John was born in 1942 and grew up in Waukegan, Illinois. His father was a motor sport fan and, conveniently, there were several racetracks within striking distance of home. As kids, he took John and his younger brother Lyman to watch the racing. Over the following years, John really fell in love with racing and also the history of the sport. In 1957, he pestered his father to go and watch the 500-mile-long sports car race at Road America, Elkhart Lake. There, he witnessed Phil Hill in his Ferrari take the win with Carroll Shelby’s Maserati in second. He was blown away and that very day 15-year-old John decided that all he ever wanted to do was become a race-car driver. After starting out and doing well in go-karts, John wanted to progress. In 1962, he quit college, pocketed the remainder of his college fund and bought a well-used 1959 Jaguar XK150.
He signed up for a five-day course at Carroll Shelby’s new High Performance Driving School at Riverside Raceway in California and drove his Jag the 2000 miles to get there. It changed his life forever. John, now 81, takes up the story: “I thought I was going to get Carroll Shelby as my instructor, but I got Peter Brock. He also wanted to be a race-car driver, but he was given the race school to run as Shelby was too busy. He
