Auto Racing Executive Jim Chapman, 80, Dies

Jim Chapman, a public relations consultant who was named Indy car racing’s “most influential man of the 1980s,” died Thursday of throat cancer at a care facility in Bloomfield Hills, Mich. Chapman, 80, was stricken in April.

Chapman had PPG Industries as a client in 1981 when he established an Indy car national championship prize fund for Championship Auto Racing Teams. A year later, he negotiated to merge CART’s schedule with the United States Auto Club-sanctioned Indianapolis 500 and underwrite the PPG Cup Indy Car World Series driver’s payout.

In its first year, the fund paid $250,000, but it had grown to more than $3.75 million when Chapman retired in February 1993.

A native of Charleston, S.C., Chapman was also a confidant of Babe Ruth and was at Ruth’s bedside when he died in August 1948. While working in public relations with Ford, he hired Ruth as consultant to his client’s sponsorship of American Legion junior baseball. They traveled together for more than two years, making public appearances.

A memorial service will be held Oct. 24 at Christ Church Cranbrook in Bloomfield Hills. Chapman is survived by four children and eight grandchildren.