Ed Justice Sr., who with brothers Zeke and Gus founded the international oil additives company that bears their name, has passed away due to complications from kidney failure.
Prior to creating their own company, both Ed and Zeke worked for Frank Kurtis helping craft the racecars that made his name legendary. They pioneered the use of Dzus fasteners on those machines, and Ed was also skilled as a painter of cars.
Born to Harry and Anna Justice on June 12, 1921, in Paola, Kansas, Ed’s first business was renting bicycles that Zeke had rebuilt, but the brothers soon headed west to California because it was the technology center for their personal passions of hot-rodding and Indy car racing. With $2,500 from the sale of a midget they had built, the brothers started their eponymous company and began establishing their place in racing history.
To help publicize their line of oil additives, the brothers sponsored one of Kurtis’s entries at Indianapolis in 1950, and when Johnnie Parsons drove that two-year-old Kurtis KK1000 into victory lane at race’s end, their Wynn’s Friction Proofing logo was right there on its nose.
Their emerging marketing savvy also played a role in the formation of NASCAR, as they provided crews and officials with sun-shading pith helmets featuring the soon-to-be-ubiquitous Wynn logo. The involvement of the Justice Brothers in the sport has been a constant ever since.
Ed is survived by his sister, Marie, his son, Ed Jr., and his second wife, Linda, as well as their respective families, to whom VR extends its sincerest condolences.
