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McKENZIE — The 2018 racing season for McKenzie sprint car chassis manufacturer J&J Auto Racing has been a benchmark within the industry as the teams finding race victories, major event wins and championships under the brand’s banner continue to climb. Owned by local residents Jack and Bonnie Elam, J&J Auto Racing fabricates and supplies sprint car frames and other components to racing teams in the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.
Heading into the final few weeks of the 2018 season, J&J Auto Racing is on-pace to round out the season with over 10 championships to its credit, as well as more than 260 race wins worldwide to-date. This year started off with a bang for J&J Auto Racing as Tony Stewart/Curb-Agajanian Racing (TSR) driver and 10-Time World of Outlaws (WoO) Sprint Car Series champion, Donny Schatz, went four-for-five in the DIRTcar Nationals event at Volusia Speedway Park in Barbersville, Fla., posting wins on February 7, 8, 10 and 11 to open the season.
Schatz and the No. 15 TSR team continued on a tear early in the season, picking up wins in Las Vegas and on the West Coast to break out to an early and decisive lead in the championship standings. The North Dakota native has been exclusive to J&J Auto Racing since 2001 and has compiled impressive stats over the past two decades for the brand. Following the completion of the 2018 regular season, Schatz has earned a series-high 22 victories, 52 top-five finishes and 66 top-10 finishes in just 71 starts. He won the WoO Championship by a margin of 278 points over the second-place finisher. For the sixth straight season, Schatz has won over 20 WoO feature events, a stat unmatched in recent history. The No. 15 team’s current win total sits at 26 on the season and Schatz will also compete in Australia in December and early January.
On November 4, the Elam’s and J&J Auto Racing were honored as the 2018 Chassis Builder of the Year during the WoO Series banquet at the Great Wolf Lodge in Concord, NC. The accolade was the 12th time that J&J Auto Racing has been awarded top honors by the series for it’s manufacturing innovation and safety by the sport’s top sprint car sanctioning body.
“Being honored by the leading sprint car organization as chassis builder of the year means so much to us,” said Jack Elam, president and founder of J&J Auto Racing.