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spk57
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 Re: ****Paul Hacker****
HELLO,
SO sorry to hear! Paul will be missed by ALL
spk57
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8/29/2009, 10:57 pm
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ZX2 2000
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Re: ****Paul Hacker****
I am just at a lost for words. Here I sit with tears in my eyes.
Paul and I go way back. We ice raced when when it was new. Then Paul went road racing.
I'll never forget, after Paul had won the Car & Driver Challenge at Lime Rock, I went over to congratulate him. So he says,I quit ice racing because I got tired of looking at this guys tailpipe.
Then when he came back to race in the SL class and he and I had some good races, he always said to me that he hoped he would be able to race when he reached my age.
Race on my friend.
---
Dick Vedder
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8/30/2009, 11:00 am
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Dave 48
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Re: ****Paul Hacker****
This is really sad news. Paul was a really great guy and an outstanding driver. He was a real asset to AMEC in the last few years. As Claude mentioned Paul always had new ideas in fact every time we spoke he had new ideas it got hard to keep track of them all, many of them turned out to be really awesome deals especially when it came to helping out the SL class. His shoes will be hard to fill in AMEC and we will all miss him for a long time.
He drove in almost every class of car there was from Ice to Trans AM I believe he made his living at it for quite a long time and that’s something most of us only dream about doing. I know he really enjoyed ice racing and was looking forward to 2010. That’s really sad that he won't be around to show the new guys how it should be done. Our prayers go out to Paul and his family.
Dave and Jamie Burnham
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8/30/2009, 4:53 pm
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phil 17sl
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Re: ****Paul Hacker****
Some of you may know that Paul and I often traveled to meetings together and as a pair of wall-bending snorers (something Mike Kamm can attest to) usually shared lodging as well, at AMEC's away races.
So I had a head start on getting to know Paul. I can say without any doubt, he loved racing probably more than anyone I've ever met.
Over the years I heard the details behind the many pro races he won for Volkswagen and General Motors as a paid factory driver. You wouldn't believe how hard he worked and what he sacrificed with his brother Karl for those championships and the other successes they had.
We all know a driver has to be exceptional to wind up on a factory payroll. And Paul was one of those exceptional drivers. I like to say he had the "gift."
The "gift" is what separates very good drivers from the very best. Paul had it. Had the money been there for equipment and the timing more opportune, a long and successful professional racing career would have been likely.
When Paul returned to AMEC a few short years ago, we all saw that gift play out. His winning ways were there for all to see.
It should come as no surprise when I say Paul had a genuine appreciation for AMEC. AMEC was where he had first ice raced. The Street Legal class was where he had returned and where he had enjoyed himself immensely.
It was, he said, where the racing was the way it used to be: Pure, simple and very competitive. Like the true champion he was, he welcomed competition. And like a champion, it was where he again found the podium.
I know I echo the many thoughts now reflecting on Paul's untimely passing, when I say it was our good fortune that he decided to come back and race with us. He touched our lives with his friendly and helpful way. We are all the better for it!
Phil LePore
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8/31/2009, 12:04 am
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chutch84
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Re: ****Paul Hacker****
here are some more...Paul appears to been quite the guy back in the day
Story Quoted from www.theracesite.com
Link to orignal story
By Dave Arnold
Paul Hacker, who, between 1979 and 1994, won 11 Drivers' Championships and 52 individual professional races while competing in the SCCA VW Scirocco and Rabbit Cups, IMSA International Sedans, and IMSA Firestone Firehawk Endurance series, and many other series, died tonight at his home in Valatie, NY, after a brief illness. He was 62.
Usually racing alongside his younger brother Karl, with minimal crew but with the fearsome "Hacker Express" team name, Paul made his first semi-professional Winner's Circle appearance in the 1975 Car & Driver Showroom Stock Challenge at his home track, Lime Rock Park.
He won 52 professional races in the 16 years between 1979's SCCA VW Cup race at Riverside, Calif., and 1994's IMSA Firestone Endurance race at Portland, Ore., sharing an Oldsmobile Achieva with Buddy Norton.
Along the line he won the 1976 SCCA VW Scirocco Cup season championship without winning a single race, and 1981-83-84-85 VW Cup season titles in Rabbits and Golfs. He holds that series' record for race wins, 21, including a dominating seven in nine races during the 1983 season.
He added to his series championship total with 1986-87 titles in the ProStock division of IMSA's International Sedan series racing Volkswagen Golfs.
Paul stuck to Volkswagen products despite a 1985 switch to join IMSA's new Firestone Firehawk Endurance Championship series.
In that series' second race weekend, St. Louis in 1985, he became the only driver to win two classes on the same weekend - the Compact class with a VW Golf, and the Touring class in a Toyota MR2 with car owner Bob Henderson and Craig Horning.
In addition his VW SCCA series thru 1987, Paul also won 23 races in the Firehawk series between 1985-94, setting two series records -- 102 top-10 finishes, and four season Drivers' Championships - 1985's Compact class in a VW Golf, 1988's Touring class in a VW GTI, and 1989 and '91 titles in factory-assisted Oldsmobiles.
"Paul was a 'racer's racer,'" said former GM executive Dennis Weglarz, who headed Oldsmobile's involvement in the Firehawk series and shepherded the Hackers' fleet of Olds Achievas starting in 1989.
"Paul was as dedicated as anyone I have ever known from showroom stock to Indy or NASCAR. He was as equally good at strategy as driving. Proof was the 14 races and two Manufacturer Championships he won for Oldsmobile while running a naturally aspirated car against turbos in the IMSA Firehawk series. Paul always conducted himself with integrity, someone you could count on, who well represented Oldsmobile, and will be missed as a friend," Weglarz said.
Peter Schwartzott, a long-time competitor to Paul - but always a friend - recalled a VW Rabbit race at Mosport Park, and a post-race incident between Paul and fellow racer Lou Gigliotti.
"Lou was not happy with Paul for this reason or that and came over to confront him in the paddock. Lou was a high school wrestling coach and was built like a brick house, and with a temper to match the best of ethnic stereotypes. He stood directly in front of Paul's nose and was about to rip Paul's head off. The crowd gasped. Lou's hand went for Paul's head but missed. However, he grabbed Paul's hat and all with the super-human strength of the temporarily-insane, ripped it to tiny pieces, threw it on the ground, turned and stomped off.
"Paul and I looked at each other, eyes as big as saucers then broke up in hysterics. Or was it relief?" Schwartzott said. "Here we are watching two passionate guys doing what they loved, and the next race they were hugging one another. These were the best of times. Paul was a genuine gentleman and friend."
"Paul would win endurance races by putting in solid laps, never blinking an eye. You could check the stop watch with his laps," Gigliotti recalled.
"I met Paul at Watkins Glen at the first VW Scirocco Side Winder challenge in the stone ages (75)," Gigliotti said. "He and I won an IMSA Firehawk race at Road Atlanta. Paul put a plastic bucket (from the hotel room) filled with ice cubes on the passenger seat for me to chew on during the race. It was the first cool box that I ever saw. It was melted water by the end and all over the seat, but it worked."
(Then) Up-and-coming competitor Randy Pobst added another memory of Paul: "At season's end I won a couple races ... Linda and I stumbled into the awards banquet late after having the win stripped by the SCCA stewards in St Petersburg, feeling two inches tall. Paul and Karl later stepped to the podium and presented us with their own 'Real Racer' award. What a wonderful gesture, the timing could not have been better."
"Paul's father, Lou, owned an auto salvage yard," noted Paul's nephew, Jed Hacker. "Both Lou and Paul's mother raced on the Lebanon Valley Raceway near Albany. Paul and my dad, Karl, used to play in the junkyard as kids, racing each other on foot over the tops of cars, or throwing a hubcap or fender as far as they could and see who could get to it first."
Paul is survived by his wife of 38 years, Jean; daughters, Ryan and Kristi; grandson, Aaron; a granddaughter; his mother, Jane; sisters, Diana, Nancy, Karen; and a brother, Karl.
At Paul's request, his ashes will be spread at Lime Rock Park at a future date.
*edit* fixed formatting.
Last edited by Mark Long, 8/31/2009, 7:11 pm
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Claude Hutchings
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8/31/2009, 6:39 pm
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Dave 48
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Re: ****Paul Hacker****
Thanks for finding and posting that Claude I don't think most of the young guys in the club know how good Paul really was. 11 championships is a huge accomplishment. He brought that same dedication to ice racing.
Dave Burnham
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9/1/2009, 7:47 am
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40SAAB
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Re: ****Paul Hacker****
You will be missed fearless leader. Our thoughts and prayers are with your family.
Mark Pizor
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9/2/2009, 8:50 am
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STAN WADDLE
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Re: ****Paul Hacker****
Paul will be greatly missed, I learned a lot from him and he was a good teacher, I know he showed me a lot of patience. He did have a lot of different ideas and I'm sure that was due to all of his experiance. Our prayers and well wishes to Paul's family at this sorrowful time. It just goes to show you that you never know, so treat all with respect and kindness. Paul will be missed.
Stan Waddle (33 SL)
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9/2/2009, 2:47 pm
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Turbo29DFC
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Re: ****Paul Hacker****
Hi Jean:
I want to send my deepest condolences on your loss. I was shocked to read about it last week, and it brought back a lot of wonderful memories for me of time spent with you and Paul at EMSC, ice racing with NYSIRA, and at Lime Rock and Watkins Glen. The memory of those times caused me to search out an autocross this past weekend, for the first time in over 25 years! The fond memories of old were fresh again for me, and in some small way, they paid tribute (for me) to Paul, and the great legacy and influence that he leaves. Paul's spirit of fun, competitiveness, and fair play remain strong within me as aspirations.
Mark Leonard
Champaign, Illinois
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Ice is for Racing, Asphalt is for getting there!!
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9/9/2009, 9:00 pm
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OffThePace
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Re: ****Paul Hacker****
I just read the thread this morning and have been thinking about Paul all day.
I only knew him for one racing season but I gravitated towards him because of his character. I ended up spending much of my time at the races hanging out with him in hopes of learning how to be faster. He was a character. He always had something interesting to say or a story to tell. He was extremely intelligent, informed, and opinionated. This made talking with Paul interesting and debating a topic with him fun and enlightening.
I enjoyed my time with him and I wish I had gotten to know him better and learn more from his experiences. Paul was a friend and I will miss him.
I send my condolences to Paul’s family and friends.
Michael Waterhouse (03 SL)
Last edited by OffThePace, 9/15/2009, 9:30 pm
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9/15/2009, 9:29 pm
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