The Disappearance

April 8, 2021·33 min·3 clips

Bill Rossi learns his father, legendary NASCAR engineer Mario Rossi, died in a plane crash, but the family gets strange phone warnings not to investigate.

The story begins with Bill Rossi. A few days after New Year in 1983, he is 21, in New York City, and his family suddenly calls him to New Jersey. He goes. At his grandmother's house, his uncle gets him into a car, drives around, and finally says his father has been killed. Bill is floored. His father is Mario Rossi, the race car owner and engine builder whose name hangs over the season. Then the story pulls wider. The host follows the way Mario's disappearance keeps coming back among people who know racing history, including Brad Keselowski. Keselowski cannot leave it alone. After a call seems over, he comes back to ask what happened to Mario Rossi and says the mystery feels like something for Unsolved Mysteries. That reaction lands. Plenty of current drivers may not know the name, but the story still moves through garages and old racing circles. It has turned into a spook story. The host treats that afterlife as a sign that Mario Rossi's disappearance never really disappeared. The questions start stacking up. Why tell Bill this way? Why does a plane crash sit next to talk of a disappearance? The show goes back to the family, looking for the full story now, not just the public legend or the version racing people half remember. The tone is careful, with family shock, motorsports lore, and loose ends all in place before the investigation digs in.

As heard by us

A measured true-crime account that turns a family tragedy into something still felt.

This episode pulls Bill Rossi back to 1983, when a family call sends him to his grandmother's house and into the news that his father, Mario Rossi, was killed in a plane crash. The story has a calm, reported cadence that suits it well.

Read the full review in PlayNext →

Why you'd press play

Play it if you want a racing mystery that still gets asked about in garages.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

Listen to the show on

Apple Podcasts Spotify

Play clips from this episode More from The Sneak