By Scott Daloisio
(Perris, CA, October 28, 2014) Sprint Car racing superstar Jon Stanbrough and All Coast Construction have teamed up to bring Southern California fans a big piece of nostalgia at next week’s 19th Annual Budweiser Oval Nationals Presented by All Coast Construction at Perris Auto Speedway. Stanbrough has built an exact re-creation of one of the most famous sprint cars in the history of west coast racing. The famous J.F.K. Co. #1 driven by National Sprint Car Hall of Famer and record setting 5-time CRA Champion Jimmy Oskie. And, to add icing on the cake, Oskie will be giving a demonstration by driving the car and possibly pacing the field for the prestigious race.
Stanbrough, who resides in Avon, Indiana and who will be competing in both the 360 and 410 portions of the Oval Nationals, was introduced to Oskie by 2-time CRA champion Billy Wilkerson. The two struck up a friendship and Oskie took Stanbrough to the Justice Brothers Museum in Duarte, California to see one of his old cars.
“The one that he originally drove is in the museum and it just does not look right,” Stanbrough said via telephone on Monday morning. “It is his original car, but it does not look like the car did when he drove it in 1979 and 80. I ran across a car that was the same era that he won the 1979 CRA championship in. I really like Jimmy and I just wanted to preserve that part of sprint car racing history and it is a tribute to him and Jack Kindoll (Oskie’s car owner). Jimmy is just a neat guy to meet and he has become a great friend. He is the main reason I did it. It is kind of a tribute to him.”
The gorgeous Jimmy Oskie/J.F.K. Co. re-created sprint car built by Jon Stanbrough.
The car that Stanbrough ended up buying was purchased brand new about 35-years ago, but the prospective driver was killed in a crash in his street car before he ever got to race it. His sons inherited the car and it sat until the early to mid-1990’s when they became old enough and decided to race it. However, by that time the car was outdated and not competitive with the cars of the era. The sons put it back into storage before offering it to Stanbrough after they heard he liked restoring old sprint cars. Stanbrough declined the offer at first, but eventually got the car from them.
“It sat in my shop for six-months or so,” Stanbrough said who is not only a star sprint car driver, but also a lover of the history of the sport. “I went out to Perris to race last year and talked to Jimmy and we went and looked at the original car. That is when I made up my mind and decided to do it. So I got started on it as soon as I got back from Perris last year. I have taken my time. I have done everything as correctly as I could possibly do. I have used pictures and information from Jimmy to get it right. Dave Brzozowski, who was out there at the time working on cars, helped a lot as well. My goal was to bring it out the there this year and that is what we are going to do. I went through a lot of trouble to get it to be period correct to what it was when it raced.”
Jimmy Oskie racing around “Back Em’ In” Bob Meli in September 1980 at Ascot in the original J.F.K. Co. car that John Stanbrough has re-created. Photo by Scott Daloisio
While the car had a lot of the original components, Stanbrough had to go out and hunt down what it did not have and at times finding those gems was not easy. He looked all over the place including eBay where he found some of the Koni Shocks.
“It did not have a motor when I got it,” Stanbrough mused. “I found the motor and it was actually in a basket. So, I found an engine guy who put it together for me. Probably the hardest things I had to locate was the correct style wheels and tires. I searched high and low looking for the correct wheels and Firestone tires for it and I found them. The whole thing is as authentic as I can possibly make it. To the best of my knowledge everything on this car is period correct to what he ran.”
The car is authentic to the period right down to the decals. Stanbrough hunted most of those down, too and the ones he could not find, a graphics friend in Ohio did for him.
While the car has been on a chassis dyno, as of yet it has not been on the track. That is going to change next week.
“I probably had the car done three or four months ago,” Stanbrough said. “I wanted to have some time to take it to the racetrack and at least try it, but I have been obviously busy racing every weekend, so I could not. When we fired it at the shop it ran fine. I took it to the chassis dyno to make sure the driveline was good, the rear end was good and there were no vibrations. When we put it on the chassis dyno under a load, that is when we learned there was a problem with the oil system and that was a blessing in disguise. We found the problem and fixed it. If I had taken it to the track there could have been a possibility that I would have blown the motor. That is why I say it was a blessing.”
The first time the car hits the track will be at next Wednesday’s practice for the Oval Nationals and it may be Oskie driving it or it may be Stanbrough. That is yet to be determined. It will then be driven by Oskie at the actual Oval Nationals race possibly as the pace car.
“I have not talked to him yet, but I am going to call him before we head out there to see if he wants to come out on practice night and try it out,” Stanbrough stated. “If he doesn’t, I will probably do it just to make sure it is okay. I feel that should be done on practice night just to check on everything we have done. If he wants to come out, he will be the first guy to run it. If not, I will do it and probably just make sure it goes around the track and maybe gas it up a time or to and then put it in the trailer to wait for him.”
Getting the car from Indiana to the west coast is a costly proposition and that is where sprint car super fan “Big Mike” Grosswendt comes in. His company, All Coast Construction, is funding the fuel bill for Stanbrough to haul the beauty across the country for fans on the west coast to not only see, but to be able to relive countless memories of the great Jimmy Oskie in the famous blue J.F.K. Co. car.
Advance tickets for the Oval Nationals are on sale 24 hours a day by calling 1-800 595-4849 or by clicking on the following link to purchase tickets online: Order Oval Nationals Tickets
Media, to contact any of the principals in this endeavor, please contact Scott Daloisio at sdaloisiosports@aol.com or call 909 226-7768. Please feel free to publish the photo contained in this release.