NASCAR legends honor former crew chief 'Suitcase' Jake Elder
NASCAR fans greet former crew chief "Suitcase" Jake Elder at a fundraiser held in his honor. // David Griffin, NASCAR Scene
MOORESVILLE, N.C. – Waddell Wilson says he had never met a man with so much knowledge. J.C. “Jake” Elder may have only had a third-grade education, but he held a master’s degree in how to set up a race car.
Wilson, one of the legendary engine builders in NASCAR, worked closely with Elder when both were employed at Holman-Moody, the powerful Charlotte-based organization that dominated NASCAR’s Cup competition in the mid-to-late 1960s.
“I worked with Jake a long time,” Wilson said. “The man, in his time ... he had the best feel of that race car, how it responded, how to set it up. Bar none.
“He could take his knee and set it on the four corners of the race car, on the bumpers, and feel that car. He could tell if it was the proper spring, the right shock, everything. And he knew when it wasn’t, too.
“He was just unbelievable when it came to setting up a race car. I [gave] him a lot of the credit when we won the championships with David Pearson in 1968 and ’69 and all those races. We had a heck of a team and he was a big, big part of it.”
Saturday’s third annual Legends Helping Legends fundraiser was held in Elder’s honor at Memory Lane Motorsports and Automotive Museum. Now 72, Elder currently resides in an assisted-living home in Statesville. During his heyday, however, he may have worked with more teams in the garage than anyone else in the sport. He was affectionately known as “Suitcase” Jake for his propensity to move from job to job, but it was his uncanny knowledge of how to set a car up that set him apart. And kept owners hot on his trail for
his services.
In addition to his two championships with Pearson at Holman-Moody – years in which Pearson won a combined 27 races – Elder also helped guide an up-and-coming Dale Earnhardt to the Cup title in 1980 with team owner Rod Osterlund. He also worked with Bobby Allison, Mario Andretti and Bobby’s son, Davey Allison. Darrell Waltrip, Terry Labonte and Sterling Marlin also benefited from Elder’s keen sense.
“These guys were sorcerers,” former crew chief Jeff Hammond said. “I grew up in the era when Herb Nab, Dale Inman and Jake Elder were the leading crew chiefs in our sport. They were the seat-of-the-pants type of racers. I’ve seen Jake take springs and push down on them to figure out which was a 300- or 400-pound spring. We didn’t have the kind of technology that we have today. We measured swaybars with wrenches.
“Jake was into precision before we knew what precision was. Think about the people he worked with: Fireball Roberts, Dale Earnhardt, David Pearson. He had a huge influence. A lot of the time, if people needed their car fixed, they called Jake Elder. He wasn’t a people person and he was as rough as a corn cob, but if you got to know him, there wasn’t a better guy to know in that garage area. There is not another Jake Elder. That is one thing we do not have anymore.”
Saturday’s wet weather likely hurt the day’s attendance, but didn’t dull the excitement of the crowd. Well before the scheduled 10 a.m. opening, the line of fans had already begun to snake around three walls inside the building, back through the museum and out into the gift shop.
They had arrived with a little bit of everything – from die-cast cars and trading cards to racing helmets and thick scrapbooks. Some arrived with nothing more than memories of days gone by and races already run.
Each, in his and her own way, wanted to help one of stock-car racing’s legendary figures.
The people they came to see were no less pleased to lend their time to such a worthy cause. And the group ran the gamut, from championship-winning drivers to noted engine builders and crew chiefs. An all-star lineup that included Richard Petty, Bobby and Donnie Allison. Little Bud Moore and Neil “Soapy” Castles. Travis Carter, Ned Jarrett and Jimmy Hensley. Famed engine builders Wilson and Lou LaRosa. Former crew chiefs Dale Inman, Hammond, Tim Brewer and Mike Beam.
A large piece of NASCAR history gathered together under one roof. For one reason. To honor one man.
“There are very few people that can appreciate what that man did for them and [that] he was able to lay the foundation for what we have today,” Hammond said. “I know what he was able to accomplish.
“I was truly blessed to come up and work with him.”
