A son. A father. A racer. That’s the legacy 33-year-old James Fox left behind after a medical emergency took his life.
Fox, who grew up in Navarre, was racing at Southern Raceway in Milton on Aug. 10 when he suffered what emergency responders called a “medical emergency,” sending him into the concrete barrier wall surrounding the track. Medical personnel flew him to Sacred Heart Hospital, where he later died.
Fox’s mother, Sherry, told the News Journal that her son suffered from a heart condition that caused the medical emergency on the track.
“I don’t know the exact term because I don’t know medical jargon, but I know it was his heart,” Sherry Fox told the News Journal. “His father and I have heart disease, but I really didn’t think he was that young that it would have hit him that fast.”
Despite his death at the age of 33, Sherry Fox says the impact her son has had on those closest to him is unparalleled. He leaves behind a legacy of friends, many of whom she didn’t even know existed until she received more than 1,000 messages from people who knew her son.
“I didn’t know he had that many friends until this incident, but they reached out to me and he touched a lot of people,” said Sherry Fox.
“He’s a rock. He’s everybody’s rock,” she added. “Everybody loved him.”
Although James Fox was born in Kansas and was a Kansas City Chiefs fan, Sherry Fox says her son was a Southern boy at heart, growing up in Navarre, where he eventually graduated from Navarre High School.
Nothing could dampen his love for racing.
He raced in his first race at Southern Raceway at age 14. Sherry Fox says he lived at the track, especially after his son Dakota started racing.
“(Dakota) had been racing since he was 7,” Sherry Fox said. “So he and his son were racing in the same class, the same kind of car.”
James Fox would race as number 29, alongside Dakota, now 15, who raced as number 724.
Dakota is one of James Fox’s seven children. Although most of his children are stepchildren, Sherry Fox said her son never used the word “step” — they were his children and he was their father.
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That extended family will be honored for James Fox’s funeral on Aug. 31, Southern Raceway said. The track has put together a racecar procession that will follow the 33-year-old’s family from Southern Raceway to his funeral site at 8951 Fortune Road.
“I want (the community) to remember how he helped you,” Sherry Fox said. “The day he came to you after you asked him to help you and he did, or whatever he said that you took to heart and made you feel good about my son, I want you to remember that always and forever.
“I raised a good son,” she added. “It makes me feel really good that I did a good job.”
This article originally appeared in the Pensacola News Journal: James Fox’s death at Southern Raceway leaves a legacy for thousands
