Toledo Speedway

James E. (Jim) Bickerstaff, 76, ARCA late model race winner and track champion, died Friday, March 21, at St. Elizabeth Medical Center near his hometown of Mineral Ridge, Ohio.

Bickerstaff was the 1962 MARC Late Model champion at Canfield Speedway and won the 1975 Glass City 200 at Toledo Speedway. He was also a track champion at Cloverleaf Speedway in Cleveland and won two consecutive Pittsburgh Racing Association (PRA) championships at Heidelberg Speedway, and scored additional feature wins at Midvale and Sharon Speedways in Ohio. In a late model driving career including stints driving for car owners Bob May, Dave Parilla and John Rehbman, Bickerstaff was successful at both dirt and pavement venues, and drove at tracks from Florida to Maryland and Michigan to Virginia. He was inducted into both the Twin States Auto Racing Fan Club and Lorain Speedway Hall of Fame.

Bickerstaff was a graduate of Mineral Ridge High School and retired in 1994 after 30 years with General Motors in Lordstown Ohio where he was a Millwright. He was also a veteran of the US Air Force having served in the Korean War and was honorably discharged on October 7, 1955. He was married in 1961 to the former Janet Faye Martin, and she preceded him in death in 1994. He is survived by two children, James "Jim" (Lonnie) Bickerstaff of Mineral Ridge, and Jill (Gary) White, with whom he made his home, and two grandchildren. Funeral visitation is Tuesday, March 25, at the Lane Funeral Home Mineral Ridge Chapel from 5-8 p.m. Interment will be at the Green Haven Memorial Gardens.