RECOGNIZING GARY JACOB
December 20, 2003
Speech Given During The Red Bluff Indoor Kart Racing Series
Honoring Gary's Contributions To The Sport
(Speech written by Mike Larson)

We are here tonight to recognize an individual who has probably done as much for our favorite sport of racing as anyone connected to it.  That person is the racing writer Gary Jacob. 

Gary writes all of the outlaw kart articles that you read in racing papers and on various websites.  Many tracks, like Red Bluff, have established sections on their own websites with his stories. 

For those of you not aware of Gary Jacob this is a man who, in almost any year, according to National Speed Sport News, attends more races than anyone in America. 

Gary began his writing career in 1966 while still in high school.  The reporter at Stockton 99 Speedway quit and Gary realized that was something he could do.  Now, 37 years later, he covers nearly 60 tracks each year and writes over 1,000 stories annually.  Every year since 1972 he has attended at least 120 races.  His biggest year was in 1994 when he attended 162 races at 66 different tracks.  Each year he drives about – get this – 60,000 miles to attend races. 

Gary used to have a 600-mile rule – that he wouldn’t travel farther than 600 miles to attend a race.  But a few years ago he broke that when he started going to winter races in Arizona and New Mexico.  His longest trip was 19 hours 1 way to Rocky Mountain National Raceway in Denver for a 2-day show.   He drove straight back from Denver and got home to Turlock at 8:00 p.m. Sunday night. 

As an example of Gary’s typical race weekend a group of outlaw karters had raced in Medford, Oregon on a Friday night last summer.  While going to breakfast in Yreka the next morning Gary appeared and related that he had attended a sprint car race in Orland on Friday night and would be going to a big stock car race that night in Yreka.  He was hoping that the Yreka race would get over early enough so that he could make a quick run to Medford and catch the main events at the quarter mile track there.  But this is the amazing thing about this trip – to top his weekend off he would drive though the night to attend a Sunday afternoon race in Winnemucca, Nevada and then turn around and drive home so that he, again, could be at work on Monday. 

Over the years Gary has become the most prolific writer in motorsports as he writes articles for every race that he attends and also writes many more for tracks that send him results of their events.  People are always amazed at the incredible detail Gary can include in a story about a race he wasn’t even at.  Probably the most amazing aspect of Gary’s writing is that most of it is done between the hours of 2 – 5 in the morning. 

One thing us outlaw karters can be proud of is the fact that Gary says he gets more feedback on his writing efforts from the kart group than he does from all the other divisions combined that he covers. 

His main objective in his writing is to get the accomplishments of as many drivers as possible out in the public view and maximize the number of names in each article.  Gary always tries to insert interesting tidbits about the drivers and also treats the bottom classes to as much space in his articles as he does the upper classes. 

So tonight, through the efforts of Clarence Reddick and Janet Larson, and unbeknownst to Gary, we are here to honor him for his incredible dedication to our sport. 

This would have been impossible to complete without the involvement of:

 Ernie & Martha Mincy from Central Arizona Raceway in Casa Grande, Arizona

Jack Nelson from Aztec Speedway in Aztec, New Mexico

 Chuck Jackson from Duke City Raceway in Albuquerque, New Mexico

 John Skinner from Southern Oregon Speedway in Medford Oregon

 Blair Aikens from Ukiah Speedway and the Lakeport Kart Racing in California

 Todd Turner from National Dirt Digest, Published out of North Carolina

 George Steitz from Race Day Productions from Los Banos, California

 And the Carrel Family, Bob, Pat, Teresa, Robert & Lori, from our very own Red Bluff Winter Indoor Series

Mike, Janet, Andrea & #1K Kyle Larson
Clarence, Geri, Haley & #11 Tyler Reddick

 They all have contributed money toward some gifts for Gary that will hopefully make his race chasing and writing a more pleasurable experience.

Dell Computer Pentium 4 Processor, Printer and Accessories

Sony  Digital Camera with extra memory card & battery

 Radio Scanner & Head Phones

 $300.00 Pre Paid Gas Cards at Union 76

 A $100 check for his enjoyment at the Colusa Casino donated by Bobby Bill of Colusa Casino

 Additional Cash

 Also from Duke City Raceway, A Picture of Buddy Taylor - a Sprint Car Racing Legend

 Thank you Gary and don’t ever stop doing what you are doing. We all appreciate your dedication to our sport and could not do without you.

*****

Gary emailed me the next day and said he was very thankful that we took the time to acknowledge him and his family was also thrilled and excited.  He also said, all the years he had been writing, no one had every done anything like this before and couldn't thank us enough.   

 As someone wrote,  "Hope heaven has a lot of racing fuel and dirt.  Gary loved the smell of both.  Godspeed."

***
Rest in Peace Gary