ROCKFORD, Ill. — Longtime official starter at the Rockford Speedway, Jack Heiman, passed away on June 7 at the age of 90 years old.
Heiman, nicknamed “Jumping Jack,” became the flagman at the Rockford quarter-mile paved oval around 1960, working for promoter Hugh Deery. He retired in 1976 after having flagged more than an estimated 5,000 races with his high-profile, jumping in the air, race-flagging, performance.
Heiman flagged the first National Short Track Championships 200 at the Rockford Speedway in 1966 with Dick Trickle the winner and was in the starter’s stand for the last NSTC before the speedway closed in 2023.
Heiman was also the starter at other Midwest speedways from time to time including Solider Field, Sterling, Meadowdale, Indiana’s Illiana Motor Speedway and Road America, Milwaukee, Kaukauna, and Lake Geneva in Wisconsin.
As a youngster, Heiman dreamed of going to the Indianapolis 500. He ventured away from home in the late 1950s, traveling to California where he got involved in auto racing. He helped the likes of Tony Bettenhausen and Rodger Ward, flat towing Bettenhausen’s stock car from the Midwest to Arizona.
Coming back to the Midwest, Heiman was part of the Leader Cards, Inc. racing team in 1961 and 1962 with the team finishing first and second in the “500” in 1962 with race winner Ward and Len Sutton the drivers. During the race, Heiman changed the left rear tire on Ward’s winning car.
“I was in victorylane with the winner,” remembered Heiman years later. “That’s my biggest thrill (in racing). My boyhood dream when I was planting corn on the farm in Compton (Illinois) was to watch a 500 race and here I am in the pits with the winner.”
The owner of Heiman Sign Studio, Heiman was an accomplished sign painter and lettered numerous race cars – from Indy 500 machines, USAC stock cars, open-wheel cars and countless Rockford Speedway race cars.
For a number of years, Heiman was involved in the Rockford area Soap Box Derby, lending a hand with his racing expertise.
Living in Arizona during the winter months, Heiman was inducted into the Illinois Stock Car Hall of Fame in 2017. Heiman was the “official starter” for many Hall of Fame events, including flagging last year’s Legends Parade.
