Drag racing: Joneses build winners

GALESBURG — RJ Race Cars Inc./Quarter-Max Chassis and Racing Components is on North Linwood Road in a nondescript building.

The company’s owners don’t mind being under the radar, but Rick and Rickie Jones are top chassis builders.

Their customers have won races and championships on the National Hot Rod Association Mello Yellow Drag Racing Series, International Hot Rod Association and Professional Drag Racers Association tours.

“This place has built a lot of high-quality cars and it’s because of our employees here,” Rick said in early December. “They’re a big part of it.

“Without their hard work and dedication, we wouldn’t have done anything we’ve done. We’ve built a good reputation in this business. We’re honest people who do what we say we’re going to do and deliver on time at a fair price.

“Some people don’t know what we do here; we don’t even have a sign,” Rick added. “There are local people who come and buy parts, and they know where we’re at and who we are.”

The Joneses take care of everything but engines, and besides selling their own products are a distributor for 100 other companies, and they travel worldwide.

“We ship parts out every day, and we build cars for people,” Rick Jones said. “We built a car that went to Australia a few months ago. We’re doing one now that goes to Spain, and one is going to go to Mexico.

“It’s a worldwide deal for us and we’re based out of little Galesburg, Illinois, because I was born here.”

“Everything that we sell and service is for the champion in you,” Rickie said.

Rick and Rickie know a little about being crew chiefs, too, and shared that role for Erica Enders, who won the NHRA Pro Stock world championship title in 2014 and 2015.

With Rick as her crew chief, Enders clinched her third world title on Sunday, Nov. 17 — joining Shirley Muldowney and Angelle Sampey as three-time female world champions.

The Joneses hooked up with Enders through Richard Freeman, who provided the equipment, car, engine, truck, trailer and crew for Rickie to compete in 15 of 24 events in 2013.

With his father as his crew chief, Rickie — a 2005 Galesburg High School grad — grabbed his first and only NHRA victory in Pomona, California, at the Auto Club NHRA Finals, made four finals and, despite the limited schedule, finished 11th in points, one spot from making the Countdown to the Championship.

Enders started driving for Elite Motorsports, Freeman’s company, in Rickie’s place in 2014. Since 2016, Rickie has been the crew chief for Jeg Coughlin Jr., who also drives for Elite, and he took second place behind Enders in 2019 in the running for the world crown.

“No one in our industry does what we do as far as building the cars, putting them together, setting them up, taking them to the track and tuning them,” Rickie Jones said. “To have the results of winning races and multiple championships is pretty incredible.

“We are very humble people. We don’t do much bragging, but really, we are kind of making history here as far as father-son and our family doing this together,” Rickie added. “I’ve been told that no father-son has ever finished No. 1 and 2 in the world as crew chiefs.”

The Joneses will always love winning, but doing what they do means missing out on things back home.

“I’m just very honored to have the opportunity to do this,” Rickie Jones said. “It really is a lot of sacrifice, too, personally. There’s a lot of traveling that comes into it. I’ve got two little kids and my wife, Sarah.

“We’re on the road a lot — approximately 20-plus weeks a year. When you look percentage-wise, that’s almost half the year that we’re away.”

Rick and Rickie both fight back emotions when they say who their best friend is.

The father-son duo will always name each other.

“He’s been here from day one,” Rick, 60, said of Rickie, 32. “When we opened this shop almost 33 years ago, he was a baby and my wife, Bonnie, and I were dragging him to work and after school every day we’d have to go get him. We’d work late hours and he’d just be there with us.

“He’s my best friend and it’s been truly an awesome experience. It’s really surreal to think about what we’ve accomplished.”

Rickie cherishes the time on the road with his pops.

“To share these moments with dad is something I’ll have for the rest of my life,” he said. “Even after he’s gone, I’ll still have these memories of us doing this together. He’s my best friend. He’s my hero. He’s taught me everything I know.”

As Rick points out, winning crowns takes more than dinero.

“It takes more than money, talent or skill. It takes a lot of desire. If you have the desire and you want to do it, then you can do it,” he said. “A door may get slammed in your face and you may get knocked down, but any time you get knocked down, you just come up swinging. If you put the effort in and try hard enough, there is a champion in all of us.

“In every competition there’s a winner and there’s a loser,” Rick added. “When you lose a lot and you do that time and time again and you finally figure out how to win, that’s what’s cool.”

“When dealing with the pressure of the championship, it’s about just focusing on your job and not the pressure,” Rickie said. “That’s your best chance for winning — not being worried about the moment.”