Mark Webber, Justin’s F3000 rival and 2003 Jaguar F1 teammate from rounds 12-16

“I did race him in the junior categories in England, and when we came across, naturally, we just got on well culturally, because obviously the English and the Aussies do anyway. And in 2001 in F3000, I was with Super Nova, and he was racing then for Nordic and won the championship that year driving really, really well. He was an all-around, very versatile driver. And both of our fathers got on well. My dad’s got a pretty good bull**** meter, and I think he really enjoyed Stefan and Justin’s dad, and then Justin and I, we just got to be pretty tight, you know? There was a mutual respect there, and we got on well.

“And I think that you could see it as an extension of his dad’s morals and his dad’s sort of ‘good old handshake meant everything’ kind of way with Justin. Honor meant something to him. When he came to Formula 1, then I really spent more time with him, because we were teammates to finish out the season.

“And the English side, they wanted to have a British driver in a Jaguar car, and my teammate at the time, (Brazil’s) Antonio Pizzonia, was really struggling, so they put Justin in. And what really struck me, and this is something the girls need to know, and they will know this from other stories, but is just how tenacious and how hungry he was to try and make it work.

“Like, I had no idea how he did it in that car. That car was not the right size for him at all. It was tight for me, and he was taller than me, a lot taller than me. So I know he was in pain. I know he was in misery, trying to ignore the pain and make it work with just with the guts and the approach of, ‘This is my big opportunity. I want to get through this.’

“And for sure, his lower back and his knees and how tightly he was packaged in that car; the team did everything they could, but he was in pain. Doing two-hour races like that? I can’t imagine what he went through. But he went through it. And I’ll never forget just how tough and how hungry he was, and resilient, to try and make that opportunity work in an environment where the ergonomics of the car was just not correct for him. It was too small. And he never complained.

“It was a very inspiring effort to see, knowing what was going on in the other car, just how much he tried to make that work.”

Michael Cannon, Justin’s race engineer at Dale Coyne Racing in 2014

“Well, we’d been 15th in practice and were none too sparkly. We made some changes for qualifying and he wound up 12th, but said he was unprepared for how good the car was. We’d left enough time on the table to have started very near the front, and back at the trailer, he did a post-session map for me and described how the car felt and performed during his run.

“He hands it back, I look down in the comments section, and saw ‘Don’t change a thing! Nice job!’ That was all that was written… Never before, or since, have I been paid such a compliment.”

Graham Rahal, on being introduced to a proper night out with drivers

“In 2008, we’re down in Australia. And again J-Wil, he’s being Mr. Quiet. And then all of a sudden, we decide we’re going to go out together on Sunday night. Told my dad; I was actually staying at my dad’s hotel room because I was too cheap to get my own. And I thought, ‘I’m not going to go out tonight, just keep it simple, go to a team dinner with the Newman/Haas gang, J-Wil, me.’ Afterwards, dinner’s done, and I’m ready to head back to dad’s room.

“J-Wil’s like, ‘No, no, no, no, you can’t go to bed.’ I said alright, rang old Bob Rahal and said, ‘Dad, look, I’m going to go out with Justin. I’m in good hands. I’ll be back in a little bit, just a couple hours.’

“Well, the end of the story is that I strolled into the hotel room about 7:00 a.m., and we had to get on the bus at 7:30 to head to the airport. But the meat of the story is this giggly, tall, English man who is determined that his 19-year-old teammate needs to drink all of the Jagermeister that can possibly be found in the Gold Coast of Australia. That was his thing. Jagerbombs all night long. Justin was loving it, and I just wanted to puke every single time.

“But I remember all night, I’d be at the bar talking to Tim Cindric, or talking to Tony Kanaan, or somebody else, and I’d get this tap on my shoulder. And I’d turn around and there he is, another Jagerbomb being handed to me, the world’s biggest grin on his face, just determined to show me a part of life that I had never experienced.

“And I was pretty trashed afterwards, but he looked after me the whole time like a big brother would. So while he was so focused and serious much of the time, he was such a fun personality to be around away from the track.”

Mike Shank, Justin’s team owner in sports car racing

“I needed him to come and do Sebring with us in the P2 car. It was 2015, Ozz Negri hurt himself, he couldn’t do it, so we got Justin to come out. Well, we knew he had a fitment issue because of his size, so we had him come to my shop in Columbus. And so he flew in, because it was important to him. He always had to deal with the size, obviously. So, he flew in and he stayed at my house, and I live on a lake, so we go and I took Justin out, introduced him to the local culture and all of our friends, all of our idiot friends that live on the lake. It’s about as America as you’re ever going to get.

“And for whatever reason, one of our good friends had a really nice dinner planned. Justin went over with us, and yeah, technically he was there for the seat fitment, but we got to show him how we live, and one thing came from it that’s turned into a tradition now.

“So, she had made a blue cake for dessert, and Justin, out of nowhere, literally out of nowhere, he kinda’ yelled, ‘I’ve never had blue cake!’ in that British accent. And we all fell apart. And he ate it, and he ate it, and blue frosting’s all over his face, he’s going mental, and everyone busted out laughing. So now, every year around this time, from the Pocono time, we eat blue cake and we celebrate Justin and it’s a little tear in the eye, but it always makes us think of him. And to this day, we still do Justin’s blue cake day.”