Last Friday, Jackson Weber scored his first sprint car win at Rapid Speedway. If you saw him in his first race in 2020 at the same track, you might not have thought he’d be victory lane material.
“I crashed the first night out,” Weber, of Dell Rapids, South Dakota, said. “It was my first time getting upside down. Grandpa said to me, ‘Don’t worry about it — it’s just racing. You have to get used to it if you want to keep racing.’ He enabled me to get over that first crash.”
His grandfather, Jim Lindberg, knows a thing or two about racing. He’s an inductee into the hall of fame at Huset’s Speedway. Lindberg also has perspective. In 2020, he had completed chemotherapy and had a new lease on life. Lindberg bought his grandson a RaceSaver sprint car operation. Two years, later, though, he passed away on February 6, 2022.
“After chemo, they said he was all clear,” said Weber. “He became really sick, and even though he was really sick, the car got him out of the house. It got our family back together again. He was pumped to go racing again. Grandpa got me my first everything. He was only 68 when he passed.”
Last Friday, May 9, marked the first time Weber returned to Rapid Speedway since his grandfather died. Memories of his times with his grandfather flooded his mind that day.
“It was tough to be without him,” Weber said. “I went out and bought a new Maxim chassis because the car we raced together had so much sentimental value. I did not want to tear it up. Everyone called it ‘Jim’s last car.’ It sits at my grandma’s house now as a memory of my grandpa’s career.”
After Lindberg passed, his sponsors continued supporting Jackson Weber. Weber travels to the races with his younger sister, Kyra; father, Bob; and mother Nichole. Together, they continue the tradition that Jim Lindberg started.
“His ties with his sponsors were so strong, they continued to sponsor me,” said Weber. “Grandpa surrounded himself with great people. He built a racing family that we are proud to be a part of.”
Mike Adaskaveg has written hundreds of stories since the website’s inception. This year marks his 54th year of covering auto racing. Adaskaveg got his start working for track photographer Lloyd Burnham at Connecticut’s Stafford Motor Speedway in 1970. Since then, he’s been a columnist, writer, and photographer, in racing and in mainstream media, for several outlets, including the Journal Inquirer, Boston Herald, Stock Car Racing, and Speedway Illustrated. Among Adaskaveg’s many awards are the 1992 Eastern Motorsport Press Association (EMPA) Ace Lane Photographer of the Year and the 2019 National Motorsports Press Association (NMPA) George Cunningham Writer of the Year.
