Jacques; Driving it Like He Stole It
(THOMPSON, CT) – Heavy metal. An odd Mother’s Day gift. Stolen cars. What does that have to do with racing a Limited Sportsman at Thompson Speedway? For Phil Jacques, it tells the story of his path to his first career victory.
Jacques grew up in the Webster, MA area going to Seekonk Speedway with his Uncle Fred who served as a crew chief on a Charger Division car every Saturday night. Like many before him, it wasn’t long before he was hooked.
In 1997, he made the visit to Thompson Speedway for the first time on World Series weekend. From the moment he arrived, he knew Thompson was the place he wanted to race. The problem was, his parents didn’t have the money to support his passion for racing. When a job offer came up in Florida he opted to take it and moved to the Sunshine state in 2000.
The only way he could ‘drive’ a racecar was through a video game console. He eventually started running go-karts at Palm Beach International and then began drag racing at Orlando Speed World as well as Bradenton Motorsports Park in Florida.
In 2010, Jacques got the itch to come home. He met Bill McNeil through Facebook and started helping him at the Waterford Speedbowl. Then he joined the production team at SID’s Vault where he met Jesse and Brent Gleason, his now weekly Limited Sportsman competitors.
Jacques described himself as a “NASCAR TV Fan,” during that time and it wasn’t until 2012 that he was able to buy his first racecar.
In the meantime, racing was not his only passion. Before he shifted his full attention to his race team, he played guitar for a national touring heavy metal rock band based in Queens know as Full Blown Chaos. During his time with the group, they played to crowds as large as 5,000.
Music filled a void for a time, as financial hardship kept his car in the garage. Well, sort of.
“I brought the car to what I thought was a reputable race shop to do some chassis and fabrication work,” said Jacques. “I paid them $2,500 and then I couldn’t reach the guy to get my parts back.”
When Jacques went down to the shop to check on the progress of his job, the shop was empty. The place was closed and everything was gone. Stolen. At that point, Jacques knew his dreams of racing were gone.
Jacques had to get behind the wheel and his mother Patty has always been a tremendous supporter throughout his life. She wasn’t a big of motorsports fan or a heavy metal fan, but she wanted to see her son do what he loved to do. So he did what every other rationally thinking person would do for a Mother’s Day gift. He purchased a ride for himself in a rental racecar at Stafford Speedway so his Mom could watch him race. He finished 12th in the race after starting dead last in the feature.
In the meantime he partnered with Randy Tucker to race an Outlaw car at the World Series and was fast right out of the box. So fast in fact, that track officials decided to move him up to a faster division in the Outlaw ranks showing his prowess at the track.
Now back to the stolen car dilemma. A friend alerted him that his car had been located sitting in a snow bank. After digging it out and scrounging around for loose parts, he had recovered his missing ride.
His rookie season was in 2015, but it wasn’t until June 1 this year when he was finally able to realize his dreams and earn his first victory at Thompson Speedway. For Jacques, he hopes it was just the first of many more to come.