John
Hagen qualified 13th in the first-ever NHRA 500-inh Pro Stock race. He
reached the semi-finals. A young Greg Anderson was his crew chief.
A fatal accident twenty-five years ago cost drag racing one the truest
good guys that ever drove a Pro Stocker. The aftermath almost robbed
drag racing of a future star.
Multi-time champion Greg Anderson had a passion for learning the inner-workings of drag
racing and John Hagen was doing an admirable job of teaching his young
apprentice more than just what it took to turn on the win lights.
“I learned a lot of family values from him,” Anderson said. “What I
really learned was the value of hard work. We didn’t have the resources
so we worked very hard — every night until about midnight in the shop
and then we’d drive all night long to get to the race track. We did it
on a shoestring budget and he taught me what it took to compete in a
class and how hard you had to work and how you had to treat people.
Twenty-five years ago in Brainerd, a champion lost his mentor …
Anderson
left drag racing following Hagen’s death with no intention of ever
returning. Coaxing by Kurt Johnson, two years after the accident,
inspired him to return.
A fatal accident twenty-five years ago cost drag racing one the truest
good guys that ever drove a Pro Stocker. The aftermath almost robbed
drag racing of a future star.
Multi-time champion Greg Anderson had a passion for learning the inner-workings of drag
racing and John Hagen was doing an admirable job of teaching his young
apprentice more than just what it took to turn on the win lights.
“I learned back then to be good to the people that you race against and you have to live with at the race track, that’s kind of like your second family. I think it’s paid a lot of benefits for me down the road and allowed me to get where I am today. Those values I learned from him, how to treat people right whether it’s at the race track or in the grocery store. Clearly he was like a second father. He taught me a lot of values. I had it growing up with my father but John reassured it.”
Anderson was the last person to speak to Hagen before he lost control of his Pro Stock Plymouth Arrow and succumbed to injuries sustained in the high-speed accident.
Greg
Anderson said that John Hagen taught him a lot about Pro Stockers, but
his most valuable lessons were on life. Hagen provided Anderson with
his first job in drag racing.
“That experience absolutely knocked the wind out of me,” Anderson confided. “I got to see it first hand. I went running down the race track and got to the wreckage right away. It was the most gruesome scene that you’d ever seen in your life. It was a horrific scene. There were no guard rails, we were at Brainerd and there were no guard walls at the time.”
The vision of his mentor’s fatal accident was enough to push Anderson away from the sport until a persistent Kurt Johnson talked him into joining the Johnson family team as a crewmember.
“I miss him everyday,” Anderson said. “He was such a great guy and he has a great family. I still talk to his family all the time and they still come to the Brainerd race. The kids grew up to be great people. They’re married and have children now so it turned out great. I was scared because they were 9 and 12 years old then, they were at that age where they really needed their dad. He was just such a great guy that they lived in his memory and lived like he lived the rest of their lives and they turned out to be great so I’m very proud of them.”
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