A sad loss to the aviation world!
My greatest memory of him is from Reno, as well. I can't recall the exact year, since I was fairly young, and didn't pay attention to when I was back then. But my parents took me to Reno every year, and I loved every minute of it. Our really good family friends had a nice ski-cabin in Squaw Valley, and we'd commute to the Races and back for the 3 main weekend days. Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. From what little I payed any attention to, I am REALLY glad I wasn't driving on the way back to the cabin. The traffic was terrible!
During the Unlimited I remember Darryl best for, he got a little faster than he should have, and as he shot down the viewing stands, with the Start/Finish Pylon just off to my left a little, he was knife-edge on. Great view of the bottom of his plane as he went by. You could count the rivets easily. Unfortunately, he was between the line of speakers, and the stands! I won't swear his lower wing-tip was above the level of the loud-speakers, either. I hate to think where the tips of his propellor blades were relative the fans in the stands as he went by, now that I'm a little older. At the time, though, I just thought it was the best view of a plane I'd gotten up to that point. I was cheering like mad!
They called him on it too. Before he even got to the first pylon, he leveled the wings and pulled up hard out of the course. Kinda odd, up to that point, the main radios had been audible out the loud-speaker system, but suddenly, they went silent...
As I recall, they banned him from the Unlimited for a couple years for that little stunt, but I might be wrong.
Anywho, that seared his name into MY little brain!
He'll be missed, no question.
Pat☺