Tracy Hawkins

1960 - 2020

Tracy Hawkins
1960-2020
Tracy Alan Hawkins passed away Sunday August 9, 2020 to be with the Lord and his father William Eugene (Gene) Hawkins. Tracy is survived by his beloved mother Betty Jean Hawkins, brother Wayne Eugene Hawkins and sister-in law Jennifer Hawkins, his niece Ashley Nicole Wilson-Fernandez (Richard), nephews Chad Alan Hawkins (Shayna) and Andrew Timothy Hawkins as well as his great nieces and nephew. He is also survived by the love of his life and partner of 14 years Jane Kiddo, lovingly referred to by Tracy as Ms. Jane or my sweetheart. He is additionally survived by his brother and sister, Darryl and Leann Cochrell and his nieces Amber Barton, Heather Morgan and many loving cousins and family.
Tracy was born in Houston, Texas. He graduated from Klein High School before going off to electrician apprenticeship school at IBEW #716 in Houston. After completion of the electrical apprenticeship he worked on the South Texas Project (nuclear plant) near Bay City for a period of time. Tracy would leave this job where he became a deposition videographer. This was a great gig for Tracy as it allowed him to set a schedule which accommodated the passion of his life, boat racing! Tracy would be known to work Monday - Wednesday as he was most likely leaving for a race on Thursday. In the very beginning, 1979 it was the Hawkins Bros. Racing Team. You could find Wayne and Tracy both in their Buddy Babbit painted and Kaos (Kevin Beaulier) built boats. The crew was his dad, known to the racing world as "Mean Gene" (no, he was not mean) and Darryl Cochrell. If the race was far then Mean Gene and Ms. Betty would head out pulling both boats and "the boys" would meet them there. Boat racing was a family affair. Wayne retired from boat racing as he said, "Tracy is the natural, he will go far, I am better in the pit." And go on to achieve, he did. Along with the Hawkins' and Cochrell's many memories were shared with Kevin and Darrell Beaulier's families, the Schubert's, Terry Strack, the Bowden's, the Barclay's, the Seebold's as well as many others at boat races all over the United States, Canada, and Mexico. "Racin Tracy Hawkins" would drive under many sponsorships that included Hawkins-Cochrell Racing, Tecate, Tuttle Enterprises, Slick 50 and many others. Tracy achieved many top accolades in the racing world. He held several National Champion titles, National Power Boat High Point award (awarded at the race in the Bahamas) Texas Governor's Cup and was inducted into the APBA Hall of Champions. There are truly too many titles to list, but these are a few. He professionally ran in over 500 sanctioned races in his career with most of them landing him on the podium. He loved his sport and all his peers/competitors. Although this was a tragic crash, Tracy passed doing what he loved.
Tracy was a people's person! He never met a stranger and was instantly your best buddy to help you in any way he could. He had great love for his family and friends. The world lost a great person and racer and Heaven gained an incredible angel.
A private farewell was held August 18, 2020 at McNutt Funeral Home for his immediate family. A celebration of life will be held for all as soon as restrictions permit. In lieu of flowers the family requests donations be made to the Tracy Hawkins Memorial Safety Fund (APBA). The website is ww04.elbowspace.com/secure/ 20200812123525897051