Forum: HoseHeads Sprint Car General Forum (go)
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Deeply saddened to report of the passing of Jim Soares, longtime Petaluma Speedway promoter this morning. Jim was a fiercely loyal, old school promoter who stood fastly by what he thought was right. Shouldn't we all be that way? Your work is done here Papa Jim. Rest now. - Ron

To say the least! You weren't always going to agree with him but in my experiences with him he was consistent and fair but I'd be lieing if I said he didnt piss me off at least once but that does not make him unique :-). Couldn't have said it better myself Ron. Nobody can fill those shoes! Rest in peace Jim.

Services for Jim Soares will be at Petaluma Speedway this Sunday at 2pm. Due to the uncertainty of attendance, those who are attending are welcome to bring food as after there will be a pot luck and catered BBQ. For those attending racing on Saturday night, you are welcome to bring flowers or whatever to place on a memorial we will have for Jim in the infield and opened during intermission. - Ron

RIP Jim Soares, definitely one of a kind. Petaluma Speedway will miss you. Condolences to family

Jim also did track prep at Baylands back in the day if I'm not mistaken.

Yup. I might even have a picture of him in the water truck at the mico track somewhere.

He did the track preparation at Baylands for the last 3 or 4 years that the place was in operation. Before the Baylands management hired Dr. Dirt, that track surface was often terrible. It could be bone dry yet very rough. Weird. But Dr. Dirt made an enormous difference and the track became consistently good under his care. He frequently touched up the track between races, sometimes even between heat races. 

Lots of guys know how to operate graders, tractors and water trucks. But Dr. Dirt seemed to get more out of the equipment than everyone else. 

Jim told me so many stories, some good, some cringeworthy, some out and out lies, you never know what to believe. Here are a few off the top of my head:

There wasn't a lot of tracks he didn't have a part in at some point. Baylands, Petaluma obviously, San Jose, Merced, Medford are just a few. A story he told me when he was flown to Medford to do the track for an Outlaw/open show, he was sitting down at a bar and Kenny Woodruff came up to him and asked why the hell he was there. Jim said he was coming to watch some races. Kenny saw through it and called him out for being the guy who was gonna prep the track. Jim smiled and Woodruff left and Jim said when he left the bar an hour later, a bunch of teams were in process of changing bars in their cars because they knew Jim liked heavy tracks.

Another was Sammy bitching about the Baylands surface, so Jim went out with the blade and did a lap...without ever touching the surface. He came off the track and Sammy was there on all fours, face to the dirt looking at the blade not touching the surface. "You bastard! You didn't do anything to it!" "Nope. Now race on it and quit whining."

Tim Green was complaining one night, so Jim carved out of the mud in turns 3-4 a number 14. Out of complete coincidence, Green dumped it during the feature right in front of the number. Jim told Tim never forget who has the power and be careful who you yell at.

There were very few people who were as old school cantankerous and opinionated as Jim. That said, whenever an Outlaw show would come to the West Coast, Jim would somehow end up in Sammy's trailer, both smiling and chatting it up. Jim went to Eldora for the Kings Royal a few years ago and Steve recognized him from across the pits, yelled to him that California's a long way from here and sat down with Jim for a few minutes just to talk. Tony Stewart's phone number and personal email resides in his phone along with any other guy he might need to call at a moment's notice. It's so easy to say "typical Soares" without any knowledge of who or what the man was all about when a call went against you, but Jim never once made a call on the track for the 13 years or so I've been working for him. He let his officials do all that. Truly he was a man of the people, but you just had to understand where he came from. It was a business first for Jim as he was raised in it. Pleasure was the by product when it was done well. - Ron