John Sochi

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## John Sochi

* 1978-?
* 1977
* 1976
* 1972-1975

## General

### Occupation

Racing driver
Team owner

### Nationality

Russian-American (always raced under the American license)

### Model

Crown Longbridge (1972-1977)
Capitol Motors Twin Turbo (1978-present)

## Racing

### Sponsor

Iceland (1972-1975)
John Sochi Racing (1976-present)

### First Year

1972 (Europe)
1979 (IAAR)

### Last Year

1978 (Europe)
1996 (IAAR)

### Piston Cup Bumper Save Pro Series Wins

113 wins
2 cups (1987 and 1994)

### Piston Cup European Series Wins

30

**Johnathan Sochi** (June 16, 1951 in Fort Collins, Colorado) is a Russian-American team owner and former driver in the Piston Cup European Series from 1972 to 1978 and the Piston Cup Cyber Car Series from 1979 to 1996. He owns John Sochi Racing and drive for his own racing team from 1976 to 1996. Before he was sponsored by his own racing team, he was sponsored by Iceland from 1972 to 1975 before he ended sponsorship with the British supermarket for his own team he founded in 1976. In 1997 John adopted John Sochi Jr. who currently races for John Sochi Racing since 2017. John is a 1978 Capitol Motors Twin Turbo. He was replaced in 1997 by Adrian Kevinson. John was nicknamed “The Black Dragon” for his fierce driving style and black paint, and even the John Sochi Racing cars are often nicknamed “The Black Dragons”, and “John the Conquerer” for winning a lot of races in both his championship years.

He is the winner of the 1987 and 1994 Bumper Save Pro titles. He also won 20 and 16 wins of those two seasons respectively.

## Career

### Piston Cup Europe

#### 1972-1975 - Pre-JSR

John debuted in 1972 for the Iceland sponsor in Piston Cup Europe. He had a rookie win at Hockenheim and was rookie of the year. In 1973 and 1974 he was better and won 4 races in those two years and even avoided Olga Cecic’s infamous 1974 Welsh-Marlboro 600 finale lap 2 collision. In his final year with Iceland. John won 4 races and placed 4th in the standings narrowly beating Bel White. He became famed for that and soon decided to found his own racing team.

#### 1976-1978 - Post-JSR

John, with the help of shopping giant and primary sponsor of Buff Posey, Albertsons, founded John Sochi Racing in 1976, racing with a white and blue livery. In 1976 he had won 5 races and dominated all the laps of the Spa 500, giving him a modest 6th in standings. Then in 1977 he became financially dependent in Albertsons and was repainted in the iconic black, grey, and red livery and won 6 races in ONE YEAR. John was now beginning to be beyond a simple prospect and was slowly becoming a legend in the making. However it all hit off in 1978 when John, who had taken surgery, won 10 races, just 2 less than champion Henrik Wolsey, but after his tenth victory came the final race, now at Germany, where he crashed at the Nurburgring and flipped 4 times, disqualifying his chances for the title completely, causing John to leave the European Series and move to America, where he entered himself as a rookie for the 1979 Late Model Season. In total he had won 30 wins altogether.

### Piston Cup Cyber Car Series

#### 1979-1984 - Early years

In 1979, John quickly recovered from the tragedy of 1978 and put himself to work, where he won 4 races and became rookie of the year, scoring double the points of the next rookie. In 1980 John did even better and won 6 races. Entering 1981-1983 he won 11 races, earning him the nickname of the Black Dragon. However tragedy struck again in 1984 where while he placed second in the title narrowly beating Bel White winning about 5 races he indirectly caused the infamous 1984 Lightyear 300 crash where he crashed into Ruby Summers and caused her to lose her lives. Overall John’s early Cyber Car Series years were pretty excellent yet still had a tragic end.

#### 1985-1994 - Champion

Unhappy at 1984, John had a major slump in 1985 where he only won 2 races and dropped from 2nd in 1984 to 9th. In 1986 he did a bit better placing 4th in the championship with 6 wins overall. However in 1987 he dominated the season.

In the 33 races of 1987, John won 20 of them, an instant record. When passing the finish line in the 1987 Leak Less 300, John famously described the experience as “an overall combination of overjoyed hysteria.” Soon afterward John finally gained the “John the Conquerer”.

He was still great in 1988 and 1989 finishing 3rd with 4 wins overall and 2nd with 7. In the early 90s John was still a great racer winning a lot of races (18 overall). However in 1994 John won his second championship by winning 16 races. In 1995 and 1996 John still did decent winning 14 races altogether before retiring in 1996, ending what many believe to one of the most glorious careers in the Cyber Car Series.

John is considered one of the greatest Cyber Car racers ever. He inspired many racers, especially his sons Jacob and John Jr. and successor Adrian Kevinson, who John was a father figure to.

## Personal Life

John currently lives in Miami, Florida, he is married to Cheryl (1952) and has 5 sons and one daughter. Jacob (1976), Daniel (1978), Ivan (1980), Bonnie (1984), Jack (1990), and John Jr. (1994, adopted). Of them 4 are involved in motorsports. Jacob and John Jr. are both IAAR racers, Bonnie is a crew chief in the Road Course Series, and Ivan is a two-time Dirt Series champion in 2010 and 2013.

## Trivia

* John had the idea of creating JSR was because of a new crew chief he had in 1974 who he fired for being mean to the pitties and being too incompetent with his guidance leading to only 1 win that year compared to 3 in 1973 and the Iceland team owner being an absolute snob causing him to want to be his own boss and stop hiring incompetents for crew chiefs.