The Daily Gazette of Schenectady, New York has reported the passing of Jack A. Muldowney, Jr. of Niskayuna .  The former husband of four-time Top Fuel World Champion Shirley Muldowney passed away on Thursday, May 24th after losing a difficult battle with cancer.

As Ms. Muldowney told Torco’s CompetitionPlus.com, “I wouldn’t have had a career if it hadn’t been for Jack.  He taught me how to drive, how to do everything.”  Ms. Muldowney said she managed to see Jack before his passing, saying “I was very glad to have been there.  He was a remarkable man, and I’ve always liked the sound of his name, which is why I’ve kept it all these years.”

The Daily Gazette of Schenectady, New York has reported the passing of Jack A. Muldowney, Jr. of Niskayuna .  The former husband of four-time Top Fuel World Champion Shirley Muldowney passed away on Thursday, May 24th after losing a difficult battle with cancer.

As Ms. Muldowney told Torco’s CompetitionPlus.com, “I wouldn’t have had a career if it hadn’t been for Jack.  He taught me how to drive, how to do everything.”  Ms. Muldowney said she managed to see Jack before his passing, saying “I was very glad to have been there.  He was a remarkable man, and I’ve always liked the sound of his name, which is why I’ve kept it all these years.”

Jack Muldowney was a master mechanic who, among his other accomplishments, amassed a stunning 150 race wins at Fonda Speedway Drag Strip, where his former wife began her driving career.  When the pair met Jack was a local mechanic/”gas pump jockey” (as Ms. Muldowney once described him).  He began picking her up after work at the Dutch Boy Drive-In Restaurant, from which they’d cruise through town competing in a series of highly dangerous and illegal “stoplight” drag races in his customized ’51 Mercury.  From that humble beginning Jack built Shirley a series of drag racing Corvettes, and then her first B/Gas Dragster.   From 1966 through ’72 Jack’s Sinclair station on the corner of Union and Regent Streets in Schenectady housed all of his wife’s race cars, and was where he performed his mechanical wizardry on every vehicle that turned in at the driveway.

Jack was 70 at the time of his passing, and is survived by sons John W. and David M. Muldowney.