Richey Watanabe, Co-founder of Technosquare Inc, has passed away (1955-2010)
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From: Redondo Beach, CA
Richey Watanabe, Co-founder of Technosquare Inc, has passed away (1955-2010)
It is with great sorrow that I report to you that Richey Watanabe, co-founder of TechnoSquare Inc, has passed away today after a heroric fight with Pancreatic Cancer, just two weeks shy of his 55th birthday.
Richey was a master fabricator and mechanic and worked on and built numerous race cars that compete in SCCA/NASA pro, Formula D, GrandAm, Rally America, Baja, Redline Time Attack, SuperLap Battle, and countless other racing sanctions. But before Richey found his calling as a fabricator, he was a Driver-- and won back-to-back SCCA Rally Championships in 1986 & 1987 with Howard, his brother navigating, racing Toyota Corollas (and beating factory backed teams!)
I got to know Richey when I first found out about Technosquare back in 2001 and had them work on my vehicles ever since... (I actually met Richey when he was working at UPRD in ~1999, but he didn't remember me) It was, without a doubt, Richey's expertise and experience that helped my 350z place as high as I did in 2008's Sport Compact Car Magazine's Ultimate Street Car Challenge and in 2009's Castrol Syntec Top Car Challenge competition. [I placed 2nd in both]. I still remember Richey fabing up custom turbo inlet piping on my PE TT kit last minute so i could squeeze a few more HP out of the setup. I further got to know Richey better as he became the Crew Chief from 2007-08 for the Tanaka Racing Corvette Z06 and i tagged along as his helper/pit crew. His work ethic was admirable, absolute seriousness until the race was over. No task was too challenging: when the Z06 blew a trans in FD las vegas, he towed the car back to torrance, worked overnight to swap out the busted parts in the corvette, drove back and had it in time for qual the next morning... one of the things that i will always remember was his attitude of never giving up.. he told me when he was about to head back to Torrance after the Vette was in the trailer "There is no Plan B. Just another Plan A." Well Richey, God had another plan A for you, and hopefully you're at peace.
I will miss you greatly.
for those that knew Richey, I'm starting a small fund to give to his family to help pay for services. PM me if you would like help.
Richey was a master fabricator and mechanic and worked on and built numerous race cars that compete in SCCA/NASA pro, Formula D, GrandAm, Rally America, Baja, Redline Time Attack, SuperLap Battle, and countless other racing sanctions. But before Richey found his calling as a fabricator, he was a Driver-- and won back-to-back SCCA Rally Championships in 1986 & 1987 with Howard, his brother navigating, racing Toyota Corollas (and beating factory backed teams!)
I got to know Richey when I first found out about Technosquare back in 2001 and had them work on my vehicles ever since... (I actually met Richey when he was working at UPRD in ~1999, but he didn't remember me) It was, without a doubt, Richey's expertise and experience that helped my 350z place as high as I did in 2008's Sport Compact Car Magazine's Ultimate Street Car Challenge and in 2009's Castrol Syntec Top Car Challenge competition. [I placed 2nd in both]. I still remember Richey fabing up custom turbo inlet piping on my PE TT kit last minute so i could squeeze a few more HP out of the setup. I further got to know Richey better as he became the Crew Chief from 2007-08 for the Tanaka Racing Corvette Z06 and i tagged along as his helper/pit crew. His work ethic was admirable, absolute seriousness until the race was over. No task was too challenging: when the Z06 blew a trans in FD las vegas, he towed the car back to torrance, worked overnight to swap out the busted parts in the corvette, drove back and had it in time for qual the next morning... one of the things that i will always remember was his attitude of never giving up.. he told me when he was about to head back to Torrance after the Vette was in the trailer "There is no Plan B. Just another Plan A." Well Richey, God had another plan A for you, and hopefully you're at peace.
I will miss you greatly.
for those that knew Richey, I'm starting a small fund to give to his family to help pay for services. PM me if you would like help.
I've only talked to him a little bit when I was getting my car tuned with their reflash couple of years ago but he seemed like a very nice guy. I was hoping him and howard would install my twin turbo kit since I heard only good things about them... RIP 
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Richey, Howard and Tadashi are awesome. On a small list of people I fully trust working on my FX. I wouldn't be able to enjoy this hobby the way I do without their help.
Richey has said this same thing to me when we were doing things not meant to be done or not done before on my platform. Technosquare put faith back into me good people being are in this industry vs crooks, liars, and thieves that pop up so often.
I've missed him since he started being ill.
Richey has said this same thing to me when we were doing things not meant to be done or not done before on my platform. Technosquare put faith back into me good people being are in this industry vs crooks, liars, and thieves that pop up so often.
I've missed him since he started being ill.
