The Indiana team of Jack Rogers and C.J. Strupp along with C.J.’s husband and crew chief Steve Strupp were virtually unbeatable in a 1965 Ford Mustang, winning the Classic Division three times in 2014, 2017 and again in 2018.
It wasn’t always a smooth run though. Their rally was cut short in 2013 due to engine failure halfway through. A rollover couldn’t stop them from finishing in 2015, rolling across the finish line in their bruised and battered Mustang.
As Targa owner Robert Giannou recounted to Spotlight on Business Magazine, the pair were unstoppable even when faced with great adversity:
“We’ve had a lot of very interesting competitors show up here over the years. We had a team out of Indiana: Jack Rogers and a lady by the name of C.J. Strupp. C.J. and Jack would come here every year in an old Mustang and enjoy it thoroughly.”
“C.J. was diagnosed with cancer and she showed up at Targa (in 2014) with no hair. She still did the run. Her only complaint was that because she had no hair, there was no traction on the helmet. The next year, she came back with a full head of hair and a clear bill of health. They did really well, too. They did so well, in fact, that they were in second place in the last stage. They then barrel-rolled the car, landed safely, and drove over the finish line to great applause.
Targa is about people who want to persevere with life; people who recognize that life is very special that it has its dangers and that you might as well live it for all you’re worth. That’s what it’s about.”
C.J. and Steve have also seen success in the Chihuahua Express and La Carrera Panamericana in their Mustang. The pair own ECTA Motorsports LLC (formerly East Coast Timing Association), the principal sanctioning organization for Land Speed Racing in the Central United States with a strip in Blytheville, Arkansas. When not racing or building race cars for others, the Strupps stay busy running the same farm Steve grew up on in Southern Indiana.
Driver Jack Rogers is a successful realtor in Evansville, Indiana and a “gentleman racer”. In addition to Targa, he’s competed at La Carrera Panamericana and at Pikes Peak in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Rogers’ racing team holds multiple land speed records at Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah. He piloted his “757” Camaro to its first world land speed record of 225.366 mph.
Rogers’ career first began with Goodyear Tire and Rubber Co. in Akron, Ohio, and he later took a job with Boeing in Seattle. In 1968, he was drafted into the U.S. Army and spent a year in Vietnam after basic training at Fort Lewis near Tacoma, Washington. Rogers was injured in combat and received a Purple Heart and a Bronze Star.
When asked about the danger, he replied: “I have been through Vietnam. After that, nothing is terrifying.”
Photos: Ralph Saulnier
Sources:
Racing Ahead – Evansville Living Magazine
Meet Steve & CJ – ECTA Motorsports
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