Lawrence Justice; Car Racing Figure

Lawrence Milton “Zeke” Justice, who co-founded the Justice Bros. line of car-care products and was a prominent sponsor on the car-racing circuit, died of prostate cancer Thursday at his home in Phelan in San Bernardino County. He was 81.

With brothers Ed and Gus, he started Justice Bros. Inc., now based in Duarte, in 1952. It became one of the country’s largest exporters of oil additives.

Born in Paola, Kan., Justice survived polio as a child. He started repairing bicycles and graduated to cars, eventually getting a job hand-building midget race cars at the Kurtis Kraft factory in Glendale after World War II.

He and Ed went on to earn a reputation in the racing world as sponsors of the car driven by Johnnie Parsons that won the Indianapolis 500 in 1950. They built many winning racing machines, which are on display at the Justice Bros. Racing Car Museum on a stretch of old Route 66 in Duarte.

The brothers began to concoct fuel and oil additives in their backyard in the early 1950s. Their first successful product was an engine additive to stop leaks in automatic transmissions. They formed Justice Bros. in Jacksonville, Fla., and moved the business to Duarte in 1957.

Justice was inducted into the Indy 500 Old-Timers Club in 1999. He retired in 1983 to supervise the museum and his 80-acre ranch in Phelan but remained active in the racing world.

“At 80 years of age, he was still lying under cars out in the parking lot,” Doug Stokes, a spokesman for Irwindale Speedway, told Associated Press. “He just loved to tinker on cars.”

Justice is survived by four daughters, Gail, Joy, Linda and Peggy; a son, Lawrence Milton Jr.; and his brother Ed.