Jake Lada

Jakubas Lada (known as Jake Lada) (December 9, 1934 - February 5, 2019) was a CARCA Racer. He spent 1985-1990 in prison after being wrongly convicted of a bank robbery.

1965-1970
Lada made his name known when he made his CARCA debut in 1965 at the age of 31. He spent 1965-1970 racing in CARCA for various teams, before forming his own team in 1969. He never won in these seasons.

1971-1980
This was the dawn of Lada's career, running a few Piston Cup races and running full-time in CARCA. He hated newer drivers, like Aleksandr Porschonovitch. Porschonovitch was killed in a crash in 1972, and all wheel-pointing was on Lada. He swiftly denied it, saying that he was involved in the accident, but didn't kill Porschonovitch. In 1973, Lada recieved a 2-year suspension from CARCA due to Porschonovitch's death. He returned to CARCA in 1975, but he was now a hated racer. He won in 1979, but was stripped of his win when it was revealed he was taking performance enhancing drugs. In 1980, his son Ezekiel Lada was born.

1981-1985
He raced competitively in 1981 and 1982, but in 1983, he nearly killed Randy Gamington. His rivalry with Gamington went on for some time, but in 1985, he nearly killed him again. A day after his win at Florida International Speedway in 1985, he was arrested on charges of robbery. He was sentenced to 5 years in prison, but he was wrongfully convicted.

1990
He made his final start this season at Elko, and lost.

Post-racing/Personal Life
In 1957, he married Jeanette, his longtime girlfriend. They had 4 kids: Jake Jr., Ezekiel, Maria, and Terry. Jake was born in 1967, Maria in 1970, Terry in 1972, and Ezekiel in 1980. He had 8 biological grandkids, Jake III, Mitchell, Samantha, Will, Olivia, Jaylnn Jo, Zakarias, and Owen. He also had 6 adopted grandkids: Jalen, Jevon, Jun, Junichi, Akinori, and Akara. In his later life, he had engine problems due to his use of performance enhancing drugs as a CARCA racer. His health very slowly got worse over the years, and his condition went downhill in late 2018. He died in a nursing home on February 5, 2019.