Former Alabama standout driver dies
Jerry Jackson, a veteran Limited Late Model driver who tallied 37 victories and set four track records during his best season, died Thursday after suffering a heart attack at his Colbert Heights, Ala., home. He was 72.
Jackson's 43-year career included track championships at Tuscumbia's North Alabama Speedway, Garner Town Speedway in Luray, Tenn., Corinth (Miss.) Speedway and Thunderhill Raceway in Summertown, Tenn., according to his son Tony Chaney, who now competes with the No. 99 his father drove. Jackson also won at Columbus (Miss.) Speedway and Moulton (Ala.) Speedway in a career that ended several years ago and was once named Mississippi Driver of the Year.
Records are incomplete, but Tony Chaney remembers his father racing against the region's best drivers including Jeff Purvis, Billy Moyer, Johnny Stokes, Don Hester, Brian Leslie and more. He estimates Jackson won hundreds of racing with his best season coming in the mid-1990s with 37 victories.
"You don't know you're having the best time in your life until it's done," 53-year-old Tony Chaney said. "He was everybody's best friend and everybody wanted to know him, but you also knew you didn't want to ruffle his feathers."
He was retired from Jackson Machine Shop. Besides Tony, survivors include his wife Pat Jackson, sons James Chaney and Larry Chaney and daughter Deanna Jackson along with many grandchildren. Morrison Funeral Home in Tuscumbia, Ala., is handling arrangements.
