Richard Linder was killed in an accident which also involved fellow driver Don Branson, during the 1959 Trenton 100-Mile race. The two vehicles made contact and Linder's Kurtis, after running over Branson's spinning car, sailed over the track wall and nosedived down an embankment in the outside. It then rolled several times before coming to rest upright in perimeter fencing outside the track. Linder drove a Kurtis 4000D - Offenhauser owned by Jack Vargo. It was the second fatal crash in Trenton in the two year history of that track with the USAC National Championship.
Richard Linder came from a racing family of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. His elder brother John Linder, a motorcycle racer, preceded him in death, after a traffic accident that happened in 1941. Another brother, August Joseph "Gus" Linder, eight-year younger than Richard, became a well known Supermodified and Super Sprint racer, his career spanned over four decades until the late 1980s.
R.I.P
