FYI for the 'cross-trained'
Jack Roush remembers close friend killed in Reno air race crash
The pilot killed in Friday’s crash at a Reno air race was a close friend of NASCAR car owner Jack Roush and had helped Roush through his two plane crashes.
Roush said he met Jimmy Leeward in the mid-1980s. Roush said Leeward was racing in one division of IMSA and Roush in another. As Roush worked on his car, Leeward came over and introduced himself. Roush knew of him and heard that Leeward had a P-51 airplane.
“I’ll have one of those one day,’’ Roush told Leeward.
When Roush bought his P-51 Mustang in 1994 and began flying it, Leeward joined him at Daytona and they flew together.
Their relationship grew.
Roush was severely injured in a plane crash in 2002 after hitting a wire and crashing into a Troy, Ala., lake where he was pulled out of the wreckage and water by a retired Marine trained in underwater search and rescues. Roush was flown to a Birmingham hospital. “(Leeward) was the first person outside my immediate family that I saw,’’ Roush said.
After Roush’s plane crash last year in Wisconsin that cost him the vision in one eye, it was Leeward who supported his friend. “I’ve got a trainer, a World War II aerial trainer that has two sets of controls and Jimmy was the first one to climb into the backseat of my P6 when I got back in the air,’’ Roush said. “We’ve always been that close. We’ve been very, very close.’’
Roush said he had talked to Leeward multiple times this week as Leeward competed in the events in Reno. Roush said he last talked to Leeward a day before the fatal crash that also killed at least four spectators.
“I’m doing all right,’’ Roush said of how he was handling the tragedy. “ I’m doing all right. I’m very sad.’’
Credit:
http://hamptonroads.com/2011/09/jack-roush-remembers-close-friend-killed-reno-air-race-crash