Tony Elliott killed in plane crash

Tony Elliott, one of the most successful short track sprint-car racers of the past 25 years, was killed late Friday afternoon in an airplane crash in South Carolina.

The 54-year-old native of Warsaw, Ind. captured the 1996 and 2000 United States Auto Club sprint championships and scored 26 feature wins – one more than legendary Parnelli Jones. Elliott was also a regular winner at Indiana tracks like Kokomo, Bloomington, Paragon, Putnamville, Haubstadt and Gas City in the '80s and '90s.

The father of four was a passenger on a small plane that went down about a mile from its destination near Oconee Regional Airport and very close to Clemson's football stadium.

According to a local FOX station report, the plane was registered to Warsaw councilman Charlie Smith, who also perished along with his son, Scott, and former Tippecanoe Valley football coach Scott Bibler. They were planning to attend Saturday night's Notre Dame-Clemson football game.

A distress call went out at 3:15, and wreckage was recovered in the South Carolina Lake.

Elliott's death is the latest in a long list of airplane tragedies in motorsports that have claimed former NASCAR champ Alan Kulwicki, F1 king and 1966 Indy 500 winner Graham Hill, Indy 500 veteran Tony Bettenhausen and sports car star Al Holbert.