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Charlie Jarzombek began racing
in Long Island in the late 1960’s, where he dominated at tracks like
Islip, Freeport, Riverhead, and West Hampton. According to his
brother and longtime racing partner Rick, the team began competing
in New England because, “We wanted to compete against the very best,
and the very best modified competition at the time was in New
England and upstate New York”. The team took New England by storm,
winning features the first time out at both Stafford and Seekonk
Speedways.
During the
course of Charlie’s career, he won 187 feature events at 16
different racetracks from Massachusetts to Florida. Career
highlights include winning the 1986 Icebreaker at Thompson, and the
1985 Stafford Speedway Modified Championship. Charlie has driven
modifieds at Waterford-New London and Plainville, as well as
southern tracks including Wall Stadium, Martinsville, Trenton, and
New Smyrna.
While
Charlie’s family was prominent in his racing career, there was one
day in 1975 when family was unable to attend Charlie’s race.
Charlie’s uncle was a Jarzombek, and wanted to see Charlie race.
Charlie’s aunt, however, was a Yaztremski, and had a nephew, Carl,
who was playing in the World Series for the Boston Red Sox on the
same day. The family went back and forth. Do we go see Charlie
race, or Carl play ball? Yaz settled the argument with a phone
call. “Charlie’s gonna be in that race every year, but how often am
I going to get to play in a World Series?”
Charlie Jarzombek passed away following an accident at
Martinsville in April of 1987, at the height of his career. Today,
we honor Charlie, as we welcome him into the NEAR Hall of Fame.
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