One of the most popular and talented race-car drivers of the 1950s and early 1960s,Jackie McLaughlin (October 11, 1933 – August 23, 1964) had a spectacular career that was cut short by a tragic racing accident that is recalled as one of the saddest days in dirt-track Modified stock-car racing. But while his life and racing accomplishments came to an end at the age of 30, McLaughlin – who won nine races in the two weeks prior to his death – is still acknowledged to be one of the sport’s great traffic drivers and an outstanding competitor.
The Thorofare, New Jersey welding contractor started his racing career in 1950 at age 17 on the dirt at South Jersey’s old Atco Speedway and old Alcyon Speedway in Pitman. And although best remembered for his exploits in a dirt-track Modified, he was the United Racing Club’s 1954 “Rookie of the Year” and won three 1955 URC Sprint Car races.
But in 1955 McLaughlin’s brother-in-law and fellow EMPA Hall of Famer Budd Olsen got him into the Modifieds and he immediately won at the old half-mile Nazareth (Pa.)Raceway. He then got three more victories there that season and eventually won 24 races at Nazareth.
McLaughlin raced a Dodge-powered Sprint Car in seven United States Auto Club (Eastern) races in 1956 with his best finish ninth at the old Reading(Pa.)Fairgrounds. However, that year he also won the first of three Modified championships (1956, 1957 & 1962) at the old Flemington (N.J.) Speedway and his 1962 title was the only time from 1958 through 1966 when fellow EMPAHall of Fame driver Al Tasnady was not the track champion at “The Square.”
In six short years, McLaughlin had 41 wins at Flemington. He won 12 out of 20 races in 1962 – including seven in a row – and his .600 winning percentage is the track’s best ever.
McLaughlin drove several of theera’s top Modifieds, such as Lucky Jordan’s famed Riverton, New Jersey-based white No. 2 Chevrolet coupe that he used to win the 1955 Alcyon Modified title. He also raced the Chevy-powered“ Deuce” on the old half-mile asphalt Vineland (N.J.) Speedway and won three races with it during Reading’s first full-Modified year in 1963. And he drove the Jordan entry to victory in its early 1960s “rear-winged format.”
McLaughlin also had great success in the Neal Williams-built gold No.111 1937 Ford two-door flat-back sedan owned by the Maul Brothers of Millville, New Jersey. And during his first weekend in the “Maul Missile” in 1960 he won at Alcyon, Flemington and Nazareth.
The charismatic McLaughlin – who used assumed names when he was a NASCAR driver so he could race in “outlaw” events – also drove the sometimes-white-and-red and sometimes-blue No. 026 1937Ford coupes and sedans powered by fuel-injected overhead-valve Ford V-8s that were owned by Pete Ambrosia of Blackwood, New Jersey. And on occasion he would even race Ambrosia’s No. 1 Sportsman in the night’s Modified main event if the duo felt that this car had a better chance of winning – and sometimes it did just that!
McLaughlin also got the most out of the 292-cubic-inch Ford V-8-powered Case No. 300 flat-back 1937 Ford two-door sedan while winning Flemington’s 1956 track championship. And he competed in 1959 and 1960 in the big NASCAR Modified-Sportsman race at Daytona International Speedway in the No. 261937 Ford sedan.
In 1964, McLaughlin began driving the No. 83 1936 Chevrolet coupe built and owned by his brother-in-law Olsen and from early May through mid-August he won six races at Reading in the Chevy-powered car. However, he sustained major head injuries in that ride during a violent racing accident at Nazareth on a late August Sunday night and died the next day.
Jackie McLaughlin’s untimely passing greatly touched everyone in racing and he is still remembered as a truly remarkable racer. |
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