I try to keep these columns light and hopefully fun. Years ago, I swore that I would never get preachy. After all, who the hell am I to tell you what to do?
I’ll apologize in advance as this one is going to get a little sad and perhaps preachy. You see, one of my longtime friends just passed away. …
Reminded me of Bean. I received a call from someone that had gotten my number from Bean. He said Bean hoped it was still good because we were long overdue for catching up.
Neither one of us got around to calling and then a few months later, in Grassroots I saw "RIP Dave Bean".
This is extremely sad news. J.K. Jackson was sort of a mentor to me as well. He built a gearbox for me, similar to the one in his TR-6 auto-X car and we had some good battles at the VTR Nationals for several years until I sold my TR-4 to buy a Formula Ford to go SCCA racing. Due to that, we had not been in contact for a while and I had been wondering how he was doing. I guess I am like you, Tim, and missed my opportunity. Very sad.
Back in 1971 Mike Eakin (Purple Frog) & I attended our first ever autocross at Dale Mabry Field in Tallahassee. J.K. in his Jag XK-120 and Walt Wurzbach in a TVR Griffith were having an intense battle for FTD. I don't remember who won, but I DO remember their top speeds on that "autocross course" exceeded 100 MPH!!! I'm not sure why J.K. spent time with a couple of poor college kids who thought VW Beetles were performance machines, but he did. He was an icon in the local (southeast) motorsports community. I'm exceedingly glad we were able to catch up some at the Chimney Rock Hillclimb reunion last month.
RIP my friend...
Really sorry to hear this. JK was the inspiration for my dive into racing TR6's back in the early 90's. He was one of a kind, for sure.
BKRacingLLC said:Back in 1971 Mike Eakin (Purple Frog) & I attended our first ever autocross at Dale Mabry Field in Tallahassee. J.K. in his Jag XK-120 and Walt Wurzbach in a TVR Griffith were having an intense battle for FTD. I don't remember who won, but I DO remember their top speeds on that "autocross course" exceeded 100 MPH!!! I'm not sure why J.K. spent time with a couple of poor college kids who thought VW Beetles were performance machines, but he did. He was an icon in the local (southeast) motorsports community. I'm exceedingly glad we were able to catch up some at the Chimney Rock Hillclimb reunion last month.
RIP my friend...
Now I am really sad I didn't attend the Chimney Rock reunion. Two friends of mine and I used to work one of the turns near the top. I remember JK racing his TR-6, then later his wife's and speed shifting up the last long straight before the turn into the parking lot. I never got a chance to meet the man, but I was very familiar with who he was.
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