The Driver
Name: John Falconi
Age: 33
Height: 5' 7"
Weight: 200
Resides: Grafton, MA
Years Driving: 2004 will be 11th year
John
Falconi was born a racer. He had no choice. The Falconi family was making
history on the racing ovals of New England even before his father was born. The
familiar red #10 had already won scores of feature events and several track
championships before John even spoke his first words. John’s father had been
responsible for aiding famous drivers like Fred Borden,
Reino
Tulonen,
Fats Caruso, Lew
Boyd, Lou Austin and others take the main event
checkered flag.
Before John was the height of a Goodyear Racing Eagle tire, his father took to the track in his own racecars. John was in the front row to see his father win a number of feature events at Westboro, Thompson and Stafford Springs Speedway. He listened intently as his father recounted those races with his grandfather and uncles and learned the rights and wrongs of a champion race car driver. Very few of today’s drivers had that opportunity of being raised in a racing family. John absorbed every bit of it. He learned from the best how to drive and win, how to set up a contending entry and how to fix it if something went wrong. John possesses all those skills and applies them to his weekly racing effort.
John still has the
advantage of championship experience surrounding him. Father John and Uncle Jim,
who together campaigned winning cars up and down the east coast, are with him
for every lap. But they provide more support than advice these days as John has
come into his own as a driver and is known as one of the strongest competitors
at his home track of Thompson Speedway. When the
Nascar
Late Model Division takes to the 5/8 mile oval, all eyes are on John and the
Smith Cast Iron Boiler Monte Carlo #01. His smooth but aggressive style is the
envy of many co-competitors and when they see the red #01 in their mirror, they
know they have a fight on their hands to hold their position.
John’s no stranger to Victory Lane, a real accomplishment for his young career.
Highlights include finishing 8th in the final points at Lee USA Speedway in 1994
his very first season with several top 10 finishes and then coming back the
following season and finishing 3rd in the points and scoring 3 feature wins
including the prestigious "OctoberFest" open competition event against some of
the Northeasts top drivers. In 1996 the move to the LateModel division was made
and John has been a stout competitor scoring several wins and top 5
finishes ever since. Latemodel highlights include winning the season opener in
2000 and finishing 2nd in the final season standings a mere 50 points out of the
Championship spot.
When he’s not on the track or in the new state of art race shop that houses his
cars, John is the Service Manager for Falconi Brothers Heating and Cooling in
Southborough. Though you can’t walk downstairs at Falconi Brothers and see a
winning race car in the garage, as was the case for over 40 years, you can see
the history of the Falconi racing effort on the walls and shelves of the office.
Today, many of those trophies and victory lane photos belong to the third
generation racer John Falconi.
If memories took
up space they would have outgrown the place years ago, but it won’t be long
before they’ll need more space to hold all the race awards considering the pace
that John Falconi is on.
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