Colorado Region member John Coen of Olney, IL passed away Feb. 11th six days after his 74th birthday. He joined SCCA in 1962 when he and his wife Mimsie bought a ’63 split-window Corvette which they used to rally, hill climb and autocross.
In 1966, he and brother-in-law Dave Eagleson bought identical green “bug-eyed” Sprites and began a successful racing career in HP. He later bought a Datsun 2000 directly from Bob Sharp that Dave ran in DP.
When his daughter Annie met and married John Bonvouloir, he launched a second generation of drivers. A third generation followed when their son Jay joined his parents in the Spec 7 class.
His second daughter Carol brought Kevin Wenzel into the family where he excelled in Solo winning four National Championships and 2006 Solo Driver of the Year.
He and his son Chris took part in several road rallies.
In 1995 he helped Annie start Sign Edge Racecar Graphics and launched Jay into motorsports photography. He owned several classes of cars from FF, SRF, SSB-C, ITA-C and GP which John drove several to Divisional Championships. He also owned and sponsored a Honda CRX in the inaugural Playboy Endurance Series in 1985 that finished third in class behind the factory teams.
It has to be said that he was the greatest influence to his family’s involvment in SCCA and he will be greatly missed by friends and family alike.
