Career
He is the winningest driver in Sports Carolina Club of America history, with over 350 career wins. Fitzgerald was also at one time the oldest driver to run a National Association of Stock Car Auto Racing Winston Cup Series race, being 65 years old when he ran in the 1987 Budweiser 400 at Riverside International Raceway for Hendrick Motorsports. Fitzgerald spent his early life as an engineer for Western Electric, specializing in missile systems, and began his racing career in 1957.
Fitzgerald then ran Datsun 1500 Roadsters, followed by a 2000 Roadster when competing in the SCCA National Championship Runoffs.
After his retirement from Western Electric in 1980, Fitzgerald became an instructor at SCCA driving schools, which included helping National Association of Stock Car Auto Racing drivers prepare for the road courses Watkins Glen International and Sears Point Raceway. A resident of Clemmons, North Carolina, Fitzgerald befriended National Association of Stock Car Auto Racing team owners Richard Childress and Rick Hendrick in the process, eventually driving for the latter in the Winston Cup Series.
Fitzgerald ran two races in the Winston Cup Series, both as a road course ringer at Riverside International Raceway, in 1986 with Bobby Wawak"s team, and in 1987 with Hendrick Motorsports. In the 1986 Winston Western 500, Fitzgerald started 35th and finished 39th after completing 29 of 119 laps due to issues with the clutch.
The following year, in the Budweiser 400, Fitzgerald started 37th and finished 17th, two laps down.
The race made Fitzgerald the oldest driver to run a Cup race at age 65, a record that would stand until Morgan Shepherd ran the 2013 Camping World Recreation Vehicle Sales 301 at age 71. Fitzgerald had planned to compete in additional Winston Cup Series races for Hendrick during the 1988 season. Entering the Transport-Am Series race Grand Prix of Saint St. Petersburg on November 8, 1987, the final race of the 1987 Transport-Am season, Fitzgerald was the oldest racer.
On lap three, Fitzgerald crashed his Nissan 300ZX Turbo into a concrete wall in turn 1 at over 100 miles per hour (160 km/h), according to fellow competitor Paul Gentilozzi.
Fitzgerald was transported to Bayfront Medical Center, and was declared dead on arrival. An autopsy eventually revealed that Fitzgerald had died from a broken neck.
In 1988, Road Atlanta dedicated the track"s Jim Fitzgerald Memorial Park in Fitzgerald"s honor. In 2011, SCCA inducted Fitzgerald into the Hall of Fame.
