Rookie Racer Killed in Crash of Small Plane

Promising rookie sports car racer Paul Mumford was one of two men killed when the small plane he was piloting crashed and burned this week, a close friend said Thursday.

Mumford, 31, of Yorba Linda, was with Chris Premer, 31, of Costa Mesa, said fellow racer Brian Provost. Provost said the two men were good friends.

Mumford, a former motorcycle racer, won his first Sports Car Club of America Pro Racing event at the Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca on Sept. 7. It was only his second SCCA Speed GT Championship start.

“We’ve lost one of our brightest young stars; one whom we’d only just met,” Steve Johnson, president and chief executive officer of SCCA, said in a statement. “Our thoughts and prayers are with Paul’s family and friends.”