Warren Gibbons, 63; Racing Sports Cars Was His Passion

Racing fast sports cars, such as Jaguars and Mini Coopers, was a passion of Warren Arthur Gibbons. He loved the feel and speed of them, and he competed in races up and down the West Coast, from California to Canada.

He was known as an excellent driver and a fierce competitor, from the time he entered his first sports-car race in the 1950s until the day he turned off the ignition for the last time.

Mr. Gibbons, 63, died March 12 in Seattle after a long illness.

He had retired from competitive racing in 1966, but passed on his love of driving to his son Scott, who has been a sports-car racer himself for five years.

For many years, father and son built race cars and street cars from scratch, working together after Scott had watched him and picked up the skill.

``He built a series of race cars called the Formula 4 in the early '60s. I can remember him building those in a little one-car garage. It was a lot of fun,'' the son said.

The Gibbons family has lived in Winslow on Bainbridge Island for the past eight years, and a memorial service for Mr. Gibbons was held in the Seabold United Methodist Chuch there Friday, following cremation.

Mr. Gibbons was born in Yakima and attended school there before joining the Navy during World War II and serving aboard the minesweeper USS Implicit. He had organized several sports-car clubs.

Other avocations were metal sculpture and painting, and he also had been a volunteer counselor for troubled youths, trying to point them toward the finer points of art and cars, said his wife, Ellen.

Sports cars, though, continued to be a dominant interest in his life, she said. Big cars, small cars, he liked to drive them all, preferably British cars.

``He was always a fair, clean driver, but aggressive,'' she said. ``He wouldn't give any quarter. He loved to win.''

This zeal led to a strong relationship between Scott and her husband, she said.

She fondly remembers the day in 1962 when her husband raced a new red MG Midget at Seattle International Raceway in Kent, a car of the same color and type that Scott drove in a race there last year.

Even after Mr. Gibbons had become ill, she said, he would attend races in which their son was entered. ``He would help him buckle on his helmet, pat him on the back and tell him to press on, regardless,'' she said.

``His greatest dream was to see Scott race and he was with him every race through last season.''

In addition to his wife and son, Mr. Gibbons is survived by three sisters.