#43 - Owner Keith Barker - Nashville, TN
1/2 mile high bank pavement l968
Jay came in second to Tom York, after leading the entire race until the last lap, with brake trouble.  (had two wheel brakes)
l969 - 2nd in IMCA points
Won first feature run at I-70 for sprint car

#99 - Owner - Besecker - Winchester, In
USAC event - l968 

Jay in the Ted Hall Chevy, 1966 Knoxville winning car. Pic was taken at Tampa in 1967.

Finally in 1960 some things started to break for Jay. He had a ride lined up for a race at Sedalia, Missouri but the engine blew and again he was looking for a car to drive. The race track was very rough and Bill Nelson, who was pretty small in stature, was driving for Pete Forshee (Red’s brother) and was having trouble hanging onto the car. Bill talked Pete into letting Jay drive the car. With some respectable racing this led to Jay getting rides with Art Peacock and Merle Heath in 1961. Splitting time in these cars and running mainly with the IMCA Group, Jay earned the title of IMCA Sprint Car ‘Rookie of the Year’. He got his first Sprint Car Feature win at Algona, Iowa while driving for Merle. He also won his first Midget Feature this year driving the Bill Hoback Offy at the Oklahoma State Fairgrounds in Oklahoma City. A story Jay tells about 1961 was going to Terre Haute, Indiana for the Hut Hundred USAC Midget show. Due to so much rain in the morning it was decided there would be no preliminary races run in order to save the track for the 100 lapper. In qualifying, Jay missed the show by one car, but due to one car scratching from the event he was getting ready to go out for the race. A USAC Official came and told Jay that he would not get to start the race because he was racing on a temporary permit and the spot in the field would be given to the next qualifier behind him. That driver happened to be A. J. Foyt who of course had won the Indy 500 earlier in the year. In finishing the story, Jay says A. J. started last and won the race as darkness was setting in.

Entering 1962 things were looking bright for Jay’s career. But as often happened in early day racing, Jay was involved in a horrendous crash during the Jayhawk Nationals in Topeka, Kansas. While racing for second spot on the last lap, he got together with another car, flipped violently and made contact with numerous cars. This put him in the hospital with life threatening injuries and many broken bones. These injuries kept him in the hospital for a full year so he didn’t return to full time racing until July 1963. The leg and hip injuries he sustained still bother him today. If there was a bright spot to this crash, it had to be that it happened while he was in the U.S. Army. He was court-martialed, but since he had disclosed that he was a professional race driver when going into the service, he was given a medical discharge.

During the years from 1963 through 1972, Jay raced IMCA Sprints full time and also ran weekly as well as some special Super Modified events throughout the country. Some of his career highlights from this period were a 2^nd place finish in the Jayhawk Nationals in 1965. He won the Big Car Racing Association (BCRA) Championship, the Missouri State Championship and the Knoxville Midseason Championship Race in 1967 while driving for Ted Hall.  He won the first ever Sprint Car race held at I-70 Speedway, a high-banked paved track in Odessa, Missouri in 1969 and finished 2^nd in the IMCA Points for this year, driving the Keith Barker Chevy powered Sprinter. In 1970 he finished 3^rd in the IMCA Points while racing for Hank Smith. In 1972 he drove for Gary Moulins and they won the Missouri State Championship Race at the Missouri State Fair in Sedalia. They also won the Topeka State Fairgrounds Season Championship and finished 4^th in the Knoxville Nationals.

Going back to 1966, Jay recorded the biggest win of his career. Driving the Ted Hall Chevy powered Sprinter, he set a new world record (21.64) for the ½ mile, semi-banked dirt track in qualifying for the Knoxville Nationals. In doing so, they blew the engine but luckily the scheduled Saturday night race was rained out and not run till Sunday afternoon. This gave them enough time to get another motor from their Kansas City race shop. Jay tells that “if the race were run on Saturday night, we never would have had time to get this done.” Jay was a well respected dry slick driver and this played into his hands with the race being run on a Sunday afternoon as well. Jay relates that at the beginning of the race he fell back to about the eighth place after starting on the pole but due to a couple of red flags he was able to maintain contact with the lead cars. Since the teams were allowed to work on their cars during the red flag periods, Ted kept adjusting the chassis and the car kept getting better for Jay to drive. With just a few laps remaining in the race, he was able to pass Lloyd  Beckman on the outside and went on to win the best known Sprint Car race in the country. He tells that passing Lloyd “was probably his biggest thrill in racing” and Lloyd always reminded me “that I took his Nationals win away from him.”

In 1974 he recorded his last Sprint Car Feature win at Beatrice, Nebraska. Two years later while driving for Warren ‘Jelly’ Wilhelm in the NCRA Super Modified Series, Jay was diagnosed with the disease Multiple Sclerosis. At the time he was running second in points but this served a great blow to Jay’s racing career. He dropped out of racing entirely because of some double vision problems this disease caused. When his sight problem was corrected the next year he started driving for Jerry Wilson. Jerry is Chet’s Son, so when they won the first Chet Wilson Memorial Race at 81 Speedway in Wichita this was a very memorable moment. Jay ended his career there with a 2^nd  place finish in the season points battle. He also raced his last 100 Inch Dirt Champ Race at the Race of Champions in Oklahoma City, driving for his school years buddy, Doran Raines. Jay and his Son Randy entered a Stock Car in what would be Jay’s final race, the Winter Nationals in Enid, Oklahoma. He retired from racing in 1984 after racing in 26 states and Canada. An interesting side note about Randy Woodside is the fact that he won the IMCA Sprint Car ‘Rookie of the Year’ in 1989 and finished 2^nd in points, just like Jay did during his racing days. To the best of our knowledge, this would make them the only Father and Son combination to record this accomplishment.

During Jay’s career he raced dirt and pavement, including the infamous banks of Salem and Winchester. He had the desire to make it to Indy but fate kept him from this dream. He drove for many car owners and had many great mechanics that worked on his racecars and built his engines. Aside from the ones already mentioned in this story, we should add that he was the first driver of Al Hamilton’s famed #77 at Williams Grove. Other owners were ‘Speedy’ Bill Smith, Hank Smith, Gene Besecker, John Leverenz, Jim McMillian, Taylor ‘Pappy’ Weld as well as his son Greg Weld. He held his own while competing against the best of the drivers from this non-winged era including Jan Opperman, Harold Leep, Pete Folse and Johnny Rutherford as well as many of the top 100 drivers listed in the Sprint Car Hall of Fame all time poll. During his career he had many top five finishes and track records throughout the United States. He was one of the most respected professionals in racing and he’s given credit for helping many new drivers get started in the business.

When Jay talks about his racing career, he tells that he had many ups and downs but he wouldn’t trade it for anything. “We were all competitors and we’d stand our ground with one another” he relates, “oh we may knock each other on their butt after a race, but then we’d have a beer, get into our truck and ride home together.” One such incident  that brings a hearty laugh from Jay involved a ‘squaring off’ between himself and Dick Sutcliffe. “I was about 6’3” and Dick about 6’6” and we were both burly guys. We got into it a little and here comes Joe Saldana, all 5’5” of him, getting between us, trying to play peacemaker! The sight of that cracked all of us up!!” He adds, “I raced all over the country, against the best drivers of the time, sometimes beating them. I think I would have had a good shot at Indy, which was my dream before I got hurt. Those Roadsters were beautiful cars, but by the time I could get there, it was time for the ‘funny’ cars to take over. Maybe, I should have spent more time racing for championships instead of racing from place to place, but I had so many great experiences wherever I went, and I think traveling made me a better driver, although I didn’t have the championships to back it up. I was fortunate to race with three generations of drivers….Foyt, what a competitor!, and that group. Then, the late 60’s and into the 70’s, so many great drivers, Opperman was the best I ever raced with in Sprints, and what a guy! And I raced against Steve Kinser when he started, so I’ve had a full, happy career. I’ve made so many friends, and had so many great relationships with folks I’ve known through racing.”

Today, Jay and Pat stay close to the racing by working with the souvenir trailer at 81 Speedway. They make some trips with this when 81 promotes races away from the home track also. Jay’s Son Randy races a Modified at 81 so he enjoys watching his racing endeavors. Jay is still an overall race fan. He loves all open wheel racing and says he prefers non-winged events but they still go and watch the winged cars too. He enjoys watching NASCAR every week and likes the Truck Series a lot. When it comes to favorite drivers, Jay says he likes all of them but names Jeff Gordon, Tony Stewart and Cory Kruseman as being on top of his list. He respects all the drivers for their driving abilities. He also watches pro football as much as he can and Pat adds that she gets him out to craft shows and estate sales on occasion.

During Jay’s career, every division he raced in, he had victories (Jalopies, Super Modifieds, 100 Inchers, Sprints, Midgets and Stock Cars). Although he didn’t accomplish everything that he wanted to, due to the injuries sustained in the 1962 severe crash that left him with a bad leg and hip and the MS disease in 1976 that shortened his career, he feels that he’s had a wonderful career and life. Jay has been inducted into many Halls of Fame, in recognition of his racing accomplishments. Among them are the Knoxville Raceway, Belleville Highbanks and 81 Speedway in Wichita. On May 31, 2003, Jay will receive the ultimate recognition for a Sprint Car driver when he will be inducted into the National Sprint Car Hall of Fame in Knoxville, Iowa. For this induction Jay has stated:

“The honor of going into the National Sprint Car Hall of Fame is the career going full circle. As a young boy, I would lie in bed and read ‘speed-age magazine’. I would read about Tommy Hinnershitz, Johnny Thomson, Eddie Sachs, Bob Sweikert and other great drivers and all the great mechanics. I would dream about meeting and racing with the likes of these men. I did have the honor of meeting most of these men and during my career, I raced with some of the best drivers in the country. And now I am going to have my name up with theirs. I am thrilled to be joining the greatest drivers in the history of sprint car racing that have preceded me into the hall of fame. Thank you to everyone that has made this possible!!”