A sad day indeed for the drag racing community in the northwest . A very profound and sudden loss .
Jim was pitched a curveball a few years ago with a heart bypass operation and knocked it right out of the park , coming back as strong as ever in record time. But that was just Jim displaying his intense determination to win. I thought that nothing was going to stop him after that. I'm still in shock over his passing.
I got to know Jim after he recruited me to work for him. He had a managing style of his own and I could see that he was a very dedicated, hard working, and smart individual.
He put 110% into what ever he was doing, particularly when it came to making his car faster. He was always thinking about and analyzing it's performance looking for that hundredth because he cherished the next opertunity for a heads up race against Jackie Alley.
I learned a lot from him both on the job and about Super Stock racing, and grew to have a great deal of respect for him and his ingenuity and determination.
After he abruptly left his Forman position for better opertunities we continued to talk countless times about racing, Super Stock strategy, and the NHRA. Sometimes even bantering back and forth in jest about which was better, Chrysler or Chevrolet.
I looked forward to racing Super Stock with him and tapping into his years of class racing experiance . His knowledge and wisdom about racing, and life in general, was remarkable and his advice was always spot on.
Jim and his " crew " always welcomed me when I visited the
" team Isherwood " pit at the track and I even had the pleasure of helping to re and re the transmission a couple of times on his wheelstanding Plymouth. I will always enjoy the memory of that thrash.
He was an all around upstanding individual that strived for the best and I"m proud to say he was my friend. He will be greatly missed. Godspeed Jim.
My sincerest condolences to Marilyn , Robert , Veronica and the entire Isherwood family.