Thursday night we lost a great racer. John Blewett III passed away after a crash in the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour race at Thompson Int’l Speedway (CT).
John was someone who I considered a good friend in racing.
Passion… John Blewett III had it. He was an aggressive driver, that is for sure. If you raced him with respect, he’d show it back. If not, he would move you. Sometimes that passion exploded off the track. Remember John hopping on Carl Pasteryak’s car while it was rolling and ripping the sparkplug wires off? What about when he went after Nevin George at Smyrna? My pal Mike Twist said it well when he called Blewett a throw-back to the glory days of racing. He was a ‘tell it like it is’ driver. The bottom line… John was extremely passionate about life and racing.
John was a ferocious competitor. Off the track, he was an honest man with family values. I will never forget talking to him about loving Modifieds so much. I will also never forget how mushy he got talking about the holiday season and how much he loved making memories with his son. I have always identified with John and Jimmy and how they were about their relationship as brothers. A great personal memory for me is watching Jimmy cheer his brother on at the Atlantic City TQ Midget races in January. I sat at the bottom of the steps with Jimmy and watched with him for some of the race. I loved how much rooted for his brother and could identify it.
As a child, I rooted for John and Jimmy's dad in that red, white and blue Gremlin at Islip and New Egypt Speedways. I’ve seen John develop into a great racer. I am happy I got to know John throughout his Modified career. He was always a lot of fun to talk with and always took the time to do so. One thing we always had in common was that we were both raised with Mods and were passionate about it!
We all love our sport and Modifieds, it’s just hard to deal with this types of loss. My heart goes out to the entire Blewett family. I pray that the family finds strength in faith and in each other as a family.
Godspeed JBIII.
