Sports car, racing ‘king’ recalled as humble following drowning
Maraj built Porsche Audi dealership into world’s largest.
BOCA RATON — Devindar Maraj’s nickname was “The King.”
Despite the flashiness of the title, Maraj was known for his kindness and lack of an ego while working in the sports-car world, friends and colleagues said Monday.
Maraj, who went by Dave, was found Sunday morning in an
apparent drowning at the Boca Raton Resort & Club after his friends reported him missing. Maraj kept his racing sailboat
in the Boca Raton area and sometimes held parties at the resort, his friend and racing driver Bill Adam said.
Maraj, a Highland Beach resident, was the president of Champion Porsche Audi, a luxury sports car dealership in Pompano Beach, according to its website. He bought the dealership in 1988 and helped make it the world’s largest seller of Porsches and Audis, The Palm Beach Post reported in a March 2008 article.
Maraj also directed the Audi Sport North America racing team, according to the article. At the time, his team won the LMP1 class in 24 consecutive ALMS races.
Adam said Maraj stopped racing in 2005 after he reached his goal of winning the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
Maraj was as successful of a leader as his team was at racing, Adam said.
“Some team owners have massive egos,” Adam, who has known Maraj for nearly three decades, said. “Dave Maraj didn’t. He was one of the guys. Every single person on the team, from truck drivers to drivers like me — we loved the man because he treated everyone so well.”
Adam recalled a time when the team had to stay overnight to fix a problem before a race in Sebring, the Central Florida city that hosts a 12-hour endurance race each March.
He said normally, team owners would let their employees work all night while they sleep. Instead, Maraj stayed with the team to support them.
Once he noticed another team was working overnight as well, he ordered 20 pizzas and brought 10 of them to their crew as a gesture of good will.
The racing community knew Maraj well, Adam said. Friends and colleagues took to social media Sunday and Monday to remember him.
“Dave was a true racer, a sportsman and the most quietly intense competitor I have ever known,” Scott Atherton, president of the International Motor Sports Association, said in a tweet. “Our thoughts and prayers are with Dave’s family and friends.”