From the Asheville Citizen-Times:
Mementos stolen from Asheville racing icon Ingram
Grandson charged in the case
Jul. 14, 2011 CANDLER Legendary race car driver Jack Ingram accumulated his share of mementos from a stellar racing career from rings in honor of championships to medallions awarded by a sponsor. That made the theft of $5,000 worth of items like those saddening and the phone call offering their return for a price infuriating, Ingram said. Deepening the pain was the arrest Thursday of his 25-year-old grandson in connection to the case. Buncombe County Sheriff's investigators charged Jackson Layne Ingram with breaking and entering and larceny, according to warrants at the Buncombe magistrate's office. Sheriff's office Lt. Randy Sorrells confirmed the investigation but gave little information about the case. Items stolen from Ingram's Candler home include a diamond ring he was awarded by NASCAR for winning the 1982 Busch Series championship. His wife's 1957 Reynolds High School class ring also was taken. Someone also took an assortment of gold and diamond jewelry a 1985 championship ring presented to him by his racing sponsor, a Skoal Bandit medallion and Elgin watch. It's devastating, he said. You can't just go out and buy another ring like that. And who would want it if it was reproduced? I don't know how you could put a price on it, he said. Ingram, 74, declined to discuss his grandson and said he has not talked with him since the arrest. Investigators believe the jewelry was taken on the night of June 29, though Ingram and his wife Aline didn't notice the theft immediately. The couple had gone out to dinner that night and were away from home about an hour and a half, Ingram said. Several days later, a man Ingram did not know called him and said he had the jewelry, proposing that Ingram pay him $1,000 for the return of the items. I told him I wasn't going to do it, Ingram said. He said sheriff's detectives developed Jackson Ingram as a suspect after canvassing the neighborhood. They talked with the neighbors about anybody they might have seen, he said. They said he (Jackson) was there.
According to the N.C. Department of Corrections, Jackson Ingram has prior convictions dating to 2005 that include obtaining property by false pretense, breaking and entering, larceny, drug possession, hit and run and DWI. He served more than a year in state prison before his release last September following a conviction for obtaining property by false pretense. But Ingram said he still has affection for Jackson. I always will, he said. He's our grandson. Jackson Ingram, of Justice Ridge Road, Candler, was being held Thursday at the Buncombe County Detention Center in lieu of $5,000 bond. Jack Ingram was among 2011 nominees to the NASCAR Hall of Fame. An Asheville native who still operates his race shop off Brevard Road, he won three straight championships (1972-74) in the Busch Series Grand National Division and a fourth when the division was reorganized into the NASCAR Busch Series in 1982. He won his fifth championship in 1985 and won 31 Busch races. The NASCAR Hall opened last year in Charlotte, and Ingram built a car that is on display there.
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updated by @dave-fulton: 07/08/18 08:58:02AM
