NEMA Veteran Horn Remains a Contender
Brockton, MA – Jeff Horn, 64, will be on hand when the Northeastern Midget Association continues its ’09 season Friday night, Sept. 18 at Lee USA Speedway. Son Mike will be driving as well.
“What’s wrong with that,” Horn snaps at the mention of his age. “Actually, I feel I’m just three-quarters through my racing career.” He comes to Lee off a strong fifth at the Marilyn’s Passion Race at Monadnock, pointing out “I was as competitive as anybody.”
While he may fondly recall the days when “skill, finesse and knowledge were enough to produce victory,” he still relishes being both 64 and “relevant.” He refuses, however, to “throw money around.”
Horn, a Vietnam veteran, will be looking for NEMA career win No. 20 in his Drinan/Esslinger #A1. “I wouldn’t be out there if I didn’t believe that can happen,” he continues. He won at Lee back in 1994 driving for Joan and Bay Hayes.
A Vermont native (he began racing at Catamount Stadium in 1965), Horn, who calls Ashland, MA home, left the stock cars for open cockpit racecars (Midgets, Supermodifeds) in the early 1970s. His first Midget test was actually a ride in Ray Kelly’s #33 at Star in 1969. “It was without a roll cage,” says Horn who counts a picture from that day among his prized racing memoirs.
The first NEMA win came May 30, 1987 at Star. The last at Stafford in 2005. It is, however, the first of 52 podium finishes that Horn loves talking about. He was second in Dave Humphrey’s last NEMA win Oct. 12, 1986 at Seekonk. It was, in fact, Dave Humphrey Day.
“I led nine/tenths of the race,” Horn recalls. “On the last lap, turn four, I come on a lapped car. I went to the outside and Humphrey, driving the Kibbe car, snuck under me. It was so close, neither of us knew who won. It remains one of the greatest moments of my career.” Ironically, Humphrey was 64 years old.
Although the Hayes/Horn team ran a complete season (1993)) only once (Horn was also driving Supers), it was a contender for a decade. “We developed a great rivalry with the Drew Fornoro/Angelillo team,” says Horn. “We were like oil and water. We went at it pretty hard.”
The association with Hayes (“We never had an angry word”) ended when Bay and Joan moved to Arizona. Horn won twice for Babe Shaw in early in 2000-01 before a strong run at Stafford in 2005.
Horn’s first ride was a flathead Ford 1932 five-window coupe. He ran it against the “overheads” when his father-in-law, Vermont dirt-track legend Clarence Rock, didn’t show up. He soon bought the car, starting a run that continues today.
He has “shaken down” cars for Tim Bertrand that were later driven by Ryan Newman and Cole Carter, actually coming from last to fifth at Stafford. “I have such respect for the Bertrand family,” he says. “It does so much for the club.”
Sources: Pete Zanardi/NEMA PR