Remembering Leka

One of the drivers I grew up watching was out of Illeapolis, IL and he went by the name of Jim Leka.

What I remember of Jim is that he rarely came to the track each year with same number.  Back when I was following Joe Williams of Arrowsmith, I remember Leka dominating races at Farmer City in the basic white car with the red number 7.  Sometimes he'd come on the track with just a number made of duct tape.  It didn't matter though, Jim was very tough to beat and would be for years

As time went on, Jim settled on a bullet chassis and drove the number 40.  In 1987 he ended up winning the UMP points series.  He never was one though who came to track with the latest up to date hauler and equipment.  No Jim showed up witn a basic open trailer and pick up truck.  His equipment was all in the bed of the truck.  He didn't even have a tire rack on the trailer that I can remember.

Jim's driving style was tough, but smooth.  I remember when he was winning lots of features at Macon and Farmer City, he'd never go in the cornor so hard that he have to throw the car to come around.  He drove the cushion and never bouned off of it.  His style allowed for the car to never be really out of shape and sideways and he could pull more out of the cornors.  Younger drivers at that time like Kevin Weaver of Gibson City and Jim Rarick of Mowequa drove into corners hard and had to throw the cars as that was their style to make the cars work.  Later on, their driving styles changed up, but not after Leka became the cream of central IL in the mid to late 80's.