Firefighter Jim Paxon is Always in the Seat

By Richard Gray, ProAutoSports Staff Reporter

Jim Paxon likes it in the hot seat.

In his long career, Jim has paid more than his dues fighting countless western wildfires from Washington to New Mexico and all the while keeping up with inspired college kids running up and down mountains digging fire lines.

Then, under intense heat from the national and international media during the giant Rodeo-Chediski fire that ripped through the White Mountains in the summer of 2002, his performance on and off camera was red hot, earning him a starring role as a media idol.

He impressed the press corps, an entire nation and even expanses of Europe as the cool, candid fire managing spokesman with a quotable homespun flair and knack for making the complex science of wildfires easily understood. He is a hero to the people in Show Low, Pinetop, Lakeside and the other communities in the White Mountains as they all give him credit for saving most of their homes.

And now, his newest hot seat is strapped into a sizzling fuel injected 350 horsepower Cobra that he built with a searing paint job depicting the American flag bearing a New Mexico vanity plate deciphered as “1American.” The New Mexico connection is his home at Truth or Consequences where he and his wife Debbie reside. They are presently living in their new home in Show Low, Arizona. Debbie accompanied Jim to the ProAutoSports event and meant a lot of the members as well.

Given all of this, it’s fitting that Jim returns to the recovering White Mountains this Labor Day as the Grand Marshal of the ProAutoSports’ 2005 St. Johns Grand Prix, the club’s premier road racing event. I am sure that Debbie will be with him.

On one condition – unless there’s a wildfire somewhere.

“I’ll sure be there, unless we have a fire. It’s an honor,” said Jim, now a forest fire specialist for NBC Channel 12 and a consultant working with communities on forest fire prevention and readiness.

“Inviting Jim as our grand marshal is our way of saluting all the firefighters who worked so hard  courageously battling these terrible fires,” said Larry Pond, ProAutoSports founder and director. “It’s great to have him.” “The community leaders at St. Johns are all excited about his participation this year.” Jim and Debbie will be leading the race car parade through the City of St. Johns Saturday morning and they will be driving in the event all weekend.

At St. Johns Jim may even drive the Cobra he built over 11 months, though he hasn’t decided that yet. But he did blister the Firebird East Track in February during his first event with ProAutoSports. He earned a performance driving program license and a medallion for improved driving and courtesy. Former Cobra driver, long time member and Nutrioso resident Nelson Garrison was Jim’s instructor and was very impressed with the quickness and ease that Jim picked up track driving. Nelson says “Jim is an excellent driver even though he is new to the sport. I am very impressed with the way he handles the Cobra on the track.”

A friend of Jim’s introduced him to ProAutoSports. “He said you ought to try this. It’s fun.”

He quickly noticed the key traits of ProAutoSports. “I love the family aspect and the clean sport aspect of it. It appeals to me a bunch.”

Long before trying ProAutoSports, Jim had gone through a three-day school at the Bondurant School of High Performance Driving. “That was my first experience on a track,” he said. Jim proved to be a good student and discovered he really enjoyed the experience of performance driving.

His continuing education at ProAutoSports surprised him a bit. He found there was a lot more to learn.

“I thought the school here was excellent,” Jim said. “Bondurant gave me a foundation but I learned a lot of stuff here. The instructors made a huge difference in the way I can get around the course. Larry gave me a bunch of pointers.”

In building his home-built Factory 5 Cobra, Jim opted for the upper-end kit with a beefier suspension. “I had a lot of help with it,” he said. “I’m not a mechanic.” After 11 months of work, including rebuilding the T5 transmission with an instruction sheet and a video, Jim and his helpers fired it up.

Driving it on a real race track made all that hard work more than worth it, and Jim, caught up in the burning desire we all feel when we push that peddle down, put four off. “I don’t want to do that again.”

You all will be pleased to know that Jim is a major advocate of ministering to our forests to reduce the forest fire hazards. He provides the message of forest care on a continuing basis. Jim is an important role model to us, as his knowledge and understanding of forests and fires is helping move forward programs that will save us from destruction in the future.

This is the 6^th year for the Grand Prix races at St Johns. This event celebrates the history of St. Johns as the first place to have auto races in the state. Local residents, the Whiting Brothers were able to gain national attention to St Johns in the 1908-1923 period as drivers from all over the country came to St Johns to compete for the $2000 prize. Local drivers often won the race even though Barney Oldfield, the Chevrolet brothers and other national drivers claimed the prize many times. One of the most prominent of the local drivers to win was Joy Patterson, the local Chevrolet dealer who won the race in 1922. Bill Park, another local driver won it in 1921.

The Whiting Brothers opened the first auto dealership in St Johns in 1908, selling Ford Model T’s. They later went into the gas station business throughout the state. Their beautiful white home still stands in the middle of St Johns and the Whiting family still lives in it.

The 6^th annual St. Johns Grand Prix runs Saturday September 3rd through the Labor Day holiday Monday September 5^th. Saturday is the race car parade lap through downtown St. Johns at 9am to start the event. Saturday is a practice day, Sunday is qualifying races and Monday are the feature races with Indy Cars, Sports Cars and Stock Cars on the 2 mile Airpark course. Tickets are $5 a day for adults with Children 18 and under free. They are available at the gate or at the Chamber of Commerce in St. Johns.