Jesse James "Jake" Carpentier

Jesse James "Jake" Carpentier, 57, died of heart failure Tuesday, Aug. 1, 2006, in Missoula.

Jake was born July 5, 1949, to James "Jim" and Irene "Noni" (Quequesah) Carpentier. Jake's life was filled with the love of his life, Babe, his children, grandchildren and, of course, racing.

For Jake only having had only a seventh grade education he accomplished a lot in his life. Jake worked for local farmers and then the Dupuis and Plum Creek sawmills.

He was self-employed for a time doing post-n-pole and selling those to the Tribal Post-n-Pole yard in Dixon. He then worked at the Dixon Post-n-Pole yard as a mechanic/welder.

Then he went to work for the Tribes under the Manpower program and then spent the remaining 20 years at the Salish & Kootenai Housing Authority. Jake started as a laborer (Maintenance Tech) and worked his way up to Inspector Supervisor Coordinator. Due to his health in August 2004 Jake had to retire.

In 1967 Jake met Laura "Babe" David and a year later they were married. Jake and Babe enjoyed 39 years together.

Together they raised their children — Brenda, Cindy, Chris, Brandi, Ginger and Shawn. They also raised their granddaughter Jacinda. They also considered many of their children's friends as their "adopted" children.

Jake would spend weeknights and weekends working on his stock cars from the C-Stock class to the Mod-4s. In 1971 Jake started his racing career at the former Pony Palace in Pablo and at the dirt track in Missoula. When the Pony Palace closed, Jake began racing at the Mission Valley Speedway, south of Polson.

When the speedway went from a dirt track to asphalt, Jake continued to race, build and sponsor stock cars, which were raced by his friends (George Mitchell, Bill Spooner and Bruce Stinger to name a few).

Jake also got his family into racing. He built cars for his sons Chris and Shawn. The boys raced Street Stock, Compact, Legends and Mod-4. Jake's dream was to have a class of his own race cars and in 2004 the dream became a reality with the Mod-4 class running at Mission Valley Speedway. His wife, and daughters Ginger and Brandi were also able to drive stock cars built by or sponsored by Jake's Improvement Shop. His daughters were all trophy girls as they grew up with their dad's racing. Jake lived by the motto "I don't cheat … I improve."

Jake also enjoyed the outdoors from fishing to hunting, but especially loved hunting with his sons, grandsons and his many friends. He hunted all over and especially loved his hunting trips to Jordan. In the past few years Jake was unable to go out and do the hunting that he was once able to do. During the fall of 2005, Jake was able to take short day trips out with his sons and friends on different hunting trips. He enjoyed this time with his sons as he was able to show them places he used to go and shared many stories and precious moments with his boys.

Jake was preceded in death by his parents, his daughter Cindy, his father-in-law Leo David; his cousin Bill; his sisters Charlene and Marlene and many other relatives.

Jake is survived by his wife Babe of 39 years; his daughters, Brenda (Rick) Dolence of Lark, N.D., Brandi (Chase) Toulou of Olympia, Wash., Ginger (Mike) Drake of Pablo; his sons, Chris Carpentier of Ronan and Shawn (Stephanie) Carpentier of Pablo; his grandchildren, Carlissa, Jacinda, Katreena, Camerron, Kruz, Sierra, Jasper, Savanna, and two grandchildren on their way; his brothers and sisters, Donald (Putt), Tracy, Wes, Bert, Marie, and Archie, as well as numerous other relatives. He is also survived by his six favorite dogs.

The funeral service was Aug. 5 at the St. Ignatius Catholic Mission. A memorial was held Saturday evening at the Mission Valley Speedway prior to the Ronan Pioneer Days Demolition Derby. Cremation has taken place per Jake's request.