MJ Motorsports

Mom and Dad's kid just didn't quite have the, So that was a b And then it went, So There were some guys that were involved that, that, So and then that was in 2004. And in that year was the year the MJ came to the paddock. So it was a blessing in disguise in a way because MJ came rolling into the paddock at Daytona and throughout those next two or three or four rounds, whatever it was, that was the talk of the paddock. And Richie said to me one day, because, Hey, You know, I said, I'll be golfing with And Richie is I said, No, the guy loves golf and there's one guy in the paddock that plays a lot of golf and it's me. And Kenny Abbott was the team manager at that point. And I knew Kenny real well. And Kenny came up to me at Road America said, Hey, JP t He's coming up from C It'd be great. I mean, Michael Jordan, who wouldn't want to meet Michael Jordan, I remember he walked me down to the truck and we got into the semi. MJ was in there and the first thing he said to me, he's That's the first t And he wanted, he wanted me to give And I said, man, you just bet me. You just met me and you're already begging. And, We played 36 holes a little course just in the outer suburbs of C And then pretty much all that season, a s I mean, I was basically, And I just generated a relations He was amazing to me. I mean, still to t He's, he's, he was so generous. He was so into it. He was such a good guy. Learned a lot from him, He's He goes, you haven't left yet, right? I said, no, I said, Cause I was going from here, showering here and going right to the airport to be in West Palm by Monday morning. And he goes, Hey, I said, what do you mean? He's Right. So I get off the, I get my passport. I had, I actually had, I t So I flew into West Palm. I get there nine o'clock in the morning or whatever. And they take me by private car over to the private sector of the airport. And it's just No idea where I'm going. I'm just flying somewhere. So I get on the plane, they shut the door and I looked and I'm I said, is that right? Yeah. And so we, we j But golf was what got me there. And so went to the Bahamas for the day and I'm getting breakfast on t Just And we literally landed, got in the suburban, went to a boat dock, got on a boat and started just tearing across t And the best part of the story is were supposed to land in West Palm at And as, as the story goes, it was So were going to get, were going to have to go to Fort Lauderdale and then fly to West Palm. And then it was like, well, it's, it's MJ, Then we're going right to West Palm. There was no, and so in, in, at that time, it was great because MJ just stopped and signed a few t And I feel Nobody cared about me at that point. And, and that was my day. I went to bomb and then we played golf in Florida for the next three, four days and it was great. But he was just, he's just such a cool guy. He's, it's a shame he's not still on the sport. Yeah. He was using me for a lot of information, I feel, and Ric There was no team at the time. He had the team with Montez and Pete, Yeah. Uncle Peaty and, And so, So MJ was asking me a lot of questions about like what, And t And so he asked me, he said, Jay. I don't want to ruin our relations So do you want me to go get my managers to go to Suzuki? I said, I'll, I'll, I t And essentially with Mel, I had such a great relations I thought, I talked to Mel, I said, if I can get t I t And he goes, Jay, go ahead and tell I will, okay, all of that. And so MJ called me that night and he said, how's t I said, great. And he goes, What's on the table? And I told He's m. So okay. So I just went to bed that night and 9, 59 the next morning, my phone was ringing. It was He's I was And, and, We had, we had a great team. We had a lot of really, we had good guys on the team and it was fun and all that stuff. And being part of all that in the early days was, was neat for me.