Race Bannon

Roger T. "Race" Bannon is a government-employed bodyguard for the Quest family, and one of the main characters of the Jonny Quest animated franchise. He works for Intelligence One and is accompanied on special missions with Doctor Benton Quest. His voice was originated by Mike Road.

Character description
Race is a grown man with fair skin, an athletic build, and short white hair. He is commonly seen wearing a red shirt, light grey khaki pants, a wristwatch, and a pair of brown leather boots.

He is a confident man who knows how to stay patient and is usually composed for the greater good. He is also natural at quipping one-liners, particularly when it comes to targeting his enemies. He is an Intelligence One bodyguard who keeps a sharp eye on Jonny, Doctor Quest, and Hadji. He is proficent in piloting aircraft, has known many forms of self-defense, and an expert in weaponry. Race is also nearly as well versed as Doctor Quest when it comes to explaining strange phenomenia and mysteries.

When he is not occupied on missions, he acts as a tutor to both Jonny and Hadji, where he educates them on a variety of subjects. However, Race can sometimes be sensitive to their innocence and often includes short courses on non-traditional subjects like judo, and scuba diving. Race has insight into what it was like to be boys like Jonny and Hadji, and treats them as capable young men, which they are in many areas.

TV series

 * Jonny Quest
 * 1.1 "The Mystery of the Lizard Men"
 * 1.2 "Arctic Splashdown"
 * 1.3 "The Curse of Anubis"
 * 1.4 "Pursuit of the Po-Ho"
 * 1.5 "Riddle of the Gold"
 * 1.6 "Treasure of the Temple"
 * 1.7 "Calcutta Adventure"
 * 1.8 "The Robot Spy"
 * 1.9 "Double Danger"
 * 1.10 "Shadow of the Condor"
 * 1.11 "Skull and Double Crossbones"
 * 1.12 "The Dreadful Doll"
 * 1.13 "A Small Matter of Pygmies"
 * 1.14 "Dragons of Ashida"
 * 1.15 "Turu the Terrible"
 * 1.16 "The Fraudulent Volcano"
 * 1.17 "Werewolf of the Timberland"
 * 1.18 "Pirates from Below"
 * 1.19 "Attack of the Tree People"
 * 1.20 "The Invisible Monster"
 * 1.21 "The Devil's Tower"
 * 1.22 "The Quetong Missile Mystery"
 * 1.23 "The House of Seven Gargoyles"
 * 1.24 "Terror Island"
 * 1.25 "Monster in the Monastery"
 * 1.26 "The Sea Haunt"
 * 2.1 "Peril of the Reptilian"
 * 2.2 "Nightmares of Steel"
 * 2.3 "Aliens Among Us"
 * 2.4 "Deadly Junket"
 * 2.5 "Forty Fathoms Into Yesterday"
 * 2.6 "Vikong Lives"
 * 2.7 "The Monolith Man"
 * 2.8 "Secret of the Clay Warriors"
 * 2.9 "Warlord of the Sky"
 * 2.10 "The Scourge of Skyborg"
 * 2.11 "Temple of Gloom"
 * 2.12 "Creeping Unknown"
 * 2.13 "Skulduggery"
 * The Real Adventures of Jonny Quest
 * 1.1 "The Darkest Fathoms"
 * 1.2 "Escape to Questworld"
 * 1.3 "In the Realm of the Condor"
 * 1.4 "Rage's Burning Wheel"
 * 1.5 "Ndovu's Last Journey"
 * 1.6 "Manhattan Maneater"
 * 1.7 "East of Zanzibar"
 * 1.8 "Assault on Questworld"
 * 1.9 "Ezekiel Rage"
 * 1.10 "Alien in Washington"
 * 1.11 "Return of the Anasazi"
 * 1.12 "The Alchemist"
 * 1.13 "Trouble on the Colorado"
 * 1.14 "In the Wake of Mary Celeste"
 * 1.15 "Amok"
 * 1.16 "Besieged in Paradise"
 * 1.17 "The Spectre of the Pine Barrens"
 * 1.18 "Heroes"
 * 1.19 "The Ballad of Belle Bonnet"
 * 1.20 "In the Darkness of the Moon"
 * 1.21 "The Secret of the Moai"
 * 1.22 "Expedition to Khumbu"
 * 1.23 "Ice Will Burn"
 * 1.24 "Future Rage"
 * 1.25 "Alligators and Okeechobee Vikings"
 * 1.26 "To Bardo and Back"
 * 2.1 "The Mummies of Malenque"
 * 2.2 "Rock of Rages"
 * 2.3 "Bloodlines"
 * 2.4 "Race Against Danger"
 * 2.5 "The Dark Mountain"
 * 2.6 "Cyberswitch"
 * 2.7 "Undersea Emergency"
 * 2.8 "Nemesis"
 * 2.9 "DNA Doomsday"
 * 2.12 "Eclipse"
 * 2.13 "Without a Trace"
 * 2.14 "Village of the Doomed" (no lines)
 * 2.15 "Dark Sentinel"
 * 2.16 "Other Space"
 * 2.17 "Digital Doublecross"
 * 2.18 "Thoughtscape"
 * 2.20 "Diamonds and Jade"
 * 2.21 "The Edge of Yesterday" (no lines)
 * 2.22 "The Haunted Sonata" (mentioned)
 * 2.23 "General Winter"
 * 2.24 "Night of the Zinja"
 * 2.25 "The Robot Spies"
 * 2.26 "More Than Zero"
 * Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law
 * 1.1 "Bannon Custody Battle"
 * 2.8 "Peanut Puberty"
 * 3.7 "Evolutionary War" (picture)
 * 3.9 "Return of Birdgirl"
 * 4.3 "Babysitter" (no lines)
 * 4.7 "The Death of Harvey" (no lines)

Movies

 * Jonny's Golden Quest
 * Jonny Quest Versus the Cyber Insects
 * Tom and Jerry: Spy Quest

Comics

 * Jonny Quest (Gold Key Comics)
 * #1 "The Mystery of the Lizard Men"
 * Jonny Quest (Comico)
 * The Real Adventures of Jonny Quest
 * Future Quest

Video games

 * Jonny Quest: Cover-Up At Roswell

Becoming the Second Dad
Race was 32 years old in the original series and was born in Wilmette, Illinois, to John and Sarah Bannon. Following the death of Jonny's mother, Race Bannon was assigned by Intelligence One to safegaurd Jonny "24 hours a day and 7 days a week as tutor, companion and all-around watchdog."

In "Double Danger," Race went to Thailand with Doctor Quest while he scouted for plants for a tranquilizer pill that would help astronauts endure in long space travels. However, a double agent imitating Race replaced him during their operation, who was hired by Doctor Zin to steal Quest's formula, and was trained to copy Race's appearance, voice, and mannerisms. With the help of Jezebel Jade, Jonny and Hadji were able to free Race, stopping Race's double and Zin's plan in the process.

Development
According to The Art of Hanna-Barbera book, Race Bannon's appearance was modeled after actor Jeff Chandler. Joseph Barbera also wrote that Bannon resembled the title character of the Terry and the Pirates comic strip.

Behind the scenes

 * Jonny Quest’s creator Doug Wildey created Race's full name by combining the names of Race Dunhill and Stretch Bannon from his earlier comic strips.
 * The surname Bannon is Irish (from 'O'Banain') meaning "white".
 * He is right-handed.

In popular culture

 * In the Freakazoid! segment "Doomsday Bet," from a one-off Toby Danger backup feature, Doctor Quest was lampooned as Dash O'Pepper, with Granville Van Dusen reprising his role as Race from the 80s incarnation of Jonny Quest.
 * In the Adult Swim series The Venture Bros., Brock Samson was partly inspired by Race.
 * In The Fairly OddParents TV movie Channel Chasers, Timmy zaps himself into the world of Jonny Hunt, in which he becomes part of an escape with the titular, young Jonny Hunt and his team from a laser-firing robot shaped like a scorpion in the jungle. The unnamed bodyguard-type gave Timmy a bazooka after the Doctor Quest-type invited him along with them after he saved them, referencing how careless the adults are.
 * Following its internet spread in 2016, there was a series of political memes of Race Bannon with false captions labelling him as a violently homophobic version of US Vice President Mike Pence.

The Late Show with Stephen Colbert

 * October 4, 2019: The cold opening segment is a fake cartoon titled "The Adventures of Mike Pence: Ukraine, not Me-Kraine," in which Pence (as portrayed by footage of Race Bannon) attempts to distance himself from then-US President Donald Trump, following backlash over his demands for the Ukrainian government to investigate Joe Biden.
 * January 5, 2021: In "The Adventures of Mike Pence: The Uncertain Certification," Pence (again portrayed by Race) tries to not follow through with Trump’s demands to overturn the 2020 presidential election results.
 * September 15, 2021: In "The Adventures of Mike Pence: To Coup or Not to Coup," Race (once more as Pence) contacts former Vice President Dan Quayle to get advice on overturning an election, but gets rejected when Quayle refuses his offer.