SPECIAL: Stories for Justin's girls

As the five-year mark of Justin Wilson’s loss approached, Stefan Wilson listened patiently as I shared a few ideas on stories that would celebrate his older brother’s life. His reactions, subtle and kind, suggested that a better direction might be explored.

“The thing I’ve been trying to do is think of all the stories I can for Justin’s daughters, even the silly little ones, and share them with Jane and Jess, because they were so young when he was taken from us,” Wilson said. “Jane was maybe seven, and Jess was three or four, so they just didn’t have a lot of time to make memories of their own with their dad. So I’ve been trying to fill that in with stories for Justin’s girls.”

Wilson offered a blessing with his closing sentence. It was the perfect theme to pay tribute to the Briton, killed in that August 24, 2015 crash at Pocono. By capturing tales from Justin’s many friends for his daughters to read at some point in the future when they’re old enough to process the full measure of the man, maybe these stories—and more we’ll document with other friends in the coming years—will paint a wider portrait of their father.

Some stories are more colorful than others, and whether they’re deep, fun, or mischievous, each anecdote presents a cherished memory or insight into Wilson’s character and life. And more than a few involve Wilson’s legendary tolerance for alcohol, which came at the expense of those who dared visit the pub with the big man.

Together, for the five-year installment, we have both of Justin’s Formula 1 teammates, an engineer, an IndyCar teammate, a sports car team owner, an IndyCar rival, and a driver coach who’ve conjured stories we all might enjoy when remembering Wilson.

Dario Franchitti, on Justin’s overlooked duality

“I think some people, some team owners, saw his kindness and smiles as a sign of weakness in the early days, not realizing that when he was in the car, he was a different person; he was this cold-eyed assassin. The last person you wanted to look in your mirrors and see was that helmet design of Justin’s. It was ‘uh-oh’ if you did.

“Drivers are pretty one-dimensional people, right? I was one for a long time. We're pretty one-dimensional people. He wasn't. I think he was one of the most well-rounded people of all the drivers. He had that great life balance, kind of like Scott Dixon, but Justin really took it to another degree with how he made his career about family, but switching it back on and being that assassin in the car. I don’t think enough people appreciated both sides of him.”

Fierce rivals, fast friends. "I think Justin was one of the most well-rounded people of all the drivers. He had that great life balance, kind of like Scott Dixon, but Justin really took it to another degree. I don’t think enough people appreciated both sides of him," says Franchitti. Motorsport Images

Barry Waddell, Justin’s close ally and driver coach at the RuSport Champ Car team

“The European driver’s mindset, which is loosely based on the ‘destroy your teammate at all times’ approach, was something he could have come over here with. It’s pretty common with how young drivers are brought up by European teams, where they believed you will improve based on creating the right internal conflict and the internal battle between teammates. It’s a thing that goes like, ‘If we pit these two guys against each other, and the more we put them in conflict, they will dig down and find speed responding to that clash between teammates.’

“But Justin wasn’t that way. He relished the idea of being able to honestly compare data, look at data with me and AJ Allmendinger. And in his quiet presence, he put you at ease. He would take you at face value and until you proved him unworthy of his trust, he would accept you. His guard was down from the beginning. I think that's fair to say he decided right away, new team, new country, new series, we're going to work together, and he and AJ were going to work together, not in conflict. And I just sat there in awe and fostered it.

“F1 burned him down pretty hard, and coming to the States, it just seemed like a really fresh breath of air where he could be part of something with teammates that was rewarding.”

Graham Rahal, 2008 IndyCar teammate at Newman/Haas Racing

“I remember vividly being with Justin and Julia when they told us that Jane was going to be a new addition to the family. We were in Syracuse, New York, having dinner on a media day together, and it was such an exciting moment for them. I mean, Julia has always had such a great bubbly personality and Justin… most people just thought he was a very quiet guy, but we had such a great time together and obviously, having been there from the start, I just remember the excitement and the pride that he had in that moment in his life, knowing he was about to become a first-time father. It just meant so much to him. Normally, about the only thing teammates talk about is racing, but this mattered so much to him.”

Jos Verstappen, Justin’s 2003 teammate at Minardi F1 for the first 11 rounds

“He was always smiling, very friendly. I met his mom and dad a few times and basically the same, always friendly people. Just very normal. He was a rookie, but I definitely did not receive him as an enemy. It was more in a warmer way. And it's not that we were helping each other, no, you want to beat each other. He was young, he was promising, he did well in Formula 3000 as the champion before he came to Formula 1.

“He wanted to prove himself, he was quick, and that's normal. He also had a good attitude. And I know it was near the end of my career and he was starting his. I lost motivation to beat him in qualifying and the race. Our cars weren’t fast, so they were only looking between us to see who was faster. But he was the more friendly guy. People liked him very much.”

Mark Webber, Justin’s F3000 rival and 2003 Jaguar F1 teammate from rounds 12-16

“I did race him in the junior categories in England, and when we came across, naturally, we just got on well culturally, because obviously the English and the Aussies do anyway. And in 2001 in F3000, I was with Super Nova, and he was racing then for Nordic and won the championship that year driving really, really well. He was an all-around, very versatile driver. And both of our fathers got on well. My dad's got a pretty good bull**** meter, and I think he really enjoyed Stefan and Justin's dad, and then Justin and I, we just got to be pretty tight, you know? There was a mutual respect there, and we got on well.

“And I think that you could see it as an extension of his dad's morals and his dad's sort of ‘good old handshake meant everything’ kind of way with Justin. Honor meant something to him. When he came to Formula 1, then I really spent more time with him, because we were teammates to finish out the season.

“And the English side, they wanted to have a British driver in a Jaguar car, and my teammate at the time, (Brazil’s) Antonio Pizzonia, was really struggling, so they put Justin in. And what really struck me, and this is something the girls need to know, and they will know this from other stories, but is just how tenacious and how hungry he was to try and make it work.

“Like, I had no idea how he did it in that car. That car was not the right size for him at all. It was tight for me, and he was taller than me, a lot taller than me. So I know he was in pain. I know he was in misery, trying to ignore the pain and make it work with just with the guts and the approach of, ‘This is my big opportunity. I want to get through this.’

“And for sure, his lower back and his knees and how tightly he was packaged in that car; the team did everything they could, but he was in pain. Doing two-hour races like that? I can’t imagine what he went through. But he went through it. And I'll never forget just how tough and how hungry he was, and resilient, to try and make that opportunity work in an environment where the ergonomics of the car was just not correct for him. It was too small. And he never complained.

“It was a very inspiring effort to see, knowing what was going on in the other car, just how much he tried to make that work.”

Michael Cannon, Justin’s race engineer at Dale Coyne Racing in 2014

“Well, we’d been 15th in practice and were none too sparkly. We made some changes for qualifying and he wound up 12th, but said he was unprepared for how good the car was. We’d left enough time on the table to have started very near the front, and back at the trailer, he did a post-session map for me and described how the car felt and performed during his run.

“He hands it back, I look down in the comments section, and saw ‘Don’t change a thing! Nice job!’ That was all that was written... Never before, or since, have I been paid such a compliment.”

Graham Rahal, on being introduced to a proper night out with drivers

“In 2008, we're down in Australia. And again J-Wil, he's being Mr. Quiet. And then all of a sudden, we decide we're going to go out together on Sunday night. Told my dad; I was actually staying at my dad's hotel room because I was too cheap to get my own. And I thought, ‘I'm not going to go out tonight, just keep it simple, go to a team dinner with the Newman/Haas gang, J-Wil, me.’ Afterwards, dinner’s done, and I’m ready to head back to dad’s room.

"J-Wil's like, ‘No, no, no, no, you can't go to bed.’ I said alright, rang old Bob Rahal and said, ‘Dad, look, I'm going to go out with Justin. I'm in good hands. I'll be back in a little bit, just a couple hours.’

“Well, the end of the story is that I strolled into the hotel room about 7:00 a.m., and we had to get on the bus at 7:30 to head to the airport. But the meat of the story is this giggly, tall, English man who is determined that his 19-year-old teammate needs to drink all of the Jagermeister that can possibly be found in the Gold Coast of Australia. That was his thing. Jagerbombs all night long. Justin was loving it, and I just wanted to puke every single time.

“But I remember all night, I'd be at the bar talking to Tim Cindric, or talking to Tony Kanaan, or somebody else, and I'd get this tap on my shoulder. And I'd turn around and there he is, another Jagerbomb being handed to me, the world's biggest grin on his face, just determined to show me a part of life that I had never experienced.

"And I was pretty trashed afterwards, but he looked after me the whole time like a big brother would. So while he was so focused and serious much of the time, he was such a fun personality to be around away from the track.”

Mike Shank, Justin’s team owner in sports car racing

“I needed him to come and do Sebring with us in the P2 car. It was 2015, Ozz Negri hurt himself, he couldn't do it, so we got Justin to come out. Well, we knew he had a fitment issue because of his size, so we had him come to my shop in Columbus. And so he flew in, because it was important to him. He always had to deal with the size, obviously. So, he flew in and he stayed at my house, and I live on a lake, so we go and I took Justin out, introduced him to the local culture and all of our friends, all of our idiot friends that live on the lake. It’s about as America as you're ever going to get.

“And for whatever reason, one of our good friends had a really nice dinner planned. Justin went over with us, and yeah, technically he was there for the seat fitment, but we got to show him how we live, and one thing came from it that’s turned into a tradition now.

“So, she had made a blue cake for dessert, and Justin, out of nowhere, literally out of nowhere, he kinda’ yelled, ‘I've never had blue cake!’ in that British accent. And we all fell apart. And he ate it, and he ate it, and blue frosting’s all over his face, he’s going mental, and everyone busted out laughing. So now, every year around this time, from the Pocono time, we eat blue cake and we celebrate Justin and it's a little tear in the eye, but it always makes us think of him. And to this day, we still do Justin's blue cake day.”

Mark Webber, on preparing to compete against Justin in the same team

“I think the announcement was like on the Monday or Tuesday after the British Grand Prix that he's coming for the next race. And I'm like, ‘Just through sheer respect for Justin, I've seen this guy race, he can be dangerous in terms of his speed. And he's quite strong mentally, as well, and I need to be ready for him.’ So I remember I went for a hundred-mile bike ride on the Wednesday before that race. Just to get my head right, and trick myself that I'm more than ready than this new guy coming in.

“And I was so dialed in with that car, and I was so settled, and I was so at one with it, that it was a really hard task for someone to jump in mid-season like Justin, because that car was very, very challenging to drive. So I think that from an engineering perspective, and also from a speed and performance perspective, it was a handful of a scenario for Justin to come in and be comfortable physically, and also from a stopwatch perspective, in a car that wasn’t built with him in mind.

“But the way we connected, I think that absolutely he was everything you'd want as a teammate, and this is not lip service. If you wanted someone that you could work with and have a great relationship with professionally, and take the team forward together, someone like Justin is who you would love to do that with.”

Webber already had a high opinion of Wilson from their battles in F3000, but that respect went up even further as the Australian watched how his new teammate adapted to difficult circumstances at Jaguar. Motorsport Images

Graham Rahal, on being befriended and mentored by Justin as a Champ Car rookie

“I remember Portland, my rookie year – 2007 Portland. I hadn't really spent a lot of time with Justin. Obviously we had competed, said hello at all the autograph sessions, he'd always been extremely nice to me, that was always a given, but we were on different teams then. So at Portland, I sat next to him for something, and I think what he did said a lot about his personality and who he was as a man. He started talking to me, even though we didn’t know each other, and asking me, ‘Hey, what are your future goals? What do you want to do? Where do you want to be when you're my age that I am now? What are the things that you want to accomplish?’ Those aren’t typically things a guy you go up against asks you.

“And I told him, ‘Well, I always thought that Formula 1 was the thing I wanted to do. And here I am, obviously it's a little bit different, and I'm super excited to be where I'm at in Champ Car, but it was clearly a different path than I had thought I’d be on right now.’ And he said to me, ‘If I can give you one piece of advice, Formula 1's not made for people like you and me.’ And I said, ‘What do you mean by that?’ He said, ‘It's not made for nice people. He said, ‘When I went to Formula 1, they chewed me up. They spit me out.’ He said, ‘I want to have friends. I want to be able to talk to other drivers and be friendly and have that comradery and then go fight it out on track.’

"He said, ‘You're not going to like that. If you like being here, focus on being here, being the best that you can be here, because you're not the type of guy who's not going to want to have friends or not the type of guy who's not going to want to be personable. Over there, they don't embrace guys like us.’

“It was a powerful thing for me, because at that time in my career, I was still thinking, ‘Well, maybe that's where I'd like to go.’ I was not 18 years old. And literally at that moment, speaking to him, I thought, ‘Yeah, that's not for me, being the driver who just shows up and you're a robot and you just don't talk and go out and drive and just try to beat your teammate and nothing else.’ That’s no kind of life. It was a really powerful lesson for me at a young age, in my life and in my career, of where I wanted to go and what I wanted to do.”

Barry Waddell, on coaching an F1 driver

“I had done many years of driver coaching, was with the Skip Barber school for a long time, got to instruct some amazing guys; Jeff Gordon, Juan Pablo Montoya come to mind first, and raced a lot myself. I got connected with the RuSport team that went from Atlantics with AJ Allmendinger to Champ Car, and that’s where I first worked with Justin. And so from right away, I had AJ and Justin going into that whole Champ Car thing, and Justin comes with F1 pedigree. You expect the ‘quiet stoics’ from an F1 drivers, doesn’t want to hear anything from a driver coach, so I thought, ‘this will be interesting...’ And it was fascinating. He was everything I didn’t expect.

“He was absolutely a sponge. Working with him absolutely became this high to me. A high-end communication on the driver's side. I’d tell him ‘You got to give me feedback what you're sensing. And the flip side of that is I can stand here on the outside, at the corners, and I can tell you what I'm seeing. And then we can go from there.’ And it was so much fun with him. And then there's AJ, who fits in here in this space differently.

“At the end of a test day, you’d look at the speed overlays between AJ and Justin, you go, ‘Are you guys even on the same track?’ I mean, for crying out loud. But they’d lap within the same tenth of a second. It was a great education for me. And it was a great education where I'm blending these two guys in so many ways, they complemented each other.”

Dario Franchitti, on regretting his choice of dining companion in Japan

“My brother Marino and I were talking one day and he said, ‘With Justin, I swear he's got hollow legs!’ It was like the drink almost had no effect on him, while we’re all falling down. There was the infamous Japan story where normally after the Motegi race, all the drivers go down to Tokyo and have a big night. And Justin and I decided we would keep it very mature, that we weren't partaking in that. And this year we were just going to stay at the hotel at the track, have a quiet dinner, and get up next morning and drive to get down to the airport, whatever. Well, one thing led to another, we're having a lovely dinner, and then Justin comes back from the bar with tequila shots.

“And this evening went from zero to a hundred percent madness in literally that one gesture. And then God, the next thing I remember, I was laying outside on the road, outside the hotel, looking up at the stars with the big man just chuckling away at me in such a sorry state. And then the next morning, the drive to the airport was hateful. It was such a horrible hangover. And I completely blame the big guy for that. It was totally his idea. And I for once was trying to be a responsible citizen and I was led astray!”

Graham Rahal, on Justin’s sense of honor and fair play

“If I can say anything about Justin Wilson, it goes all the way down to the week before he passed. He and I are battling wheel to wheel for the win at Mid-Ohio in 2015. If he wanted to ruin that race for me and steal the win, he could have easily done it. He could have easily done it. Did I brake extremely late on that restart to not give him the opportunity to pass? Of course. But if that's anybody else, anybody else, guarantee you they go around the outside on overtake [push-to-pass] when I have none, they immediately chop across my bow, block me to the best that they can to take the momentum, and they put you in a bad spot. Or just nudge you from behind, knock you around and open up the inside line.

“Now here's a guy who's a part-time driver at that point, who's been given a great opportunity by Honda to get his name back in the sport, get to the forefront. Here he is, an opportunity for this guy to go win a race for Michael Andretti. How big would that have been? In his career, that would have been a big win. It ended up being a big win for me, but that would have been a huge win for him to put his name back at the forefront to show ‘This is still who I am. This is what I can do. Somebody give me a full-time ride.’

Wilson's display of sportsmanship at Mid-Ohio three weeks before his accident made a lasting impression on Graham Rahal. Feistman/Motorsport Images

“And instead, here's the most gracious, fair, safe racer that you could ever have, that gives you the room and the ability to race into a corner for the win with 10 laps to go, hard as hell, but always giving you the space to reduce the opportunity for any sort of wrongdoing.

“I think that says a lot about his character. And I think the more people, if you really viewed that from my standpoint, I don't think people think about that enough. That was right at the end of his life. And trust me, I've thought about that moment a hell of a lot. I look back at those pictures on the podium a lot, because that's probably one of the most important days of my life. But it's also become one of the most influential days of my life, because I look back at who I was standing on the podium next to and who I was racing with for the win. So it was a really, really big moment for me.”

Dario Franchitti, on the secret society among British IndyCar drivers

“One of the things that any driver that comes to the U.K. will tell you about is out need for proper tea, whether was me, Justin, or Dan Wheldon. And the other thing was dairy milk chocolate. And yeah, they make the milk in the U.S., but it's not the same, it's completely different recipe. It tastes nothing like it. So we had this whole thing that every one of us was going back to the U.K., we would load up the suitcase to bring back for the British drivers. Every time we heard someone was going, it was, ‘Don't forget the dairy milk!’ You know, it’s like we became dealers! I had a fridge in my motor home that was full. I mean, literally, full of just slabs of dairy milk chocolate.

“And you would get this knock on the door, and it would be Justin, or Dan, … ‘Hey, hey, hey, hey mate, what you got?’ And we would sort of deal between us. And if I hadn't been home for a while and Justin was going, he would be the provider, or Dan would be it. And you know, it even got to the point that Jimmie Johnson became a fellow addict, and with him, I was like, ‘Listen, man, if you win a race, I'll give you some, but if you don't want to race, you don't get anything.’ And that was his motivation!

“And the big man was obviously, because he was so tall, he was constantly watching his weight and he was training like mad, but he would still have this illicit chocolate habit, too.”

Graham Rahal, on Justin being a leader in the IndyCar Driver’s Association

“That really was because everybody just respected his outlook. He wasn't a pessimistic guy. He wasn't a dramatic guy, which often we get. There's a lot of drama in what we do. There's a lot of people who are overly dramatic versus being open-minded, versus looking at things with a level head like Justin, asking, what can we do to be the best that we can be? What can we do to put on a good show? What can we do to improve driver safety and so on?

“And Justin was always a guy that everybody knew if he said something, it was going to be well thought-out. It was also viewed with precision, and from frame of mind that it was going to be best for everybody in the bigger picture versus what's best for me, and what's best for my team. I think that that's what everybody respected about Justin.”

Dario Franchitti, on Justin’s innate professionalism in heated circumstances

“Willy Power and I had one of our not infrequent, but this time fairly explosive, run-ins during the 2013 Sonoma race. I felt he pushed me off track and all that, so we start getting into it after the race. We're having proper ‘verbal,’ and I'm like, ‘You drove me off of the circuit.’ He's like, ‘I'm just paying you back for stuff you've done to me before.’ And then we start calling each other lots of words that begin with Fs and Cs.

“This is going off, now we’re on the podium and they're playing the Australian National Anthem – which I love – for Will, and it's playing and I'm going, ‘**** you, you coward, you ****.’ And he's going, ‘No, **** you. You piece of ****, you ****.’ And Justin, from the time we get out of the cars, to the time we start having a verbal, to the time we're on the podium just brutalizing off at each other, Justin does not say one word! He just stands there with that big old smile, just laughing at us. Honestly, not one word.

“Not, ‘Hey boys, calm down.’ Not, ‘You guys, be professional…’ He was the ultimate politician and just stood there, pissing himself laughing at these two idiots. It was just his reaction to it that I loved. I look over and he’s got the biggest smile, nobody knowing what we’re saying under our breath. He's just thinking, ‘You couple of clowns.’ Just look at the big guy though, what a poker face. I always think of him being the only adult on the podium that day.”

Three drivers but only one adult on the podium at Sonoma in 2013. Marshall Pruett

Mike Shank, on planning ahead with Justin

“I'm building this new relationship with Honda in 2015, and Justin is not done with IndyCar racing by any means, but we mapped out a plan for him to come to sports car racing when he was done there. And just so his kids know, that even though he was IndyCar racing, he was thinking forward to where he wanted to be and how he's going to support the family for the long-term.

“And we had a pretty good plan on where that was going to be. For him, maybe he had two or three more years of IndyCar left, but he was already working with me, working with Honda, helping me build that bridge there, and he’s still only like 36 or 37, but he's ahead of his time and ahead of the curve on thinking about stuff like this. And this was part of the greatness of him.

“And so, when I said, ‘Hey, what do you think if you helped me here in sports cars when you’re done in IndyCar, and you're going to be able to make a living still?’ he was all over it, not even a hesitation, not like some guys who fight to the bitter end to stay in IndyCar, even if it’s with a bad team or whatever. No, he was trying to figure out a way to set himself, and thereby his family, up for the future.

“I don't know, ultimately, if it would've ended up in an equity position in our team, but I can tell you that was his mindset, that was his thinking process. If he was still here, I guarantee you he'd be involved in what I'm going to be doing in the future. I just guarantee you.”

Barry Waddell, on WWJWD

“We’ll always be lesser for his passing, and quite honestly, I don't want to be over it. I don’t want to get past it and move on, because I'm better off having known him and had him in my life and still affecting my decisions and how I see the world. We all have to go on because you damn well know that's what he wanted us to do. Julia has done an amazing job raising the girls, and you want to tell them, ‘The best way you can honor him is go on and enjoy your life and represent his behavior.’

“Stefan stepped up to the plate in a very impressive way and really honored his brother trying to be there for them, and he would catch himself in any situation and ask, ‘What would Justin do?’ If you stop and ask yourself that question as a guidance for what you should do in any situation, ‘What would Justin Wilson do here,’ you're probably going to make a good decision.

“And that's reflected also in my son, Ben, who really was fortunate enough to know Justin, and in his professional life as a race car driver, when Ben’s faced with a tough situation, he’ll always stop and ask himself, ‘How do you think Justin would handle this? What do you think he would have said?’ And if you choose to take that and mimic that process, you're probably going to make a good decision and you're probably going to be happy with what you said or what you did in that situation. Justin’s grace under pressure is something we could all learn from.”

Ashleigh Mower