Role at Riverside: Racer

In his native Quebec Jean-Paul Cabana is known as the “King of Stock Car Racing.” It’s no wonder why. In a racing career that spanned 40 years (1954-1994) he won more than 500 features at too many tracks to mention.

His visits to Riverside were during the NASCAR Busch North era in the late 70s and in the American Canadian Tour era of the early 90s. Highlight’s of Cabana’s career include a 1962 start in a Sportsman division (now Nationwide Series) race at Daytona Int’l Speedway where he drove an ex-Junior Johnson car to ninth place, he dominated north-eastern tracks and had mixed results in ventures further south to tracks in the Carolina’s and Virginia.

According to Cabana he never raced less than three times a week during his career, and usually ran five nights a week. He is credited for helping New England NASCAR standouts Kevin Lepage and Ricky Craven get their starts. After his retirement from the driver’s seat Cabana operated a driving school at Quebec’s Sanair Speedway and even did some announcing at Quebec tracks.

Jean-Paul Cabana was inducted in the Canadian Motorsports Hall of Fame in 2001.