Eric Fisher, a star of SCORE Worldwide‘s Class 9 class within the Nineteen Nineties and 2000s, died Thursday morning. He had battled numerous well being points since retiring from racing because of a coronary heart assault in 2007, and underwent surgical procedure the day earlier than his passing.
Fisher, nicknamed “El Panda” whereas his group bore the Panda Racing Staff moniker, first began racing in 1983. He claimed his first of seven SCORE Class 9 championships in 1999 earlier than notching six in a row from 2002 by 2007. Throughout his interval, he added 5 class wins within the legendary Baja 1000 from 2001 by 2003 and in 2005 and 2006, together with six Baja 500s in 1995 and from 1993 to 2007. He additionally acquired the SCORE Milestone Award in 2004 and 2005 for finishing each race to their distance throughout these seasons.
Within the Nineteen Nineties, his companions included Daniel “El Diablo” Mora and Rafael Aguilera Pérez, the latter the commander of Mexico’s Federal Freeway Police (now the nationwide Federal Police) from 1987 to 2007. A lot of Fisher’s 2000s dominance got here with Isaac Chapluk, Jose Montoya, and Héctor Sarabia as his team-mates; Sarabia is the reigning SCORE Worldwide Class 11 champion.
“There have been seven years as champion with Isaac and Héctor, and considered one of my best achievements was that Baja 1000 in 2001 once we gained by 13 seconds,” recalled Fisher in 2017.
A coronary heart assault pressured him to finish his racing profession after the 2007 season, although he remained concerned within the sport by intently following SCORE and different desert collection in Mexico.
