Motocross/track builder Chris Blankenship died on Tuesday, August 12, as a result of injuries sustained in a motocross crash on Sunday at Washington’s Town and Country Fair in Washington, Missouri. Blankenship was 38.
Blankenship suffered the crash on Sunday and was transported by ambulance to Mercy-Hospital-Washington before being airlifted to Mercy Hospital-St. Louis with head injuries. He passed away two days later.
Blankenship built tracks for companies like Dirt Wurx, the Supercross track builders.
“Chris was one of the most down to earth guys you could probably meet,” fellow racer Nik Stephenson told the Gasoncade County Republican newspaper. “You could tell when Chris made a track. Everything was in sync and so smooth. It all blended together and was in rhythm.”
Dirt Wurx founder Rich Winkler issued a statement on Blankenship’s passing.
“We lost the best of us today. Late in the afternoon of August 12th, DIRT WURX USA team leader Chris Blankenship succumbed to injuries he sustained in a crash Sunday evening at the Washington County Fair motocross. Chris was a husband, a father, a racer, a worker, a leader, a dreamer and a doer. He loved his life, lived by a code, never shirked a task and met every situation with a smile.
“I’ve spent countless hours with this man over the past years, working hard, imagining and creating, running our business, along with baring our souls to one another on long hauls over the road to the next event. We probably know one another as well as we know anyone alive, and yet today I find I am at a loss as to what to say. Chris was a man in full. He was my friend. I will miss him every day.”
Blankenship is survived by his wife, Crystal, a son, Macen, and daughter, Kate. Funeral arrangements are pending.
