadly,

    Pat
    The trick is... There is no trick

  5. #5
    Senior Member
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    Bill Mitchell used to say that breakfast after the first day of design judging was the best vehicle dynamics conference of the year. He always played a big part in these informal discussions, especially when FSAE comp was at the Pontiac Silverdome.

    One thing that struck me about Bill was his ability to use his software as an extension of his mind. Once, we were both invited to participate in an engineering test/race driving school. His role was to explain the in-car data to the students. After each run with the instrumented car, a group would crowd around Bill's computer. Using his Debrief software, he was able to pull up appropriate comparison plots as fast as the students could think of questions. This went on for hours--a very impressive display of mastery.

    I was able to find this public notice, although it doesn't say very much,
    http://www.mooresvilletribune.com/ob...8939cfe7a.html

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