Art Meets Racing History: Jairus Watson Paints Again

If you ever followed THE PAINT BOOTH section of SLOTBLOG, you know about Jairus Watson. Jairus paints arguably the best lexan bodies of anyone alive, and hopefully will rank right up there with some of the noteworthy historical painters such as Dave Bloom, Brian Kovacs or Ray Gardner.

Jairus still maintains his web site Jairus Graphic Design http://www.jairuswatson.net/index.html where you can see a cross-section of his broad talents. His current venture, Rat Hole Customs  http://www.ratholecustoms.com/#! specializes in various Hot Rod and Customs tee shirts, hats, and posters. As for his HO slot car graphics-Auto World chose his talents on a blister card for the Auto World McLaren remake.

Unfortunately the economy took a toll on his thriving illustration business, but he has rebounded rather nicely with Rat Hole Customs work and a loyal base of slot car customers. Sadly, Jairus withdrew from SLOTBLOG because of the selfish actions of folks who could not understand that he needed to transition his life and regroup, something that perhaps more of us may need to do in the future. I waited patiently for whatever work he could produce, and the end result has been eighteen bodies and a vintage Russkit handle for me with hopefully many more in the future. Jairus has also recipricated in kind, as my wife put the brakes on any purchases to pay off the replacement flooring in our house in Rougemont. A true gentleman this Jairus Watson.

Jairus will tell you that he vastly prefers painting lexan slot car bodies. Knowing this, I was a bit reluctant to offer him my last order of three styrene bodies to be painted in historic liveries, but he gladly accepted them on top of his steady base of larger 1/24th scale lexan bodies and Hot Rod tee shirt and poster graphics orders. I should have the bodies in hand at the end of the month, and Jairus snapped some photos for approval. I chose to model the 1960 Agajanian Special, driven by Lloyd Ruby at Indianapolis to a seventh place finish-not bad for the A.J. Watson designed roadster whose plans were chalked on his Glendale, California  garage floor. Since I had a red Aurora Indy Roadster body, it seemed like a fitting choice.

The second roadster body was a Speedline Marx Willard Battery Special which I gladly purchased from our site founder. The front brake cowlings were removed so that the car would more accurately portray the A. J. Watson bodied 1964 Sheraton Thompson Special; which was the winning car as driven by the burley Texan A.J. Foyt. This was the last Indianapolis 500 win for a front-engined  Offenhauser powered roadster and the first win for A.J. Foyt.

The third body was a tan Aurora Cobra GT that had a severe case of roof rash which allowed an inexpensive initial purchase for the repaint into CSX 2287's Viking blue livery as raced at Daytona in 1964 by Bob Holbert and Dave McDonald. A fire in the pits abruptly ending a five lap lead to a sure first place finish.

I have written extensively on each of the real cars, and this continues my habit of portraying actual historic racers as my slot cars. The two Indy style bodies  begin the all Indy Pit Kit lineup, and the Cobra Daytona will be two down from finishing the all-Cobra Pit Kit. Of course, this could not have been possible without the fine talents of Jairus Watson, and I am truly grateful for his craftsmanship. Once the bodies are in hand and united to a chassis, I will follow-up of course. No point in having a cart without a horse. God Bless! Tony mgbbrown