Dick Brooks

Richard "Dick" Brooks (April 14, 1942 – February 1, 2006) was an American NASCAR driver. Born in Porterville, California, he was the 1969 NASCAR Rookie of the Year, and went on to win the 1973 Talladega 500. Brooks held off veteran Buddy Baker by 7.2 seconds for the Talladega win. After he retired, he served as a NASCAR sportscaster for a brief period of time.

His Grand National Statistics include the win at Talladega Superspeedway, 57 top fives, 150 top tens, 4 top ten point finishes (1975 through 1978), and 358 career races.

Although Brooks only won one NASCAR race, he was a popular figure in that particular league of motorsports. Driving for the underfunded Junie Donlavey team, Brooks finished 10th in points in 1975 & 1976. A sixth place point finish in 1977 was the highest Brooks would finish. After finishing 8th in the points in 1978, Brooks left the Donlavey team and drove for others in 1979 & 1980.

Brooks only drove five races each season in 1981 and 1982 before reuniting with Donlavey for 1983. After finishing fifth in the Daytona 500, he had several other solid runs. After four races, Brooks led the point standings for the only time in his NASCAR career. The rest of the season was not as good though and Brooks faded to 14th at season end. 1984 was more of the same as the Donlavey team struggled to keep up with the higher financed teams and Brooks finished 15th. After driving three races for the Petty Enterprises team in 1985, Brooks left the ride. His final NASCAR race was behind the wheel of a Rick Hendrick owned car in the 1985 World 600 where he finished in tenth place.

Dick Brooks (magician)

Dick Brooks, considered a magician of renown, has been a professional performer since leaving school, was born in New York City. As a teenager he joined a Department of Parks magic club headed up by the official magician of New York City, Abe Hurwitz (Peter Pan the Magic Man), who was also the father of the soon to be famous Shari Lewis. When Hurwitz left the Peter Pan Magic Club, the members wanted a more mature name after famous magician Carl Ballantine joked to the members, "I love your peanut butter!" Brooks, came up with the name F.A.M.E., which stood for Future American Magical Entertainers, and the club lasted for many years thereafter. Then six magicians from the Society of American Magicians, who at first did not allow youngsters to join, formed the Society of Young Magicians (S.Y.M.) for youngsters in 1984.

The Magic Towne House

Brooks was founder along with Dorothy Dietrich, of the Magic Towne House on the Upper East Side that presented magic in New York City for over 15 years.