Another long time racer has passed

The Central New York racing community lost another member this past Monday with the passing of 76-year-old Jon Button. He was a man who did almost every form of racing you could think of and he did them all well.

Joe Marotta has been working at racetracks for almost 50 years and watched Jon throughout his racing career.

"Jon was a true racer," Marotta said. "Whether it was a dirt track, an asphalt track or a dragstrip, he did it all and he did it well and he really enjoyed it. He was a true friend and I'm really gonna miss the guy."

He first met Jon at the Fulton Raceway dragstrip which was located where the pit area is today. He made an immediate impression.

"In comes this International Carryall and this guy gets out and this woman gets out and a bunch of kids get out," Marotta said. "It was towing this great big, long dragster. A double A Top Fuel Dragster What really impressed me, I watched them unload and push the car alongside of the hauler and everybody, all the kids, Margaret the wife and everybody had a little job to do.

"They prepped the car and they pushed it up onto the racetrack. Margaret was driving the Carryall to push it up and of course they had to push start it. And that baby fired up and it shook everything, the trees, the birds and the raccoons and everything. Jon lined it up and he took a run down and it was really a pretty good run."

Later in the day he got to meet the driver of the car that grabbed his attention earlier.

"A little while later this little short framed guy comes up and he says, 'Hey, can you tell me what I turned?' I said, 'Who are you?' and he says, 'Well I'm Jon Button.' I said, 'Oh, you had the dragster.' He says, 'Yep.' And I gave him his ticket, what he turned and from that day on, I knew Jon and Jon knew Joe."

In the coming years, many people would get to know Jon Button. He raced his dragster locally at tracks in Cicero, Savanna and Utica Rome. Later he bought a former Jimmy Shampine Coupe and raced that on dirt at places like Fulton, Utica Rome, Weedsport and Nazareth, Pa., against legendary drivers like Kenny Brightbill, Gerald Chamberlain and Frankie Schneider.

In the 1990s, he went to the other side of the fence and began working as an inspector for DIRT Motorsports in the sport's glory days when Glenn Donnelly was at the helm. His no-nonsense attitude was perfect for the job and it was tough to sneak something past the former racer who knew the tricks of the trade.

In his later years he became involved in vintage racing and restored two midgets, a sprint car and a champ car, all from the ground up. And he didn't restore them to sit and be looked at. He raced them.

A few years ago he took the cars down south and was named Florida State Champion. He often loaded all four cars onto a trailer and brought them to various cruise nights to show them off and remind people of the sport's roots.

Those cars are currently on display at the DIRT Motorsports Hall of Fame and Classic Car Museum in Weedsport. His sons are still involved in local racing today. His oldest son Gordy is in the Empire Super Sprints Hall of Fame and also successfully drove both modifieds and late models while younger son Mike is the all-time sportsman win leader at the Cayuga County Fairgrounds and still competes today at both Fulton and Utica Rome.

We may have lost a legend but his legacy lives on with his family's involvement and the race cars he so painstakingly restores. He will be greatly missed. May he rest in peace and enjoy racing in heaven.