Police identify Ohio man as victim of fatal crash at Daytona International Speedway
Daytona Beach police on Tuesday confirmed the identity of the driver killed Saturday at the Daytona International Speedway as Mark Mathys, 62, from Ohio.
Mathys was from Put-in-Bay, according to a local news report. Another racer, Marcel Fayen, 24, of Florida, was injured in the crash, police said.
Mathys, described in reports as passionate about the sport of racing, was killed at the speedway at 11:57 a.m. on Saturday.
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Daytona Beach police said they responded to the Daytona Speedway around 12:26 p.m. Saturday after getting reports of a crash on the track that resulted in a death.
Police said the two-vehicle crash occurred on the Advent Health apron portion of the track. A security guard said that racers were briefed that if they experienced technical issues with their vehicles they were to pull onto the apron.
By the time police got to the scene, the crashed cars had been removed from the track. Skid marks started from the finish line and led onto the apron. One car appeared to have crashed into a guard rail before careening into the other vehicle, police said.
According to the police report, Mathys's white Porsche 911 with the No. 77 had heavy damage to its passenger side where another Porsche 911 driven by Fayen struck it.
Both Mathys and Fayan were taken to Halifax Health Medical Center, police said.
In a Facebook post, a woman, Beth Ann Mathys-Griner, who identified herself as Mathys's sister, explained how the fatal crash at the Speedway occurred.
"Mark had a flat and pulled to the wall. While two other cars came around and hit each other sending one into the wall hitting Mark. They had to take the top off the car to get him out and he died either instantly or on the way to the hospital," she wrote in her post.
The Sandusky Register in Ohio reported that Mathys was a businessman, who was the owner of the Put-in-Bay Resort and Bay Lodging, which he sold last year in a multimillion-dollar deal.
The Register said Mathys was a racing enthusiast in International GT, a U.S.-based auto racing series, the event held over the weekend in Daytona Beach.
On its website, International GT said it holds a North American racing series that includes three different championships for drivers of late-model Porsches and Ferraris.
This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: Ohio racer killed at Daytona Speedway crash
