RELATED STORY - MARK LYLE NEVER HAD A BAD DAY IN THE OFFICE
 
The late NHRA Chief Starter Mark Lyle was many things to many people: husband to Marcia Lyle, father to daughters Kim and Cari and son Chris, son to Pat Leslie. He was a brother to Ken Lyle, Jim Leslie, Bob Leslie, and Tom Leslie, Grandpa to five, and Uncle Mark to nine.  To his NHRA drag-racing family, he was even more.
 
Funny Car owner-driver John Force, the NHRA’s most successful racer in any class, thought of Lyle as “our umpire,” a man who “put me in my place” with understanding and humor. (“I was arguing with him one time, because something happened with my baby girl and I knew I was right. He let me talk. Then he said, ‘John, you’ve been out here a long time,’ prompting Force to think, ‘I’m going to get my way.’ Lyle followed with, ‘But you’re wrong.’ And he hustled the show along.)   
 
To successor Mike Gittings and to Pacific Raceways operator Jason Fiorito, Lyle was a mentor.
 
To the racers he was a listener, an encourager, the voice of reason, and a calming influence.
 
To everyone he was a friend – a man gone way too soon for all.
 
Lyle died unexpectedly in March, one day following his 59th birthday while vacationing in Mexico to celebrate not only his birthday but also his and Marcia's wedding anniversary. He lost his life trying to save that of another, a relative stranger, charging into the Pacific Ocean to try to rescue a flailing swimmer. The other man survived; Lyle didn’t.
 
At least 400 family members and friends, including racers and crew chiefs and NHRA officials, remembered Lyle Thursday evening at a memorial service at the finish-line hospitality area at Pacific Raceways, south of Seattle in the Kent/Auburn area.
 
Marcia Lyle was instrumental in planning this celebration of life at his home track, with the help of Pacific Raceways General Manager John Ramsey and the NHRA.
 
Race fans will have an opportunity to honor Lyle during pre-race ceremonies Sunday, when the staging lanes officially will be named Mark Lyle Way.
 
Gittings – who stepped in at the Las Vegas race and was named the permanent starter following the April event at Houston – said, “I’m overwhelmed by taking his position. I want to do everything that he did. I stood behind him for 16 years, and he was a great teacher. I’m really going to miss him.”
 
So, too, will Fiorito.
 
“I came in here green. I didn’t know anything about running a track. I grew up in an Italian construction family, and I grew up in the seat of a cab, the seat of a dump truck, at the bottom of a pit, laying pipe. I came in here 32, 33 years old and was going to set the world on fire. I walked out on the dragstrip the first day and met Mark. I’ve heard a lot about his compassion and patience with new drivers. Well, he had a lot of compassion and patience with a new track operator, as well,” he said. “You felt like in the middle of all the fray, he was paying attention to what you were saying.
 
“There are very few people in this world I’ve really wanted to have proud of me along the way, and Mark is one of them,” Fiorito said. “There are very few voices in my head when I’m making an important decision. Mark’s is one of them. I’ve gone through a lot here. I’ve gone through a lot in my life. Mark was not just a mentor to me on the dragstrip. He was a mentor to me in life. He followed my progression through some good decisions. Through some bad decisions he was always there. I don’t think I ever shook Mark’s hand. I hugged Mark. At any track I was visiting, if I saw Mark on the starting line, I felt like I was at home because that’s how Mark made you feel. There’s a huge hole in my heart, but I know his family is always here to fill it for me.”     
 
Pro Stock champion Erica Enders, who said, “I said I wasn’t going to cry tonight, but I sat over there in that chair and cried my eyes out,” told of a time when Lyle cried, too. The 2014 fall Charlotte race was rife with complaints about the condition of zMAX Dragway’s racing surface. She said her crew chief showed her a significant-sized chunk from the actual track and promised not to send her down the track if it’s unsafe  - and he said he didn’t think conditions were safe. Said Enders, “My husband, Richie, was racing at the time and he was in the first pair out and he nearly crashed. Then V Gaines went behind him and he crashed and everything halted.” The NHRA pulled the plug on the event and decided to finish the Charlotte eliminations at Dallas.
 
“That night,” she said, “Mark came by our trailer with tears in his eyes. He always called me ‘Kid.’ And he said, ‘Kid, I want to tell you that I’m sorry. I’m sorry because I knew it wasn’t safe and I did everything in my power to make it safe. And it took somebody crashing for us to call it.’ And he cried that night. And he took such passion in what he did. He was extremely humble, but he was very passionate.”
 
Enders said her special memories include how he would motion to her to calm down if she were rattled. “He not only took pride in his job,” she said, “but he loved every single person he sent down that racetrack. I don’t care if you drove Top Fuel or Super Street, he loved you. He was the first one here and the last one to go home.”
 
During a short delay in the action this February at Phoenix, while she waited to help stage a Jr. Dragster racer, Enders shared a whimsical moment with Lyle. He strolled over to her with a popsicle for her and one for himself. As they enjoyed the treat, Enders said she suddenly cringed. She told him, “Mark, you know if somebody takes my picture, I’m going to have about 400 e-mails this week why I shouldn’t eat a popsicle, that I’ve gained 10 pounds, and that’s why my race car’s not fast.” He laughed and told her, “Kid, I don’t know why you care about what people say.”
 
Enders said, “He was a tremendous man. We all miss him.”
 
Top Fuel tuner Bobby Lagana, himself as warm and genuine as Lyle, interacted and visited with the starter during his trips to the starting line. He said, “Three years wasn’t enough that I got to spend at the starting line [encountering Lyle]. He wouldn’t let you leave the starting line without some kind of communication. And it was never bad – there was never a bad moment. He made me want to be better and know more about people, just because of the way he did that with everyone at the racetrack. That guy made everybody feel like they should’ve won the race. That guy was one of the most special people.”
 
Chad Head, Funny Car driver and track-prep expert who had a unique appreciation for Lyle’s responsibilities, said he spoke with Lyle when Lyle’s predecessor, Rick Stewart, had announced his retirement plans. Head asked Lyle, “See that guy? You want to look like him?” Lyle replied, “Sure. I’m ready. I’m in.” Head told Lyle, “He can’t hear and he has black stuff all over him.” Lyle repeated, “No problem. I’m in.”
 
Head said he grew up at the racetrack and felt comfortable at the starting line, until he became a driver. Lyle knew that and would make a point to step over by Head’s car window and give him a reassuring gesture. “Mark would always look at me and wink his eye, and I knew things were good,” he said. “I never walked away from the starting line mad. He always made us laugh, and he always made us smile. I was fortunate enough to meet him.”       
 
Funny Car champion Jack Beckman said, “it’s clear that Mark meant a lot to a lot of people” and characterized Lyle as “positive, professional, charming, and fair.”  Then in his own charming and humorous style said crew chiefs “want an hour’s prep on that race track every time before your car runs – but just in your lane . . . the other guy’s lane doesn’t matter. But then there’s Race Control. Graham Light is trying to run the show. He has a certain amount of time and he’s talking in Mark’s ear while the crew chief’s describing what he wants. And Mark found a way to make it work. And he was always fair about it, always fair. When you left the starting line, even if you didn’t get your way, you felt he treated you with respect. You felt like he heard what you had to say and did the best he could possibly do to balance both sides and give us a safe race track.”    
 
Perhaps Beckman summed up the occasion most poignantly. He gazed at the overflow crowd and said, “When my life is over, this is all I want. I want a room full of people who remember me for the right reasons who are torn apart because I was taken too soon. That’s what makes life so valuable. That’s what’s the most important thing, that you family should be left with the legacy, with the memories. Mark was such a special guy, and if I could have a slice of that for my baby girl – and I hope a long time from now – then I’ve done everything right.”
 
Racers for Christ National Chaplain Craig Garland said of Lyle, “He was something special. We go on and on about how much we love and appreciate him. And he’s always looking down on us each and every race day.”
 
Some, such as Funny Car and Top Fuel team owner-competitor Terry Haddock, came to pay their respects but found the sentiments “too sad, a lot of sad stories. I’m sad – it’s too much for me.” Said Haddock, “Mark’s such a good guy, and everybody’s going to have a story. He was a neat guy. It’s sad we lost him.” He had one of his own, a cheerful one. Son Kaylen, age 9, said he remembers Lyle “watching me at the airport.” Haddock explained that while he was trying to order them some food in an airport restaurant, Lyle sat with Kaylen. “Mark loved kids. He was just a great guy. I never made a pass once he was the starter without him ducking under the body, making sure I was OK before. He loved everybody. It sucks that he had to go.”   
 
Lyle started his career on the switches at Pacific Raceways in 2000, before becoming the NHRA’s Division 6 starter. He was named Chief Starter for the NHRA’s Mello Yello Drag Racing Series in 2012 to replace the retiring Stewart – becoming only the third person in the sanctioning body's 60-plus-year history to fill the position.
 
Lyle, of North Bend, Wash., owned C.J. Auto Parts in Renton, Wash., for 18 years, then managed Kenworth Northwest for five years.