RIP Jay

On Friday just gone I received the gut wrenching news that site member Jason Betson (Jay) passed away. Jay has been a member of AE86irl since our very first year way back in 2006 and contributed hugely to the site especially in the early days.

There is not much that I can say about Jay which hasn’t already been said but I feel a short story of one of my own experiences with Jay sums up the type of guy he was … About 3 years ago I got stuck in Tullamore with a flat battery outside the NCT centre of all places –  Knowing Jay lived close by and that he was always willing to help I straight away thought to give him a call to see if he had a set of jump leads or a booster pack I could borrow, When I rang he had nothing on him and was stuck in work until 6, Any other man would have left it at that, but not Jay, he rang around his family and friends until he found someone with jump leads who could come down and meet me and sure enough someone arrived within 10 minutes, When I rang him back to say thanks he wouldn’t hear any of it.

It was the same story anytime I went to him for tyres – he would always insist on meeting me somewhere closer to save me the extra trip out to him and it truly is a testament to him that everyone who was lucky enough to have met him has a story to tell about how helpful and good natured he was.

Of course we can’t write a tribute to Jay without mentioning the mother of all crashes which he had when drifting his AE86 at Mondello….. After investing massive time and effort into his car he couldn’t be blamed for being pretty pissed off over it, But Jay being Jay he laughed it off saying ‘I just got a bit too cocky’.

It has been an honour and a pleasure to know him throughout the years and you could not meet a more genuine AE86 fan and enthusiast.

On behalf of myself personally and all at AE86irl – I would like to extend our thoughts and sympathies to Jay’s family and friends at this terrible time and we hope that you can take some small amount of comfort in knowing that his contributions within our community will live on for long to come.

RIP.