Former MARRS founder and champion Dik Souan passed away on January 26, 2024, in Baltimore, Maryland, at 78 years old. There will be a celebration Dik’s life from 4-6:30 pm, March 30, 2024, at The Lebanese Taverna-719 President Street, Harbor East (Fells Point) in Baltimore Maryland. Please RSVP to Karl Esch at yardifact.gmail.com.

We are sad to announce the passing of Dik Souan on January 26, 2024, in Baltimore, Maryland. Dik was one of the original MARRS champions with his CP Electric Raspberry Lotus Elan. He raced at Summit Point throughout the 1970's and into the 1980's.

Dik started his motorsports career "rat racing" in the streets and alleys of Baltimore during the 1960s. This led to a traffic court judge offering him the choice of incarceration or enlistment to mend his evil ways.

The US Army posted Dik to Germany, where he surrendered to the allure of European sports cars. In a chance Autobahn duel with another GI driving a Corvette, Dik's Alfa so humiliated the Corvette they traded "pinks," then and there, by the roadside. Dik traded the Corvette for his first Lotus Elan. Dik then cooked a deal with the local Lotus dealer, paying a bounty for every Lotus bought by a GI Dik hooked.

At the 1978 Canadian Grand Prix, Ile Notre Dame, Montreal. Winning the Production Car under card race.

After his military service, Dik started racing an ex-F2 Behra Porsche at Marlboro. That car still exists today as a now-restored Historic/Vintage Racer. After selling the Behra Porsche, Dik's CP Electric Raspberry Lotus Elan became a perennial C Production entrant in both Regionals and Nationals when Summit Point opened in the early 1970s. His bright Candy Apple Magenta and Tangerine paint job was a fan favorite. Usually racing among much larger A&B Production cars, he often bested them, saying of the competition, "A hole (in traffic) doesn't get bigger if you go slower…" He also became known for a long series of "late and dirty" overnight repairs. He would break something in Saturday practice, spend all night working at Summit Point builder Pat Goodman's Atlas Motors shop in Winchester, Virginia, and reappear at dawn on Sunday ready to race. This pattern extended to a National race at Palm Beach, where he broke a cylinder head in practice on Saturday. Unable to find any valve grinding compound to prep the valves for his replacement head, his team sifted coral sand from the parking lot through a T-shirt to make do and finish the repair just in time to enter the Elan in PBR's Saturday night drag races to test the rebuilt motor. He turned 11s in the quarter-mile.

In a later episode, Dik rented his Elan to a Canadian driver for an under-card Production Car race before the first Canadian Grand Prix run in Montreal on the Ile Notre Dame circuit. Dik's light and nimble Elan so terrified the Canadian Dik drove in his stead. Dik won the race and was congratulated by none other than Colin Chapman, who was there with his Lotus F1 team.

Dik was one of the founders of the MAARS series and an early class champion. He was also an Instructor at SCCA Driver Schools at Summit Point. Oddly enough, when Dik stopped racing in the 1980s, his final "Ultimate Elan" was sold to a racer in Germany.

In Memoriam

Loss of WDCR Member: Dik Souan

Washington D.C. Region SCCA (WDCR SCCA)