Wisconsin dirt racing legend MJ McBRide has passed away.

[Krooser]

https://vimeo.com/155260739

[plunks7]

Very sad to hear this. R.I.P. MJ. And condolences to Family and friends.

[gjohnston]

It was a shock when my brother called me yesterday a few hours before the news of his passing broke on social media. Sad situation and my heart goes out to his family in a major, major way. I can't fathom what the past couple of days have been like for them. It hits a little close to home since my family has known the McBrides for at least 5 decades if not more.

He had a top-5 finish at the World 100 in about '73 or '74 but during the 80's was probably when you could say he was at the top of his game. MJ was pretty well funded through those years and you could say that his chief rival locally was Terry Anvelink who was not funded like MJ was. So you had sort of a "David vs. Goliath" thing going on. The fans of each driver would get whipped up into a frenzy and made it more of a "rivalry" than it was. Sure they wanted to beat one another but fans as they often do assumed that they hated each other which they didn't. You'd see the crews and fans of each driver ready to kill each other and off in a corner would be Terry and MJ laughing at what was going on over a few beers. There was a deep healthy competitive respect between them.

[mudslinger47]

RIP Sir...Condolences to the Family and friends..

[gjohnston]

Here's a link to an article from today's Green Bay Press Gazette.

http://www.greenbaypressgazette.com/...dies/80422860/

[Krooser]

The switch panel on my ex-McBride Mastersbilt... I would imagine the "Blackjack" reference was to his black cowboy hat...