William "Butch" Brickell (April 18, 1957 – October 13, 2003) was an American racing driver and stuntman from

Miami, Florida Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a coastal metropolis and the county seat of Miami-Dade County in South Florida, United States. With a population of 442,241 at th ...

. He was the great-grandson of Miami co-founder

William Brickell William Brickell (May 22, 1817(?) – January 14, 1908) joined Julia Tuttle as a co-founder of Miami, Florida. During the Civil War, Brickell and his wife Mary, whom he met and married in Australia, lived in the White House while he worked as an ...

Racing career

As a racer, Brickell participated in the

24 Hours of Daytona The 24 Hours of Daytona, also known as the Rolex 24 At Daytona for sponsorship reasons, is a 24-hour sports car endurance race held annually at Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Florida. It is run on the Sports Car Course layou ...

12 Hours of Sebring The 12 Hours of Sebring is an annual motorsport endurance race for sports cars held at Sebring International Raceway, on the site of the former Hendricks Army Airfield World War II air base in Sebring, Florida, US. The event is the second ro ...

and other sports car races numerous times. In 1996 he attempted to make his move into the new

Indy Racing League The IndyCar Series, currently known as the NTT IndyCar Series under sponsor (commercial), sponsorship, is the highest class of regional North American American open-wheel car racing, open-wheel single-seater formula racing cars in the United S ...

but fractured his neck in practice prior to the first race at the

1996 Indy 200 at Walt Disney World The 1996 Indy 200 at Walt Disney World was the first round of the 1996 Indy Racing League, and the inaugural event for the Indy Racing League, who initiated the American open-wheel split that would last for 12 years. The race was held on January ...

.Butch Brickell
at Historic Racing He attempted to recover from his injuries in order to return to the cockpit, but was not cleared to drive at either Phoenix or for the

Indianapolis 500 The Indianapolis 500, formally known as the Indianapolis 500-Mile Race, and commonly called the Indy 500, is an annual automobile race held at Indianapolis Motor Speedway (IMS) in Speedway, Indiana, United States, an enclave suburb of India ...

. Brickell placed

Tyce Carlson Brendyn "Tyce" Carlson (born September 23, 1970, Indianapolis, Indiana), is a former driver in the Indy Racing League IndyCar Series. He raced in the 1996–2002 seasons with 30 career starts, including 2 at the Indianapolis 500. His 2 career ...

in his car to attempt to make the Indy 500, but Carlson's speed was the slowest accepted qualifying attempt and he was the first car bumped from the field.1996 IRL Results
Motorsport.com Brickell eventually did recover and he returned to sports car racing where he was active until the early 2000s.

Stunt career

Brickell got his start performing Hollywood stunts in 1993, first working in the '' Mr. Nanny'' and ''

The Specialist ''The Specialist'' is a 1994 American action thriller film directed by Luis Llosa and starring Sylvester Stallone, Sharon Stone, James Woods, Eric Roberts, and Rod Steiger. It is loosely based on "The Specialist" series of novels by John S ...

''. He later worked in such notable films as ''

2 Fast 2 Furious ''2 Fast 2 Furious'' is a 2003 action film directed by John Singleton from a screenplay by Michael Brandt and Derek Haas, from a story by Brandt, Haas, and Gary Scott Thompson. It is the sequel to ''The Fast and the Furious'' (2001), and i ...

'', ''

True Lies ''True Lies'' is a 1994 American spy action comedy film written and directed by James Cameron. It stars Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jamie Lee Curtis, Tom Arnold, Art Malik, Tia Carrere, Bill Paxton, Eliza Dushku, Grant Heslov and Charlton Heston ...

'' and '' Bad Boys''. Brickell died in 2003 at the age of 46 from an undisclosed illness.

References

External links

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Butch Brickell
at ChampCarStats.com 1957 births 2003 deaths American Le Mans Series drivers 24 Hours of Daytona drivers 12 Hours of Sebring drivers American stunt performers Racing drivers from Miami {{US-autoracing-bio-stub