Bobbi had another reason to chase sprint cars. She decided while at Lincoln Speedway that she might as well choose someone to cheer for. The man she decided to follow was Kevin Gobrecht.
By 1999, Bobbi was on the road, and the guy known as “The G Man” was a star on the rise. He had been selected as the 1995 Rookie of the Year in the poll conducted by the National Sprint Car Hall of Fame and Museum, and four years later it was all coming together.
Kevin scored his biggest win by taking the $100,000-to-win Historical Big One at Eldora Speedway, and then immediately backed it up by finishing third at the Knoxville Nationals.
It was a heady time, and in quiet moments Kevin and Bobbi began to plan for marriage.
Then, in a stark reminder of how quickly life can change, in September Kevin lost his life at Nebraska‘s I-80 Speedway. All of Bobbi‘s plans and dreams for their life together vanished. Just like that. It wasn‘t how the script was supposed to play out.
Unfortunately, what Bobbi faced was hardly uncharted territory. Legions of wives and girlfriends have faced a similar uncertain future given the nature of racing.
What Bobbi also quickly realized, as so many before her discerned, is that racing really was a part of her life. These were the people she knew and the people who would rally around her. She was far too young to crawl into a corner and refuse to face the world.
If she was at all reticent to move forward again, she met someone who was going to do his part to convince her otherwise.
Jason Johnson was poised to make magic in a sprint car too; but the attraction Bobbi felt arose from far more than just what he did behind the wheel.
“I had met Jason,” she recalled, “and he was always a positive person. I remember when he told me, ‘Look, I understand you are always going to love that guy. I totally get it, and I would never ask you not to. But you know what? I‘m here on this earth. Why don‘t you enjoy the time you have with me here today. Now.‘
“I thought about it, and that was so true. After a while, you fall in love with a person like that. You enjoy them for who they are at the point and time you have here on this earth.”
Jason convinced Bobbi of the wisdom of his logic, and in November of 2000 they were married. There were great days ahead, but once again heartache was just around the corner. In January 2004, Jason‘s younger sister Kayla died as the result of an automobile accident. She was just 18 years old.
To make matters worse, Jason was racing in Australia and couldn‘t get back immediately. Piloting the Disbury Family Racing sprint car, he took an emotional victory at Adelaide.
Devastated by the loss, he brought the winning trophy home to his family in Louisiana, and it rests on their mantle to this day. Tragedy can change one‘s perspective, but how it does so varies by person. Bobbi and Jason had been forced to swallow bitter pills, but it only pushed them to strive even harder for cherished goals.
Jason began to enjoy tremendous success on the ASCS National Tour and, by 2010, the couple took stock of where they were and where they wanted to be. It was there that they decided to take the plunge and launch Jason Johnson Racing.
So many things changed in the couple‘s life with the birth of their son Jaxx in 2013, and it was in that timeframe that they firmly established their home and headquarters in the Missouri Ozarks. Like so many things in racing, it happened nearly by chance.
It turned out that when the team raced at Lake Ozark Speedway, they would stay near a truck stop in Eldon, Mo. Noticing this, former sprint car racer and promoter Randy Combs suggested the team could use his nearby lake house instead. It looked like a viable option for the team members, but shy of what the entire operation needed on a regular basis.
Sensing a solution was at hand, Combs contacted his neighbor, Dave Dagley, who was agreeable to pitching in as well. Soon the motorhome was in Dave‘s front yard and a bay was cleaned out for the race rig. The team members would stay at Combs‘ place and at night Randy might swing by with a pontoon boat and all would take to the water.
It was an arrangement that was working well during the racing season. Then things changed. Just before Jason was preparing to head to Australia, he was presented with the idea of purchasing the property. Much of the transaction was conducted “down under,” but the Johnsons wanted to allow the Dagleys time to find a new place to live.
By springtime, everything was clear for them to move into their new home.
However, there were two complications. First, Bobbi was pregnant. Second, the racing season in America was well underway.
“They were out of the home in March and I was due in May,” Bobbi said. “So, we had a month or two to roll up our sleeves, get in the house, and get Jaxx a baby room and everything. But then, we were racing so much we really weren‘t home.
“We pretty much lived out of the motorhome that first year. I bought a crib and all of this stuff, and I don‘t think Jaxx ever slept in it, so I gave it away.”
Nonetheless, Rocky Mount, Mo., was the place where a girl from Pennsylvania and a guy from Louisiana staked their claim.
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