Race car driver dies, 13 months after being shot in the head

Tim Dahlberg

Wednesday, March 25, 1998 | 11:27 a.m.

LAS VEGAS - For more than a year after being shot in the head, race car driver Chris Trickle fought against all odds to come out of a coma. His family stayed by his bedside, hoping and praying for the miracle that never came.

On Wednesday, their struggle finally ended. Thirteen months after a bullet ended Trickle's promising racing career, it finally ended his life.

The 25-year-old Trickle died Wednesday afternoon at a local hospital, where he had been taken earlier in the day by his parents. A hospital spokeswoman confirmed the death, but said the family wanted no details released.

Trickle, a promising stock car driver and the nephew of Winston Cup driver Dick Trickle, was never able to fully come out of the coma caused when he was shot in the head on Feb. 9, 1997, while driving to play tennis with a friend.

His death came less than a month after Trickle made a public appearance at a fundraiser held before the Las Vegas 400 Winston Cup race. Though not conscious, his parents brought him in a wheelchair to the fundraiser that raised $20,297 to help pay for his care.

Trickle's parents and girlfriend had cared for him nearly constantly since the shooting, which police have yet to solve. In October, he seemed to be coming out of the coma and was speaking to family members, but just as suddenly lapsed into silence.

Trickle had been hospitalized until he was brought home for Thanksgiving when the family's insurance coverage ran out. His parents, Chuck and Barbara Trickle, had been caring for him at home ever since, always confident he would beat the odds and wake up again.

"We believe he'll wake up and talk to us," Chuck told The Associated Press last year. "He just fights so hard. We've raised him 24 years and we know what he'll do next."

Trickle had been trapped in a seemingly desperate struggle to come out of his coma ever since he was found slumped over in his car on a freeway overpass south of the Las Vegas Strip.

In October, he woke up, asking for coffee and telling his girlfriend he loved her. Then, just as inexplicably, he retreated back into the darkness of his quiet world, leaving his anguished family to pray for the miracle doctors doubted would ever happen.

While in his coma, Trickle survived a life-threatening bout with pneumonia and a number of other health problems.

Police have been stumped from the time of the shooting on the darkened overpass. A possible witness came forward months after the shooting with a description of a car seen in the area, but police have gotten no closer to finding the gunman.

Trickle was a rising star on the NASCAR SouthWest tour in 1996, where he had nine top 10 finishes in his blue Chevy Lumina. Fellow drivers voted him the tour's most popular driver.

In the win-at-all-costs world of race car driving, fellow drivers said Trickle stood out as a genuinely nice guy who seldom had a bad word for anyone and never seemed to lose his temper.