Speed is What They Need Gulf Coast Village residents Jim Baker and Frances Keogh crave adrenaline well into their 90s By Nick Fortuna

SPEED is What They Need

Gulf Coast Village residents Jim Baker and Frances Keogh crave adrenaline well into their 90s

By Nick Fortuna

Throughout the coronavirus pandemic, Jim Baker could be found hugging the turns and putting the pedal to the metal at iconic racetracks the world over, all from the comfort of his home at Gulf Coast Village in Cape Coral.

More than 170,000 auto racing fans have subscribed to the online racing simulation platform iRacing, and as his 94th birthday approaches in October, Baker just might be the oldest. But the competitive juices that made him a successful insurance executive, racecar driver, and sailboat racer still flow freely, and the need for speed endures.

It’s been that way ever since he was a farm kid in Tennessee, racing those little red wagons with his friends. Baker learned early on that by shifting his weight and leaning into turns while inside the wagon, he and the kid pulling it could gain an edge. Over the years, the mode of transportation may have changed, but Baker hasn’t.

“I still love competition,” he said. “I do it because it’s a great outlet.”

Baker isn’t the only Gulf Coast Village resident spicing up his golden years with the occasional adrenaline rush. Later in this piece, we’ll meet Frances Keogh, who checked an item off her bucket list at age 92 when she rode on the back of a motorcycle for the first time. But right now, the green flag is out, and Baker is ready to race.

Realistic Racecar Cockpit

Jim Baker sits in a racecar-style driver’s seat in the dining room of his one-bedroom apartment, with three high-definition monitors lined up at eye level to provide a 180-degree view from the cockpit. There’s a steering wheel, gas and brake pedals, a gear shifter, and speakers that boom with the sounds of a day at the races.

Racers from all over the world compete for more than $300,000 in annual prize money on iRacing, which has used laser-scanning technology to virtually recreate more than 80 international racetracks. With big money on the line, many racers approach it like a full-time job.

Playing for a few hours every other day, Baker isn’t likely to win any big races, but if his younger competitors don’t bring their “A” game, they’re likely to be passed by a nonagenarian.

“Some of them know that I’m an elder racer, but they don’t necessarily know that I’m coming up on 94,” Baker said. “Normally, at my skill level on the simulator, I still get a thumbs-up.

“It’s not like when you’re in a real car, but it captures roughly 70% of the feel. You can sense bumps and curves through the steering wheel and from your brake action and acceleration action. With virtual racing, you’ve got to let your imagination go and allow yourself to think that this is the real thing. That makes it more enjoyable.”

Baker led an exciting life long before joining iRacing. With his parents’ permission, he dropped out of high school at age 15 and joined the Navy, serving during World War II as a quartermaster helping to navigate the USS Courtland. After the war, Baker graduated from Washburn University in Kansas, began law school, decided that it wasn’t for him, and joined Firestone’s marketing management program. He left the tire company a few years later and began selling life insurance, eventually becoming an executive.

Baker’s career crowded out family activities during the week, so on weekends, he

would race a three-man Lightning Class sailboat with his two sons. His kids eventually grew up and moved away, but he wasn’t done competing. Baker bought a one-man Banshee sailboat and competed solo, winning the over-55-year-old division of a national competition on San Francisco Bay.

After moving from Illinois to Louisiana, Baker met a friend who organized local car rallies, sparking his interest in racing as a retirement activity. Beginning in his 70s, Baker spent more than a decade racing at tracks throughout the Northeast, South, and Midwest, including Sebring International Raceway, New Hampshire Motor Speedway, Watkins Glen International, and Daytona International Speedway. Driving his silver 2000 BMW Z3 Coupe, which he still owns, Baker won several regional races before giving up the sport.

“I enjoyed the competition and the camaraderie with the other racers,” Baker said.

“The exhilaration is hard to describe. It increases your heart rate. It’s a lot of tension, but after the race, you feel relaxed and, in most cases, a little bit exhausted.”

Baker moved to Cape Coral in 2010 and lost his wife of 61 years the following year.

Subsequently, a prominent iRacer in Cape Coral helped Baker set up his own in-home racing simulator, putting Baker back into the game. He said that before COVID-19, his two adult children and two grandchildren often would visit, taking one of the roughly two dozen virtual racecars he “owns” out for practice laps on the simulator.

After giving up competitive racing, Baker made his Z3 Coupe street legal again, and he still gets behind the wheel to get groceries. Prior to the pandemic, he also would drive to the library or to volunteer as a greeter at the Southwest Florida Military Museum. Stuck inside now, Baker said he’s glad to be competing as an iRacer, and he doesn’t think he’ll ever stop.

“It’s certainly nice to have [iRacer] with what we’re going through right now,” Baker said. “I spend my time on it, and it takes up a lot of my time during the day.”

On Two Wheels at 94

Frances Keogh is a fearless lady who exudes positivity, so don’t tell her not to go skydiving at age 94. That’s one of the activities on her bucket list, along with flying in a hot-air balloon. After surviving a stroke several years ago and going zip-lining on a family trip to Missouri, Keogh is up for just about anything fun and exciting.

“I’m a daredevil,” she said with a laugh in her charming Southern accent. “I just live every day as if it was my last one. I did that

zip-line, and I’m telling you, that’s something else. You drop about a hundred feet.”

Keogh got to cross one item off her bucket list in a memorable way in July 2018, when friends, family, and even a local television news crew gathered to watch her maiden voyage on a motorcycle. Keogh had wanted to ride one ever since seeing an executive at AT&T, where she was a supervisor decades ago, commute to work every day on his bike, but the opportunity never presented itself.

That is, until Keogh mentioned her bucket-list item to friends Sheila Sweeney and Joyce Easton, who just happened to know a generous guy with a classy bike. Michael Dreikorn agreed to ride in from Bokeelia on his Indian motorcycle and give Keogh a ride around Gulf Coast Village, but he went one step further than that, outfitting her like a true biker.

Keogh donned her shiny black “skeleton” helmet, an open-faced helmet popular with riders of cruiser-style bikes, along with black leather gloves and a black leather vest. With help from Dreikorn, she gripped the handlebars and revved the engine with a smile on her face while getting onto the bike, then settled into the luxurious leather backseat. Away they went, traveling throughout the community and on the surrounding streets before arriving back at Gulf Coast Village, with Keogh beaming and waving at her friends.

“I enjoyed it,” Keogh said. “My hair was flying; I was flying. I would have taken a longer one. It was just fulfilling a dream that I’d always looked forward to. You feel so free on that motorcycle, just sitting back there, your hair blowing.”

Keogh, born to tenant farmers in rural Piedmont, N.C., had a successful career working in management for the federal government in the equatorial Marshall Islands, where she hired many women at a time when doing so was rare. Later, she would serve as president of three chapters of the American Business Women’s Association, earning the group’s Woman of the Year Award in 1974.

Keogh is also the author of “God’s Spotlight,” which earned her the Golden Poet Award and the Silver Poet Award from World of Poetry in 1985 and 1986.

Having lost her husband of 60 years and her only son about a month apart in 2008, Keogh’s three grandchildren are especially dear to her. Though they can’t visit during the pandemic, Keogh remains as upbeat and effervescent as ever. She said she enjoys life at Gulf Coast Village, especially all the activities and opportunities to dance.

“I love dancing,” she said in June. “We weren’t allowed to dance when I was in high school, but I went to Elon College, I started dancing there, and I’m telling you, I haven’t quit.”

Keogh is also passionate about politics, having recently served as chaplain of the Lee Republican Women’s Club and earning a lifetime achievement award from the Republican Women of Cape Coral Federated.

Keogh said she hasn’t set a date for her next bucket-list activity, but, having gotten news coverage for her motorcycle ride, she said the spotlight agrees with her.

“I turn 95 in January,” she said. “I’m hoping I’m going to have the press in here for No. 95.”

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