Jack Ewell
Jack Ewell, *The Silver Fox”, was a typical Southern California youngster, growing up in a world of car clubs, local drive-ins, street racing, etc. as an avid enthusiast himself. He started his driving in a series of flathead Ford powered street roadsters. They weren’t always the fastest, but they provided him a map to learn a lot about how to improve performance by working on them. In 1948, Jack joined the famed Rod Riders car club out of San Pedro, CA and began competing at the Dry Lakes events where in 1949 he posted his first official speed of 105 MPH.
In 1961, at the age of 33 Jack became the first outside employee to work at Mickey Thompson Enterprises in sales and from there, moved up to become Sales Manager. This position had many lasting benefits for Jack, he was used to being exposed to the latest and best equipment available, he spoke with about every racer customer about what they were doing, he was able to trade information with both racers and manufacturers which helped him compete with good equipment.
Jack began his true driving/racing career in 1950 at the first legal drag strip opened in Santa Ana, CA. His ride was a 1928 Model A Ford Sedan with a fuel burning flathead for power in which he posted the first Top Eliminator win in organized drag racing. In 1953 he installed his Arden-Merc engine in a Bean Bandit built chassis and became the first member of the Drag Racing 140 mph club.
In 1957 Jack took over driving chores of the Ewell & Stecker AA/Fuel dragster moving to Jim Kamboor’s Jado Special AA/Fuel Dragster in 1958. By 1962 he was part of the Ewell-Cagle-Kamboor team as part owner and driver. A new team, Ewell-Bell & Stecker, was put together for the 1966 season with a completely new Woody Gilmore car.
1961 also found Jack on the Bonneville Salt Flats where he gained admittance into the exclusive (at that time) Bonneville 200 MPH Club after posting a run of 217 MPH one way and a two-way average of 212 MPH in the Chrysler powered stock bodied 1953 Studebaker of Duncan and Allen. As part of his success that year, Jack took the Top Eliminator crown at the prestigious Bakersfield, CA, U.S. Fuel and Gas Championship meet.
Jack had the misfortune to break a leg in mid-1968 with the driver’s seat being turned over to Carl Olson. Bill Stecker had decided to quit racing at that time, so Carl put together a deal with Jack and Jim Bell to become a partner in the car as well as the driver. The team was so successful that in 1969 they fielded a new Woody Gilmore AA/Fuel Dragster with a late model, supercharged 426 Chrysler hemi for power. A tribute to the success of this team/car is on display the SEMA office in Diamond Bar, CA where the car actually hangs on the wall of the offices main entrance.
Jack was the first president of the original Drag, Racer, Inc. (DRI), a Southern California group that was among the first to offer cash awards to event winning racers. Jack’s hair prematurely turned silver in color early in his career prompting the then, “Voice of Drag Racing”, John Lindbergh, to dub him with the nickname *Silver Fox.
As involved with the sport as he was, one of Jack’s ongoing passions was for safety. He was one of the original Board of Directors for the United Drag Racers Association (UDRA) and received its first award for the “Most Contribution for Safety”.