CHRISTIANSBURG — When former NASCAR driver Jabe Thomas’ memorial service concluded Monday at The Harbor of Hope Pentecoastal Holiness Church, more than a few of the attending patrons could be forgiven for checking their pockets .
After all, the man dubbed as the longtime “Clown Prince of Racing” became famous for his favorite prank of slipping chicken bones in the pockets of unsuspecting rivals before races during his driving career on NASCAR’s premier series from 1965-78.
“Jabe could have made a living as a pick-pocket,” veteran driver Buddy Baker said in 2010, when Thomas was among those inducted into the Racing Reunion Memory Hall of Fame in Mooresville, North Carolina.
Thomas, who passed away last Thursday from complications of Parkinson’s disease at 85, would have very much approved of his final showing in front of a church full of local fans, neighbors and those associated with the stock car racing community.
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“You’re talking about a real racer right here,” said Stuart resident Lou LaRosa, the iconic engine-builder who supplied the horsepower in the 1980s for the first three of late superstar Dale Earnhardt’s seven Cup titles.
“You look around at the funeral home and all the people here, all the trophies and how he goes back to the ‘60s. He was a humble man who always had a smile on his face.
“He got me a couple times with the chicken bones. Well, they got him one time, somebody threw a dummy black snake in his car and he went to climb in his car and he come out of there faster than a rabbit!”
Thomas posted three career top-5 finishes in NASCAR’S major league in a car fielded by himself and co-owner Don Robertson of Roanoke’s Star City Body Shop. The under-financed team did the best with what it had, registering 77 top-10s in 322 career Cup starts.
OK, Jabe never won a race. So what? The personable, fun-loving leadfoot, who for years ran a downtown Christiansburg Gulf Station, had the time of his life, said his son, Ronnie.
“My father enjoyed life, he loved people,” said Ronnie, who was named NASCAR’s top rookie driver in 1978.
“My dad honestly never forgot where he came from. A lot of people race because they liked to race, but he liked to race because he could be around people. He was more about the people than he was about winning races.
“And the great thing about it, we were buddies till the day he died. You’re talking about a guy who came from dirt poor and did OK.”
Young Thomas, whose mother, Betty, has Alzheimer’s and wasn’t in attendance, enjoyed reminiscing about the ride for a small-town operation based in Christiansburg.
“People had to look at it from the outside in, but I got to be around Richard Petty, A.J. Foyt, the Wood Brothers, Junior Johnson, all those guys,” he said. “If it hadn’t been for my father, I wouldn’t have met the people I met and got to do what I done.”
Winchester resident Randy Quesenberry, who was one of the many visitors who traveled a long distance to pay his final respects, said he first met Jabe Thomas at the Gulf station.
“It was late at night and Jabe came out and was pumping gas and washing my windshield, and I told him ‘you and I met one time at the racetrack,’ ” a grinning Quesenberry said. “I said, ‘you know, you never have won a whole lot of races’ and I said ‘if you put me in one of those cars that we’ll go to victory lane.’
“And Jabe got to laughing, he said: ‘Boy, you wouldn’t make it off pit road … it would scare you to death!’
“And we talked there to about 2 o’clock in the morning, and he gave me an invitation to Dover to come on up and ‘I’ll get you in the pits.’”
Quesenberry promptly showed up at Dover. When Thomas forgot about his offer, he told his new friend to come to this hotel room.
“Jabe said he needed some help and says, ‘you’ve got pretty big shoulders and I think I’ve got a job for you.’ The next day I was changing tires in the pits and Neil Bonnett was blowing past me about 140 miles per hour on pit road!”
Quesenberry, who spent 12 years with the team, said he used to sleep in the bathrooms at cheap hotels because often times there would be 14 team members to a room.
“I loved it,” Quesenberry said. “I had the time of my life.”
At Friday’s memorial service, Quesenberry repeated the words that Jabe Thomas told him long ago.
“This day has been given to you to use it for good, or you can use it for bad. But whatever you do you can’t exchange a day in your life for it. You can make it for a good cause and make a difference, and I always remembered that.”
As a friend, Jabe Thomas was always a winner — just ask Martinsville Speedway president Clay Campbell, who attended the service.
“I remember when I was going to tracks with Grandaddy [the late H. Clay Earles] as a little kid and there were two drivers who treated me like I was something — Richard Petty and Jabe Thomas. Every time they saw me, Jabe in particular, he treated me like I was his own.”
Talk about one of a kind.
“You got that exactly right!” said Dugspur’s Peanut Turman, a great Modified driver back in the day. “They threw away the mold when they made Jabe.”
