
UPDATE: VFR engineer, IMSA entrant Murillo lose houses in NorCal wildfire
UPDATE: RACER has learned IMSA Continental Tire Series entrant Ken Murillo has lost his house in the Northern California wildfires, while 1996 CART IndyCar Series champion Jimmy Vasser lost a portion of his V12 Vineyard in Napa to the fire. 1969 Indy 500 winner Mario Andretti reported the nearby Andretti family vineyard was spared.
opened its camping areas to evacuees from the fires
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Weeks after numerous members of the IMSA paddock were severely affected by hurricanes that struck Florida and Texas, raging fires around Sonoma Raceway burned the home of Visit Florida Racing engineer Ricky Cameron to the ground while he and his wife remained in Georgia after Petit Le Mans.
The Camerons learned of the fires while visiting with their son Dane Cameron, the 2016 WeatherTech SportsCar Championship Prototype title winner ahead of the IMSA banquet. Their family home in Glen Ellen, where Dane was raised, is a total loss.
"I called my middle son after getting alerts from my brother Stephen around 4 a.m.; we're still out here and were going to spend time with Dane and his family," said Cameron [pictured with Dane, below]. "I told him to grab the case with the social security papers and the passport and the business documents, and get the animals, get in my truck, and get out. He and his girlfriend went and got her family and they drove to a safe place."
Other than the luggage they took to Georgia and what his son was able to grab, the Camerons will need to find temporary housing and spend the offseason trying to rebuild. Insurance is expected to cover most, if not all of the damage.
"It's more a matter of the process. We've got to find a place to live, got to rebuild it," he continued. "It's more the memories that are lost than anything; all the childhood pictures of the boys on the wall and the other stuff we'll never get back. We've been flooded before, lifted the house after, I never thought the house would burn; I thought it might flood, but never burn. All our neighbors lost their houses. It's not pretty."
After winning the recent IMSA race at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca with VFR's Ligier JS P217-Gibson prototype, Cameron was riding a high. In good spirits despite the devastating setback at home, he and his wife will be forced to put their immediate plans on hold.
"We were thinking of selling and moving to Charlotte to be near Dane, be near our grandkids, and now we don't have anything to sell," he said. "Now it's a race to get in early, get a contractor going on building a new house, and then we can think about the move again."
Firefighting took place throughout California on Sunday and Monday as a NASA event held at Thunderhill Raceway, approximately two hours north of Sonoma, was forced into a lengthy delay, and at Sonoma Raceway, crews were busy keeping fires at bay around Sears Point. Blazes in Southern California were also being fought into Monday afternoon.

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