2004 WEST COAST
STOCK CAR HALL of FAME INDUCTEE
GEORGE JEFFERSON
Jeff's father George Jefferson
started racing in 1966 up in the Pacific Northwest with a 1964
Ford Fairlane. Soon, with his brother Harry doing the driving
and Parky Nall building the engines, they moved up to the NASCAR
Sportsman division, which is now the Busch Grand National Series
and in 1972 they lead the nation winning a record 27 of 35
starts, including 17 in a row.
The list of drivers who have driven for George Jefferson reads
like the who’s who of NASCAR. Tim Richmond, David Pearson, Sonny
Easley, Hershel McGriff, Kyle Petty, Chad Little, Derrike Cope
and his brother Harry are just a few of the drivers that got
behind the wheel of his Winning race cars cars. Richmond ran
fifth at Phoenix, as did McGriff at Riverside. With 25 starts in
the NASCAR Winston Cup. Series his cars never started farther
back that 15th.
Both Derrick Cope and
Chad Little were Rookies of the Year in the Winston West Series,
and Little won the 1987 series championship in George’s cars.
As Parky Nall tells the story, “Jeff” as he was called back
then, always stood next to the track, as if his car was the only
car there, Nall went on, “it became part of my job to grab Jeff
and keep pulling him back out of harm’s way, but on September 2
1973, in Monroe Washington, the 17th short track race of the
year, tragedy struck again, as Jefferson stood next to the front
straight away a car blew an engine and the car following hit the
oil and headed straight for Jeff, I grabbed him by the arm and
we both started running, I looked around just as the out of
control car struck him, he flew up in the air and landed hard
suffering two broken legs, facial lacerations, a broken jaw and
internal injuries. As the Ambulance started pulling away, with
Jeff inside, the back doors flew open and the gurney he was on
started to fly out, Nall says he fell completely out the back
but George says it only came half-way out.
(This accident also took the life of Samuel "Pat" Pattison a
NASCAR Official who ran to help Jefferson as he laid injured.
Pattison was struck by one of the out of control cars and was
thrown approximately 60 feet. He was pronounced dead on arrival
at the local hospital.)
George Jefferson has spent most of his life in the lumber
business in central Washington, and he is still racing with his
two sons Jason and Jeff .
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In 1980
Derrike Cope was Late Model Sportsman Driver of the Year that
season at Yakima and won his first race at Portland. That's when he
met George Jefferson, who asked Cope if he wanted to drive his Grand
National Ford Thunderbird. Cope leaped at the chance.