I have few heros in the world, besides Superman. John McCain has been one for many years, and anyone who's read this blog before already knows that. I also consider Steve a hero of mine, not only because he can fly but because of the type of person he is.
Jim Russell is another one. People call him JVR (his initials) but I'm terrible at remembering that.
I began working for Jim in 1994, as a shop flunkie in his business called Desert Steel. I was the shipping and receiving person, in the portion of the business that handled the production and sales of aftermarket truck and jeep suspension parts. Lift kits, lowering kits, traction bars, shock brackets, and A-arms were just a few of the things in our catalog. I filled orders for Skyjacker, J.C. Whitney, 4 Wheel Parts Wholesalers and many other big-time off road suppliers who typically ordered constantly while the demand was high. I worked that position for several years, while attending college classes at night. Jim, meanwhile, also provided radios for race vehicles around the world. The United Arab Emirates were customers of his, getting custom intercom systems for their toys and race cars. He had revolutionized the communications industry by developing these intercoms that could be wired into race driver's helmets. He also developed radio systems for the off road trucks that enabled them to radio back to their pit areas, even across hundreds of miles of desert. That's veritably a BRIEF and simplified discription of his resume because he did so much more, like his own Nissan factory sponsored race team.
He was a busy guy.
He branched into something new when he decided to launch his own car show. He called it the Havasu Happening, and the popularity was tremendous because it wasn't just cars: it was trucks, boats, lowriders, semi trucks, helicopters, golf carts, quads, and motorcycles. He said it was "The Best of Everything." He was right.
After a few years of just one Happening show, he expanded to other towns in our area and at one point had so many shows on the schedule it became an intensely demanding portion of my year. After eleven years of producing one of the most popular events in our area, Jim began cutting back because sponsors were dropping off. But for a while there he was probably the most successful events promoter in our area, and earned a lot of respect in an industry that's full of back-stabbing, fraud, and corruption. Promoters are usually the ones who get prosecuted for their shady deals. Jim was always honest and realistic, and I was honored to learn the business from him.
Working for him over the years I noticed he has always kept his cool. He has been in some very demanding industries and he's always been the guy who thought his way thru everything and made sure it was done right.
He began offering his services as the Timing and Scoring entity for SCORE off road back in the early 90's, and has done so ever since. It is of course a very part time position because there's only four SCORE races each year right now, but Jim has earned the reputation of being very precise in his work with the scoring and that's difficult in itself. Other race organizers have struggled to get up on the level that Jim Russell has attained with the scoring, because it's a hugely important aspect of the racing. How would you like to race your ass off, only to find out that someone didn't score you correctly? It's more than a little disappointing.
Jim dated a friend of mine after a very nasty divorce several years ago. I called her a friend back then, but lately she's been labeled a frenemy because of her awful behavior--both toward me and others in her life. She and Jim split up, thankfully, once he realized she was just a leach and a psycho. After that Jim met Sunny, who turned out to be perfect for him. I just love Sunny, and we were lucky to get to know one another very well at this last Baja race we worked at.
On the way home from Mexico on Sunday, Jim was driving the motorhome while Sunny and I relaxed. As we approached the American border, we all observed a man in his mid-thirties walking among the cars as if in a daze. He had this very awful look on his face and it creeped us out. He had an injury to the side of his face, like a road rash or something. Dressed kind of like a yuppy, we didn't know what to think. He stopped at Jim's window and told him his name, where he was from in California, and told a story that he and his brother had been visiting Mexico and had gotten into a car crash. They were hospitalized and then jailed. Of course he had to give all his money to the authorities in Mexico in order to get out. He had no money and no way to get home, and was raising money to buy a bus ticket. I've heard similar stories from people at the border, never quite sure if it was something true but I always give them a few dollars just in case.
But there was something about this guy that Jim took seriously. You could see the fear on his face and you could hear it in his voice. He needed twelve dollars to get a bus ticket home, and Jim handed him a twenty. The guy was so shocked, his voice wavered a little as he said, "Thank you, thank you so much!" And then he walked straight over to the bus terminal and went to the ticket window.
Sunny and I looked at each other and we couldn't help but get teary-eyed at the thought of a fellow human who was in so much trouble, how it could've been one of our own loved ones wandering between cars at the border asking for help. Jim helped that guy tremendously, and it made him a hero in my eyes.
