Sunday, June 06, 2004
JERRY F. BOONE - The Oregonian
ST. HELENS -- As Mark Jeffries climbed into the black
Mustang, he wondered out loud how long it had been
since he had been in a race car.
Eight years? Maybe 10? All he knew for sure is that
his slow lap Saturday night came much too soon.
Jeffries led a memorial checkered flag lap at River
City Speedway in memory of his son, killed a week earlier
in Afghanistan.
Spc. Joseph Jeffries, 21 of Beaverton died May 29
when a land mine exploded under the vehicle he was
driving while serving with the Army's 320th Psychological
Operations Company. A memorial service will be at 2
p.m. today at Sunset High School. He is to be buried
Monday at Willamette National Cemetery, after a private
funeral.
In addition to his father,
he leaves behind Betsy, his wife, who is expecting
their first child in October; mother, Linda Lock;
sisters, Terri and Heidi Jeffries; and grandparents,
Rick and Betty Smith.
And memories.
Almost everyone at River City Speedway has a Joey
story. He was the kid who showed up early and stayed
late, and in between took pleasure in helping others.
Saturday night they honored him the best way they
knew how. They raced in his memory.
"There's been such a tremendous outpouring of
support," Mark Jeffries said at the track. "I'm
getting calls and e-mails from folks who we've never
met. They race at tracks we've never been to, but they
contact us just because we are racers. . . . It is
a huge family that people outside of it just don't
realize exists.
"I feel better just being here," he said. "This
is like coming home. This is where our family is, where
our best memories are."
It was where he and his son became more than family.
They became best friends.
"They were buddies," said Jody Turner, a
regular at the speedway. "For a lot of us it really
hits home. There are a bunch of us who have family
in the military, and it reminds us that it can happen
to any of us."
Earlier in the week, Jeffries sat on the trunk of
the race car and talked about the first time his son
drove a stock car.
"Joey didn't even have a driver's license," he
said. "He was building a race car before he had
anything to drive on the street.
"The day of his first race, we had to take him
to a big parking lot to teach him how to work a stick
shift," he said.
"So we show up at his first race, and on the
first lap he stuffs the car, nose first, into the wall.
He figures he's done for the day."
"We slapped a chain around a big tree and put
the other end around the front of his car," said
Dan Mc Conville, a family friend, describing a quick
repair to get the car back on the track. "Then
we told Joey to put it in reverse, rev it up and pop
the clutch.
"He finished sixth that night," Jeffries
said.
"He spent every extra dime he had on his cars," he
said. The car Mark Jeffries drove Saturday carried
the number 12 made of yellow duct tape.
"That's the way Joey did it," said Mc Conville. "He
never had much money and couldn't afford to have numbers
painted or made for him. We wanted a car that would
look like it was his."
His friend Will Gillette smiled when he told the story
of the last time Joey raced the first car he built.
"He never did very well in it," Gillette
said. "He never figured it was a very good car.
So the last race of the season he shows up and puts
a 'for sale' sign on it, saying he'll let it go at
the end of the night. He's just tired of trying to
make it go fast.
"First thing that happens is someone comes up
and buys it, and then Joey goes out and gets his first
win with it."
Joey asked his dad to begin working on a car for him
to race when he got back from Afghanistan in September,
but then suggested his father build a second one so
they could race side by side.
"And I'm gonna kick your butt, old man," he
warned his dad. Maybe so, Mark said. But he'd have
to work for it.
They'll never get the chance to compete side by side.
But there is always the thought of what could have
been -- the memories and the possibilities.
"It doesn't bring him back," said his dad. "But
it makes it easier to let him go."
Jerry F. Boone: 503-294-5960; jfboone@aol.com or jerryboone@news.oregonian.com
|
