Jean Paul Cabana

Competitor
CLASS OF 2007

Canadian-born driver Jean Paul Cabana, the youngest of 13 kids who grew up on a farm, was a fierce but fun-loving competitor, was part of the wide-open 1960s and 70s.

He began crossing the boarder in the late 1950s and found immediate success at Airborne Speedway, where he was track champion in 1967. He won multiple Late Model Championships at Vermont’s Thunder Road Speedbowl (1971, 1980) and Catamount Stadium (1971, 1973, 1974, 1984). He won the first race ever held at Catamount in 1965 and the final race (the ACT New England 300) on September 27, 1987.

Cabana raced up and down the east coast in some of the biggest Late Model races of the era, including 2 Milk Bowl wins at Thunder Road, plus multiple appearances in both the Martinsville Classics (including a couple Dogwood starts in the Modified portion of those events), the Oxford 250 and the Permatex 300 at Daytona.

Cabana was the inaugural champion of the Northern NASCAR Circuit in 1972. He remained one of the stars in the NASCAR North Tour from 1979-1985. He scored 5 wins each in 1981 and 1982, then a 6-win season in 1984. He scored 10 more wins when the series transitioned to the ACT Pro Stock Tour from 1986-1995.

During his career he also scored victories at other New England tracks such as Beech Ridge Speedway, Stafford Speedway and Thompson Speedway.