When Paul Blackhurst wasn’t concentrating on the family potato chip business, he did everything in his power to keep his children healthy and happy.
Looking back to his youth there was one nagging lament. He had always wanted to race. Then, an opportunity to rekindle a dream by proxy fell into his lap. A friend had a go-kart for sale and he instantly thought it would be a great Christmas present for his 5-year-old son. Jake Blackhurst had no idea what his father had in store. As he recalled it, “One day my dad just showed up with a go-kart.”
This wasn’t one of those times when a child soon became bored with a once cherished object.
There were opportunities to race near the Blackhurst’s central Illinois home. There was a quarter-mile track minutes away in Peoria, and there was also a kart track adjacent to Spoon River Speedway in Lewiston. Paul Blackhurst soon realized he had signed on to a bit more than he had bargained for.
“A lot of dads raced through their kids,” he said with a laugh, “and I kind of got my boy a chance to do it, but he ended up being the one who wanted to go non-stop. I would have been happy staying home on the weekends, but if it were up to him, we would have raced every day.”
There was a reason for that. Jake Blackhurst is talented. Jake suggests he traveled more when he was in karts than he has done at any other stage in his career.
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