It’s true that there are a lot of people in Oneida County who recognize Ed Jones.  Born and raised here, he’s also been a local business fixture at E.T. Kustom Sales downtown right next to City Hall (where he and Wendy also spent many years in various roles with the Chamber of Commerce), and just down the road from the Fire Station, where he has served as a fireman for the last almost 45 years.  Friendly, funny, and blessed with infectious smiles, Ed and his wife Wendy are community leaders of the sort that eventually everyone gets to know.

But it turns out that Ed is also a familiar face to a much larger group of people—fans of drag racing and “wheelstanders” all over the world.  His Jelly Belly Stage Coach (which has also been a Jolly Rancher stagecoach in the past), along with his two other wheelstanding vehicles, have delighted and amazed audiences from Germany and Japan all the way to Main Street, Malad.

“Wheelstander” is the name for a specialized drag racing vehicle that races on its two rear wheels. Because of the unusual angle at which this puts the driver relative to the road, and the relationship between the car’s ability to drive in such a configuration and the brakes required to do so, it takes a lot of skill and practice to become adept at it.  And Ed Jones has not only become adept, but one of the world’s small number of drivers capable of operating a machine like he does.

After a career spanning four decades, Ed was recognized by the NHRA (National Hot Rod Association) with his induction into the 2023 NHRA Hall of Fame at a ceremony in Portland this winter.  As Wendy explains, when he was introduced NHRA Division 6 Director Mike Eames said, “I’ve had the pleasure of knowing Ed Jones literally all my life, and the guy is the premier of drag racing.  From one end of the globe to the other this guy has been doing it on two wheels.  I think Ed is responsible for more smiles to the faces of drag racing fans than any other person in drag racing history.  With his wife Wendy by his side, and his kids Todd and Stacey too, it’s impossible to have a bad day when you’re around Ed Jones.”  It turns out Mike Eames wasn’t exaggerating, either.  “His dad was the starter at the very first race of the Stage Coach,” Jones said.  “He actually signed my license for NHRA back in…76, and we’ve been very good friends with the family ever since.”

As much as Ed is surely deserving of the honor, he makes certain to state right away that none of it would or could have happened without Wendy, who has been with him through it all.  “Our involvement together started way back when we bought the car,” Ed says.  “We’ve done it all together,” Wendy says.  He in fact dedicated the award to Wendy, and says that he wouldn’t have accepted it for just himself.  The award was presented at the NHRA End of Year Awards, which recognizes the champions of Drag Racing’s various classes (“from the Juniors on up”), as well as special awards like Ed’s HOF induction, and the World Champion.  Between two and three hundred people were in attendance.  

When asked how the trip to Portland was, Ed says, “It was great…until we got to Portand!”

Wendy clarifies that the trip took place during the recent winter storm that brought blizzard conditions into Idaho, and made a mess of Oregon.  “We were stuck in the hotel for three days,” Wendy said.  “We had people call us up and say ‘I can’t make it to the awards—a tree just fell on my house,” Ed enjoins.  “We couldn’t get an earlier flight home, so we were there at the Sheraton.  We enjoyed it actually, though it was blowing so hard the room down the hall had a window blow open and filled up with snow—that’s how bad it was.”

In addition to the weather, Ed was also sick with a cold that affected his voice.  “I couldn’t even hardly talk.  I didn’t know if I was going to make it through or not.  I told everyone there that if I couldn’t, Wendy was going to take over.  I did make it through, but it wasn’t my normal deal.”

The two started as high school sweethearts, right here in the Malad Valley.  After Ed graduated Malad HS, he moved to Las Vegas train as an aircraft mechanic.  While he didn’t pursue that line of work exactly, he did end up buying a new 1968 Camaro and taking up drag racing.  Before long he moved to Utah to be closer to Wendy, who he married in 1970.  Four years later, they found themselves with two children, Todd and Stacey, and they decided that racing was too expensive for their growing family.  Two years later, though, things all changed.

After a tip from a friend, Ed and Wendy used all of their savings, borrowed some money and bought a wheelstanding stagecoach in Pennsylvania. After hauling it back west, Jones prepped for a professional life on two wheels.  He spent two years on the licensing process and practiced wheelstands on the old, closed-off stretch of highway that was the old Interstate highway. He licensed in Denver under the watch of fellow exhibition racers and went on his first tour at three Texas tracks and in Tucson, Arizona. All that was missing was a gimmick that would really please the fans. When performing his stunts at Lagoon, they placed the car with some ‘Wanted’ posters behind it that said Ed “The Outlaw” Jones (taken after a popular 70s country group featuring Willie Nelson and Waylon Jennings group), and that was how it started. Jones’ personality doesn’t exactly match the name of “The Outlaw,” however. In fact, those who know him say he is just the opposite.

After running the Stage Coach for many years, Jones and Company built a wheel standing Fire Truck in 1987. Both vehicles are authentic reproductions - one an 1875 Concord stagecoach and the other a 1931 Chevy fire engine. In 1992 they built an Oldsmobile Silhouette Van, bringing their total fleet of exhibition wheelstanders to three. He adds to his show by using pyrotechnics. His headers shoot 230-foot flames, and he guides his wheelstanders with two rear-wheel hand brakes while titanium skid plates make sparks fly.

Both the car and Ed himself have to meet a lot of performance and equipment checks to remain licensed. In addition to the safety equipment and custom vehicle features, the license requires demonstrations of driver skills before two trained wheelstanders.  Recertification for the driver and cars is required every two years. 

Ed and Wendy are one of the few teams with a glass-sided trailer, so that they can show the cars off while hauling them to locations.  Their easy versatility has made them popular with their sponsors, as they can easily relocate to different areas to set up a parking lot display, and promote themselves and the products beyond the racing itself.  “That’s still one of the things that we do today.  We go into, say, Albertsons and park out front. We’ll hand out Jelly Bellies, shake hands, hand out pictures, answer questions.  I can’t even tell you how many store displays we’ve done.”

“We have given out so much candy!”  Wendy says.  “They deliver it to us by the palette, and we end up giving it all out.”

Over their long career in racing, the Joneses have made a lot of friends, and received a lot of recognition.  For instance, Ed has also been inducted into the Hall of Fame for the Chrome in the Dome event inside Holt Arena (now ICCCU Arena) at Idaho State University, an event sponsored by the Automotive and Auto Body programs.

Ed also appeared on the TV program “The Spectacular World of Guinness” in 1988, which featured a number of exhibitions of record holders both in and in addition to the famous yearly record book.  The show was internationally broadcast in over 40 countries, though footage is somewhat hard to find outside of Youtube collections of the program.  The Joneses believe they have a video tape around the house somewhere with the recording, though there have been plenty more videos of Ed performing wheelstands in recent years.  The NHRA website itself hosts some impressive footage, and a search for “Ed Jones Wheelstand” yields literally pages and pages of video results.

Ed’s official quarter mile track record is 9.32 seconds, which was set at a speed of 132 miles per hour.  Moving that fast at such an angle is something that took Ed a while to get used to.  He explains that his first time up on two wheels he did exactly what he had been told not to and hit the brakes, which almost crashed
the car.

Asked what had changed in racing over his time, Ed and Wendy talked about how it seemed for a time that racing was dwindling as a sport.  “COVID affected it a lot,” Ed says.  “It really did.” Restrictions against public gatherings made large stadium events difficult to produce for the peak years of the COVID pandemic.  “But it’s coming back, for sure,” Wendy says.  Recently, they’ve seen newer generations pick it back up again, which has been gratifying.  “The junior dragsters from several years ago are now getting into it,” Ed says.  “And it’s still family.  And a lot of sponsors and big money are coming back.”  For fans of the sport, the return is good news, and Ed is always a welcome site on the circuit.

“He is a superstar out in the drag racing world,” Wendy says, playing a video of thousands of fans packing the stands at Bandimere Speedway outside of Denver.

As for the future, Ed is torn between retirement and the realization that he just can’t give up the racing world.  The simple truth is that it’s something that’s in the Jones’ blood and something that they love.  If retirement is somewhere down the road, the two would like to have some sort of farewell tour to kick it off.  “I’d have a hell of a time quitting,” Ed says.  “I have to do something every day or I’ll go nuts.”  As to whether anything would cause them to leave Malad, Ed says, “Oh no.  We’re here forever.  We’ve got businesses to keep going, and boats to build!”