Watch Jeff Gordon's rookie year in the All Star Circuit of Champions during 'Jeff Gordon 1985 Year in Review' When Jeff Gordon was racing QMA and karts his family would also attend sprint car races as spectators at West Capital Speedway and Vallejo Speedway near his home in Vallejo. Jeff at the age of 13 liked reading Open Wheel magazine and in one of the
issues he saw an article about a 14 year old named Sport Allen who was racing sprint cars in Florida. John Bickford, upon hearing about Allen then contacted Lee Osborne from Jamestown, IN who built sprint cars. Lee, reluctant at first because of Jeff's young age, finally sent John an Osborne chassis to Vallejo where John and Jeff built it from the ground up.
The engine was built by Earl Gaerte of Rochester, IN. John spent $25,000 on the car getting ready for 1985. In February 1985 John took Jeff to Jax Raceways in Jacksonville, FL for the first part of the All Star Circuit of Champions Speedweek. At Jax they learned the ropes from Butch Smith who was a championship sprint car owner. Lee had contacted Butch who
advised him to be on the lookout for John and Jeff and to help them with chassis setups. During John and Jeff's arrival at Speedweek officials did not want Jeff to race because he was 13 years old. John persuaded the officials by creating a waiver saying if anything happened to Jeff on the track it would release them of all legal liability, reminded them that they had
no age limit and that Jeff would start in the back of races no matter where he qualified. Jeff in his first race started at the rear of the field and in the first lap lost control hitting the wall causing minor damage to his sprint car. Right after that it started raining bringing the caution out and the rest of the race was cancelled. Later in the week John and Jeff finished out
Speedweek with the second part of it being the Winternationals at East Bay Speedway in Tampa, FL. Jeff in his second attempt at a sprint car race, qualified on the second row in his first Heat Race. Jeff in the
#16X car made it to the B Main and finished 18th out of 54 for the entire event earning his first ever paycheck which was $300. During the Winternationals
Jeff was also labeled the youngest sprint car driver in the world. Over the next few weeks ESPN ran a short profile about Jeff on TV during their Speedweeks program (
). Over the next month, Jeff tried to compete in other sprint car races back home in California because he was in school all week there, but tracks would not let him saying he had to be either 16
or 18 to race. In March Jeff was allowed only to practice, not race later in the night, at events at Kings Speedway in Hanford, CA. Tracks in California continued to refuse Jeff because of his age which limited his racing for the first part of 1985. At soon as Jeff finished the school year and the summer came, John took Jeff to Ohio where there were the most tracks in
one regional area which had the least age restrictions. Dave Heitmeyer of H&M Motor Sales, a used car dealer in Finlay, OH, had seen Jeff race in Florida. Heitmeyer offered two rooms out of his nearby home for John and Jeff to stay upon them coming to Ohio for the summer. Heitmeyer was also a track announcer at Millstream Motor Speedway in Findlay.
Heitmeyer during the summer often helped John and Jeff at tracks and sometimes even drove their sprint car trailer for them. In turn, Jeff's sprint car sometimes displayed a H&M Motor Sales sponsorship along with MPD Racing, John's racing parts business in Vallejo. Jim Streicher, who owned a print shop in Findlay and had a son named Mike that raced in
USAC (United States Auto Club), provided a building for John and Jeff to store and work on the sprint car. On June 16th Jeff won his first Heat Race at Millstream. During another race he slid off the track into the fans' parking lot. When Millstream discovered Jeff was only 13 years old, they told him he could not return until he was 16. Later in June Jeff won his first B
Main at K-C Raceway in Waverly, OH. In another race at K-C he flipped. During the summer Jeff raced in 22 events at tracks such as Fremont, Springfield, Tri-City and Vermilion County Speedway along with finishing 2nd in an A Main at K-C and Bloomington Speedway. When asked about his life goals, his answer is that he would like to win the Indianapolis
500 (
).
#16X/#16 Team: Owner/Crew Chief John Bickford Part Time Brian Bell Part Time Hauler Driver Dave Heitmeyer 1985 All Star Circuit of Champions: 22 starts Heat Race win B Main win Points: 19th DISCLAIMER Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for 'fair use' for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting,
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