Jeffrey Michael Gordon was born on August 4, 1971 in Vallejo, California. His only sister, Kimberly, is four years older. Since he was a young boy, he’s had a love of racing. His stepfather got Jeff Gordon a BMX bike when he was four, and a Quarter Midget race car when he was five. By the time Gordon was eight, he had won his first Quarter Midget championship. Since that time, the race car driver has been in the winner’s circle many times. Read this informative article and find out some little known facts about NASCAR driver Jeff Gordon!
Gordon won two more Quarter Midget championships, then he won four Go-Kart championships. A little known fact about NASCAR driver Jeff Gordon is that he was eleven years old when he won the Quartermidget Nationals. By the time he was a teenager, Jeff’s parents, John and Carol Bickman, knew his future as a race car driver was locked in. He needed to advance his skills by racing against adults, so the family packed up and moved to Pittsboro, Indiana. There were plenty of race tracks, and, despite his young age, Jeff Gordon could race sprint cars with his parents’ consent.
Uprooting the family and leaving California meant that Gordon’s stepfather also left his manufacturing business. But, they felt it was a step in the right direction in order to further Jeff Gordon’s racing career even though money was tight after the move.
Racing was Jeff Gordon’s passion, but he did graduate from Tri-West High School in 1989. By the time he finished his schooling, he had more than one hundred race wins under his belt. Every Friday, he would either leave school early or not go at all so he could make the long trips to some of the tracks he raced at. A little known fact about NASCAR driver Jeff Gordon is that, on his graduation day, he grabbed his diploma then headed off for a race in Bloomington.
Jeff Gordon became the youngest winner of the USAC Midget Championship in 1990 when he was just nineteen. Despite his successes, his stepfather recommended that Gordon sign-up for the Buck Baker Racing School. It was there that Jeff Gordon got into a stock car and found his seat in racing- he wanted to race stock cars! And now you know how he went from a four-year-old racing a BMX bicycle to a man racing professionally. Less than a decade later, in 1998, Jeff Gordon became one of NASCAR’s “50 Greatest Drivers.” His racing career has been amazing!
Jeff Gordon is quoted as saying, “So much of my life is spent just focused on driving race cars.” But he did take some time to fall in love in 1993 and marry Brooke Sealy the following year. Not surprisingly, Sealy was “Miss Winston”, the beautiful model who handed Gordon his trophy after he won a Busch race. However, the couple divorced in 2003.
Gordon began dating Belgian model Ingrid Vandebosch in 2004, and their wedding took place on November 7, 2006 in Mexico. By the time the couple married, Gordon was a four-time NASCAR champion. Their daughter, Ella Sofia Gordon, was born on June 20, 2007.
A little known fact about NASCAR driver Jeff Gordon is, that he and Ingrid actually met while she was filming the movie Taxi in 2004. She played the part of a bank robber and Gordon made a brief, surprise appearance in the film.
Another little known fact about NASCAR driver Jeff Gordon is that, besides racing and his family, he actually does have other interests. The five-foot-seven-inch celebrity likes to watch the television show Friends. He enjoys playing the Tiger Woods golf video game and he began selling the “Jeff Gordon Collection” in fine wines in 2005.
