The late John S. “Jack” Zink was a high profile team owner in Championship Car racing in the 1950s and 1960s. His cars won the Indianapolis 500 in 1955 and 1956. Zink brought his first car to the Indianapolis 500 in 1952 at the young age of 23, and entered every year through 1967, only once failing to put a car in the field. A Zink driven car also won the 1955 and 1958 National Championships, as well as the 1958 “Race of Two Worlds” at Monza, Italy, setting a new 500-mile speed record.
While Zink earned his renown as a car owner, he had his own latter-day stint as a driver in desert off-road races from 1972 through 1980. Zink won the Mexican 500, Cobra 300, Parker 400, and the Baja 500, where he drove his own specialty car the ZORR (Zink Off-Road Racer). Jack Zink was also a champion stock car driver, winning the National Superstock Drag Racing Championship. John Zink Specials won 13 National Championship races between 1955 and 1966. Zink was inducted into the Auto Racing Hall of Fame in May, 2004.
Jack was one of the pioneers of rear-engined racing cars and gas turbine propulsion in racing cars. In 1961 Zink designed a revolutionary car powered by a gas turbine. In 1962 a second rear-engined car was readied for entry, this time based on the 1961 Cooper and the Lotus 18, powered by a Boeing gas turbine. This car was later virtually duplicated as a Brawner Hawk series, driven to many victories in the mid-and late 1960s by Mario Andretti.
Jack, a Tulsa native, was a 1951 graduate of Oklahoma State University, with a degree in Mechanical Engineering. He was a member of Pi Tau Sigma, a Mechanical Engineering Scholastic Fraternity, and he has been inducted into the OSU Engineering Hall of Fame. He holds 35 US patents in combustion technology and automotive engineering. Zink was the heir to a considerable fortune from the John Zink Company, a manufacturer of industrial equipment, which was established by his father in Tulsa, Oklahoma, in 1929. The younger Zink grew the company into an international corporation before its sale to Koch Industries for $40 million in 1972. After the sale, Zink founded ZEECO, Inc., a worldwide corporation which designs and manufactures combustion equipment used in the petroleum refining and chemical processing industries worldwide.
As chairman of the John Zink Foundation, Zink oversaw the operation of the Zink Ranch which is a 30,000-acre camping facility which hosts more than 10,000 boy and girl scouts from around the world each year. The ranch also hosts hunters, fishermen, gun clubs, and motorcycle and car off-road competitions. Besides his great distinction in racing, he was an avid community benefactor. He served five terms as President of the Indian National Council of the Boy Scouts of America, Chairman of the Tulsa River Parks Authority, Oklahoma Wildlife Commission, Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation, Tulsa Area United Way, Hillcrest Medical Center Foundation, Oklahoma Foundation for Excellence, Oklahoma Junior Livestock Auction, Tulsa County Fairgrounds Trust Authority, Young President’s Organization and The Tulsa Foundation. John Zink passed away in a Tulsa hospital on February 5, 2005
