John Joseph Campion, passed

Kevin Channer

True Classic
John Campion passed away Oct 2, 2020. He was an Irish American immigrant who came here from Cork at the age of 21 with $25 dollars in his pocket. He became a very successful energy entrepreneur. He was a passionate collector of Fiat and Lancia rally and race cars. He was much more than a rich guy with an expensive car collection. He was a historian for Lancia /Fiat racing, he drove his cars, displayed his cars, gave under privileged youth track time in real race cars. Youtube has videos https://www.bing.com/videos/search?...41CE1CC5F3615FB54B2D41CE1CC5F3615FB&FORM=VIRE
 
Wow, that sucks, he and i talked about his lancia collection. He invited me to his place in jacksonville. I never made it, now im sure i cant. This will be a great loss to all and the collectors of all lancias. May he rest in peace, great guy, big heart, avid automobile collector.
 
Amazing collection in that video. Honestly I had not heard of him before so thanks for sharing. He appears to have been quite young.
 
John was a wonderful, very colorful enthusiast and I was lucky to get to know him through the years. He was very generous with his cars and gave me wheel time in his 037 rally car, Group 4 Stratos and several others. One thing not mentioned here was that he worked for many great rock bands in the '70s/'80s handling their portable power arrangements on tour as a "roadie" of sorts and this was the inspiration for his highly-valued mobile energy business that came later. Once he was a business success, he never forgot where he came from and helped sponsor the racing activities of several junior Irish racing drivers. He also had several famous Irish-driven race cars including an ex-Derek Daly F1 car and a Fiat 131 Abarth rally car.
 
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John was a wonderful, very colorful enthusiast and I was lucky to get to know him through the years. He was very generous with his cars and gave me wheel time in his 037 rally car, Group 4 Stratos and several others. One thing not mentioned here was that he worked for many great rock bands in the '70s/'80s handling their portable power arrangements on tour as a "roadie" of sorts and this was the inspiration for his highly-valued mobile energy business that came later. Once he was a business success, he never forgot where he came from and helped sponsor the racing activities of several junior Irish racing drivers. He also had several famous Irish-driven race cars including an ex-Derek Daly F1 car and a Fiat 131 Abarth rally car.
Say a prayer to St. Christopher, the patron saint of travelers and drivers, pour a Guinness, and rev the engine on the Lancia really loud, I think John is listening.
 
I have lots of photos of his collection somewhere. I'll see if I can't dig up a few to post here over the next several days.
 
Didn't know the guy, but what a passion and what a collection for Lancia's and an incredible story.
Shows what opportunity is available in the US for business success. Video Clip showed name of another long gone Italian race car driver, both too young to go.
 
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