John was a very unique guy, he loved drag racing in many ways, way back he and Don Madden made some inovations that are standard today. John was a successful business owner. He had a large precision sheet metal company that made the enclosures for most of the CNC machines that are made in the USA.
He made the original copper head gaskets in the industry, which later was marketed by Milodon.
He made his own clutches , which led the industry, he never sold them to others, he gave a lot of them to struggling teams like the Pedregons, and let the name clutch guys copy his ideas.
He was also the 2nd largest land owner and leaseholder in Montana, the only person with more property is Ted Turner. He will be missed, but almost like a father, his legacy continues with Larry Dixon, all of the Petregons, Ron Capps, David Grubnic and many others.
As seen in one of the photos in this blog, John had no interest in running with the pack. He often overpowered the track, with interesting results. He and Connie Kallita were good friends and tuned the same way. As Kallita John was in the sport for the fun of it. He somewhat lost interest when the cars became cookie cutters. He told me a couple of years ago he recommended to NHRA that the created an unlimited Top Fuel class to run without a purse, just for the fun. You can imagine what thier response was.
John will find a way to get traction on the gold streets of heaven