Art Jahn Road Racing Championships – Spectrum News 1

PARDEEVILLE, Wis. — Art Jahn’s garage is a place where he builds, restores and prepares road racing cars.

At 76, he works on his own cars and cars of other racers who come to him for his expertise. He knows a thing or two about building race cars.

“I’ve entered about 500 races and I’ve won about half of them,” said Jahn. “Yeah, it’s a pretty good percentage.”

He’s a self-taught mechanic. Jahn was passionate about racing from an early age and bought his first car at 14. From humble beginnings and depression-era parents, he could afford it only because it had a blown engine. At the time, Jahn’s tools were limited to a screwdriver, a crescent wrench, and a hammer.

“This was the hammer that was on my dad’s garage wall when I was 14,” said Jahn. “This hammer and I have been together for 60 years.”

Jahn used a magazine diagram of an engine as his guide.

“Not quite what you would call a smooth-running car, but it ran,” said Jahn.

His first racing car also needed engine work.

Courtesy of Art Jahn

“Not a very fast car. Actually, it was the slowest car on the track,” he said. “But over time we got faster and faster. A couple of years later I won my first championship.”

Along for the ride, his wife Kathleen sensed early on what she was getting into.

“The first date I had with my husband was at the age of 16 and we went to his parents’ house, and we ended up sanding down his Austin-Healy. The second time I met his parents, I was sanding down the Austin-Healy. His mother decided, ‘Uh-oh, I think she’s the one,’” said Kathleen Jahn.

Their son Corky also got into racing. Jahn recalled the early days of racing with a young family. At the start of his career, when money was tight, he needed to drive his race car to the track. If something went wrong with the car during the race, he couldn’t drive it home.

“I was smart enough then to take a chain along, and I would stand at the entrance gate as people were leaving with my thumb and a chain,” Jahn said. “Every time I found somebody to tow me home.”

Jahn improved his skills over the years and racked up season series championships from sanctioning body race clubs. They started calling him the Ironman as he’d race multiple cars in the same day.

About nine years ago, as he was approaching his 50th series championship, Jahn began suffering from an autoimmune disease. It left him unable to walk for two years and he thought he’d never race again.

Courtesy of Art Jahn

Despite those dark days, Jahn worked his way back to what he calls 80%. He got back on the track and started winning championships again.

Last year he took home his 50th championship in 50 years of racing and doesn’t want to stop there.

“I plan on racing for the rest of my life,” said Jahn. “As long as I’m not a hazard on the track. But right now, I’m still pretty quick.”

Jahn’s been such a big part of the racing world that the Midwest Council of Sports Car Clubs recently renamed their “Driver of the Year” award in his honor.

After facing some dark times, Jahn seems to be back on track once again.

Source: https://spectrumnews1.com/wi/milwaukee/news/2022/02/06/art-jahn-racing