Dennis Fink

Talk about anything in this section, just keep it clean. :-)

Moderators: Rich Rock, Mazdahead, Matt Rowe

Post Reply
Rich Rock
Racer
Posts: 1103
Joined: Tue Mar 30, 2004 7:56 pm

Dennis Fink

Post by Rich Rock »

In case you haven't heard, Dennis Fink was apparently murdered several days ago. His obituary was just published.

https://www.legacy.com/obituaries/readi ... =196545044
Rich Rock
Racer
Posts: 1103
Joined: Tue Mar 30, 2004 7:56 pm

Re: Dennis Fink

Post by Rich Rock »

It took a while, but according to an April 22nd article in the Reading Eagle, the person who killed Dennis Fink back in 2020 was found guilty of First Degree murder (took the jury about one hour) and received a life sentence.

I'm sorry, I just don't know how to include a link to the article.

Rich
User avatar
gdh57
Site Admin
Posts: 393
Joined: Mon Jun 13, 2005 12:29 pm

Re: Dennis Fink

Post by gdh57 »

User avatar
gdh57
Site Admin
Posts: 393
Joined: Mon Jun 13, 2005 12:29 pm

Re: Dennis Fink

Post by gdh57 »

After seeing Rich’s post about Dennis Fink, I became curious about who he was, especially as he still holds a bunch of records to this day in Formula Mazda, and one in ASP. So I asked Rich about him, and Rich had a lot to say, but most especially that he was a really great guy. Dennis was ex-military, and a decorated pilot in the Vietnam war, earning the Distinguished Flying Cross. Dennis also worked with at-risk kids in Reading and was a foster parent. There is more information in the articles linked above.

Rich had a bunch of anecdotes about him. My favorite one is this: Rich recalled Dennis showing him the heads-up display in his Corvette that displayed the instrument readings in the bottom of the windshield, just like his fighter jet, and couldn't believe how cool it was. This has apparently been an option since 1999. I would definitely have liked to see that, and agree that it's a pretty cool option.

To learn more about his driving records, I asked Ron Mann for help, and found out that Dennis ran with the PHA from 2002-2004 in 3 different cars. Since I didn’t start hillclimbing until 2005, I never had the chance to meet him.

Dennis started out with a Corvette at Duryea 2002 that he ran in ASP. He took the ASP class record at his very first event with a 126.657, beating the previous record set by Jon Valentine (also in a Corvette) in 1992 with a 127.024. Dennis only held the Duryea ASP record until 2004, when Leith Wain in a Porsche 99 ran a 126.592. The current record in ASP for Duryea is 123.247, set by Dennis Portillo in a 92 Toyota MR2 in 2016. But it's still pretty impressive that Dennis beat the record at his very first hillclimb.

He also took the ASP class record at Spring Jefferson in 2003 (Short Course, Clock Wise) with a 58.574. He holds that record through today, although we haven’t run the Short Course CW since 2014.
Corvette.jpg
Unfortunately, at Spring Weatherly 2003, Dennis went off after the finish line. He walked away with nothing more than bumps and bruises, but the Corvette was totaled.

He returned 2 events later in 2003 with a Formula Mazda, setting records at Giants (52.648), Duryea (121.940), Fall Jefferson (Short Course, Counter Clock Wise) 53.223 and Fall Weatherly (57.417). All of these records still stand today except for Giants – Dan Malave took the record in 2019 with a 51.093.
Formula Mazda.jpg
In 2004, Dennis bought Ron Moreck’s S3 Reynard. The Reynard had 22 class wins and 21 FTDs between 1997 and 2002. Rich remembers talking to him about it, and Dennis said that he bought the Reynard because he just wanted to go faster, and the Formula Mazda was not fast enough. While Dennis had 3 class wins with it in 2004 (Pagoda, Giants, Rose Valley), he was unable to drive it optimally, and then started having major issues with it at Duryea that year. Duryea 2004 was the last event he competed in.

Ron Mann notes that the car ended up on ebay. Rich tells me that the Reynard ended up with John Finger in the SE division, but was totaled.
Reynard.jpg
Grace
Post Reply