Driver’s Spotlight – Jeff Eikenberry

In this edition of the SCCA Sacramento Chapter Drivers’ spotlight, Mr. Jeff Eikenberry volunteered to share a little bit about himself.

You may know Jeff from his 2020 Corvette Stingray Z51. Since Jeff has been participating in AutoX since the early 70’s, (for a total of 12 years), this is not his first car. In fact, he has had 7 AutoX cars. His favorite of all of them,
was his 2013 Corvette Grand Sport and he says that was an incredible vehicle.

His introduction to this sport may have ended shortly after he was introduced to the sport by someone he can’t quite recall, but as fate had it, he ran into a childhood friend at the event in Pleasanton. The last time they saw each other was in junior high school. His friend took him under his wing and coached him and guided him with the set-up of the car. That childhood friend was a “gentle” giant, and Jeff is very proud to have been his friend. Some of you may remember him. His name – Dave Schwafel.

Although he has no rituals or good luck charms for race days / weekends, he is definitely welcome to any advice it if works. He is VERY excited to share what music he listens to, to get him pumped up and excited. His reply was
“ABSOLUTELY” Dobbs Preston and the Dominators (yes, that is their real name). His wife, Joyce, surprised him with tickets to see them in 2009. They are a rock and roll country western group.. from get this…. Britain no less. He is very surprised, if you have not heard of them. He hadn’t either, but he would like to share some of their songs with the AutoX group at the next event. He usually turns it up loud when he hits the I-5 exit headed to Thunderhill. Jeff is an avid traveler, which is one of his hobbies. His absolute favorite travel destination is Lake Tahoe. Lake Tahoe has many fond memories for him. He used to work summers at the lake while in high school. He has hiked to the top of Mount Tallac 8 or 9 times, but the most favorite memory of his is getting married to his bride, Joyce. Since he is a well-rounded traveler, it is hard to say what his favorite destination would be, because it is not about the destination per se, it is his company. He and Joyce greatly enjoy going on cruises together.

He has a love for cars, so it is hard for him to pin down his favorite dream car. Jeff had a 1957 Chevy Bel Air in high school, that was only 4 years when he blew the automatic out if it and put in a standard trans with a reverse floor shifter. Why would he put in a reverse floor shifter? Well, people would think it was a 4 speed. His second car would probably be a C8 Z06.

He would enjoy having a dinner with Jack Holland. Jack Holland was instrumental in rounding out who Jeff is as a person. Jack was the Business Department Head at San Jose State. Jeff became Jack’s Graduate Assistant. He was such an amazing human being and meant the world to Jeff, so much so, that Jack was the one who married he and his wife, Joyce on the pier in Lake Tahoe.

He has no real interest in the match-up between King Kong or Godzilla, however, if Jeff were to be a specific breed of dog, he would definitely choose to be golden retriever. They are smart, friendly and have a mild dumb streak. Since Jeff has a well-rounded amount of time within the AutoX community, he has a great racing accomplishment story to share. He won three AutoX championships. One in a 1968 428 Corvette in 1973 with the CCSCA. The second was with SCCA SF Region in the SSP class in 2016. His third championship was with American AutoX in 2014 in the SSR class. Jeff was very proud to beat Lee Anderson, who was a high school classmate of his. Their first race, they respectively raced the cars that they owned. Jeff had a 1946 Ford Coupe and Lee had a 1948 Ford Business Coupe. They were identical, even down to the color.

After that, they raced their parents’ cars. Jeff in the 1955 Olds’ 4-door add Lee was in his parents’ 1956 Pontiac Hardtop. They had another race in their respective parents’ cars again. This time, it was Jeff’s dad’s 1961 Olds’ 4-
door Super 88 Hardtop against Lee’s parents’ 1961 Pontiac 4-door Bonneville hardtop. There were no trophies, but Jeff sure had bragging rights! And even more to come. In 1978, 17 years later Jeff was at Lee’s house for dinner, Lee casually mentioned to Jeff that he has a car that could beat Jeff’s car. At the time, Jeff had a 1978 Datsun 280 ZX. Lee had a Datsun 240Z with a Corvette small block. Jeff told Lee that he had conceded and there was no need to race. Lee took him for a ride in the Z. Unfortunately, the Z crapped out (sorry, but that’s what happened). Lee was not the best mechanic, as he may not have known a hammer from a screw driver. Jeff, knew exactly what to do since he had the same problem with his 1968 427 Corvette, when a float stuck and flooded the engine. Lee luckily had tools in the car. Jeff took a dime and reduced its diameter on the road and inserted it into the secondary’s line where it connected to the fuel bowl, that starved the secondaries, where the stuck float was. He told Lee on the way home “You may have the car that can beat mine, but I know how to repair yours!” And yes, they remained friends after that.

Jeff is an open book and a very friendly person. One thing that people may be surprised to know about him, is that given his demeanor he has been a VP of three companies, the last one being with Jackson Family Wines (Kendall-Jackson). His career path was very interesting at Kendall Jackson. After 8 years as working as the GM for the wineries and vineyards South of the Golden Gate, the owner Jess Jackson tagged Jeff to become Senior VP of Production of the company. It was a surprise, in that Mr. Jackson has selected Jeff over his boss and boss’s boss. Jeff is usually watching intently when Al Paterson is racing his Viper or Bob Weisickle has his Austin Healy. He has owned three Healy’s, so he is definitely partial to them. He hopes that when Al reads this, Jeff may be lucky enough to get a ride.

Jeff does not like to infringe on people’s privacy, so mind reading would not be a good superpower for him, so he would like strength to be his superpower, if given the choice.

Since we all were new to this sport at one time, Jeff feels that some great advice is “to enjoy the comradery; there are so many genuinely nice people in the AutoX community.”

The memory that stands out as his favorite AutoX events is when he ran an SCCA Solo event in 2016. His Z06 was new to him and the competition was brutal. Competitors came from all over the states and the event was put on by the main body of SCCA. There were two courses that started side by side. They used a Christmas tree light system to start the drivers. He was the only Corvette in his class. The other nine competitors were Porsche GT3’s. The GT3’s could use launch control, but he could not. His Z06, while it did have that feature, it would default back to Tour mode after launching, so things went from bad, to worse. Once the light turned green, he was toasted! He did however, finish next in class, beating a guy who had been hungover.

If you see Jeff at an event, say hi to him. He may just play some of his “let’s get pumped up” music for you. Introduce you to something you never knew you liked.

Thank you to Jeff for sharing this with the members and potential members of SCCA Sac Chapter.