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Representatives of the Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board were handling the investigation yesterday. Hanks said the cause of the accident was not yet known.

"There were 18 or 20 some witnesses, and most of them said they heard some kind of engine noises," said Hanks, himself a pilot. "But when you're in a nose dive like that, the engine always revs up anyway. We're really not sure what happened."

A spokesman for the Franklin County Coroner's Office said that Mr. Holbert's body was badly burned and that preliminary results of an autopsy performed yesterday would probably not be available for a few days.

Hanks said Mr. Holbert, an experienced pilot, was on his way back to Doylestown after spending the day in Columbus with his racing crew; he was planning to enter two Porsche cars in today's International Motor Sports Association's Columbus 500. Both cars were withdrawn from the race.

Mr. Holbert, himself an engineer, had built a spectacular career in auto racing and was involved in a number of businesses, all based in Bucks County.

He owned an Audi, Porsche and Volkswagen dealership in Warrington, and headed Holbert Aviation, which owned the twin-engine Aerostar in which he crashed.

Mr. Holbert had 63 career racing victories, including 49 IMSA wins and five series championships, both IMSA records. He won the 24 Hours of LeMans, a French road race, three times.

Mr. Holbert was born in Abington and spent most of his life in lower Bucks County. He earned a mechanical engineering degree from Lehigh University and immediately went into racing, following in the footsteps of his father, Robert Holbert, who raced cars in the 1950s and 1960s. The elder Holbert still resides in Doylestown.

Ernie Saxton, president of the Eastern Motor Sports Press Association and a longtime friend, said Mr. Holbert's death shocked the racing industry.

"When you look at a guy like Al, to have so many impressive racing credentials and to never get injured in auto racing, then to die in this kind of fashion, is just amazing," Saxton said. "He was not only a successful racer, but an intelligent businessman and a born-again Christian. He didn't have an enemy in the world. He lived a clean life. He was the kind of guy you would want to pattern your own son after."

Saxton said his organization had planned to honor Mr. Holbert during a banquet in January. "This is really quite a shock," he said.

Said IMSA president John Bishop: "How a man so competitive could be so human and soft impressed me. He was a gentleman all the way through. Obviously, he'll leave a huge hole with us. We'll miss him very much."

Surviving in addition to his father are his wife, Joy; a son, Todd, 14, and a daughter, Laura, 13. Funeral arrangements were expected to be finalized today.