Godspeed, old friend

[Mike]

It is with a heavy heart I report the passing of William Tyler Jenkins, earlier today.

Bill, you taught me much and I will always be grateful. Go with God.

 

[donsrods]

I heard earlier of Grumpy's passing. So sorry to hear it, he was one of the legends in racing and sure did know his stuff. You who knew him should consider yourselves lucky.

RIP.

Don

 

[fluidfloyd]

Mike,

Sorry to hear this. I know you have lost a true friend and probably a great mentor. My thoughts and prayers go out to his family.
Godspeed Bill.

George

 

[Johnny]

Always liked that man. Have a great trip Grumpy.

 

[tfeverfred]

One of the greats. That guy had me (and a lot of others) wanting to build a V8 Vega. RIP.

 

[donsrods]

The man had a car life most of us only dream about............

Don

 

[Zack]

Grumpy was truly one of the pioneers of Drag Racing in my book. RIP brother.

 

[RPM]

Probably the best drag racer of all time. Maybe not the one that one the most races, but had a great influence on the building of cars. Who else could take a 327 Nova and beat a 426 Hemi Cuda? RIP

 

[Mike]

A death notice that was very much like the man. Short, direct and to the point.

At no time in my life was I ever aware he was a Freemason. He never commented on the ring I wear, so that was just something else he was keeping private.

Larry Lombardo is still actively building race engines. And he was a very good customer, so I got to know him well, over the years. I always used to tease him about finding life "after Jenkins". Larry could tell the stories, that was certain. Apparently there was a drug store located very close to the shop. Larry went in one day to pick something up and the owner of the shop asked if he was one of Bill's employees. Larry admitted he was and the owner went off on him. "Tell your boss to quit coming in here and reading magazines without buying them!"

Larry asked what he was on about and the owner told him the story. Apparently Bill knew when to expect his favorite magazines on the stand, because he would always show up within a couple hours of them being placed on the racks. And Bill would grab them, sit down on the floor, directly in front of the racks, and read them from cover to cover. When he was finished, he would put the magazines back and walk out.

And the subject of the magazines is one people would never suspect. Trains. Bill absolutely loved trains.

Larry said they would get skids of cylinder blocks and cylinder heads delivered from Chevrolet, but one each year, the shipment also contained a new front seat for the truck. They put so many miles on the truck, they would break the seat down within a year's time. It's hard to imagine, but that was back in the days of match racing, so race teams would sometimes slip out of a national event to go run a Saturday night match race. Bill once told me they were making a big deal about how much Kareem Abdul-Jabbar made playing basketball, so he produced records to show he was making even more than that. The initial Pro Stock Camaro earned a conservative $250,000, during its lifetime. By comparison, that is $1.467 million of today's dollars. Pretty amazing numbers.

 

[jmr122848]

pretty amazin guy!