Jerry Wimbish

Jerry Wimbish raced in the late forties and early fifties before becoming a race official.

Jerry Wimbish was born on June 16, 1925 in Atlanta, Georgia.  He grew up loving cars and things that went fast, a passion that would serve him well when he enlisted in the
Army Air Corps at the age of 17 to become a pilot during World War II.  However, after finding there was an overage of pilots, Wimbish would serve as a bombardier, flying 27
successful missions over Germany.

After the war, Wimbish found himself again lured by speed, and ended up behind the wheel of a race car.  He and friend Gober Sosebee, himself a 2002 inductee into the Georgia Racing Hall of Fame, teamed up to become a very successful racing duo from just after the war until 1952.  Both Wimbish and Sosebee were well known for their on-track antics.  Wimbish would often tell the story of an incident at the famed Lakewood Fairgrounds in Atlanta that sent his racer into the lake in the center of the track.

Early on, Wimbish competed in both midget cars and stock cars, recording victories at Lakewood, the famed Peach Bowl in Atlanta, as well as at several tracks in Alabama, Florida, Tennessee and North Carolina.  In 1950, he recorded 16 top 10 finishes at the Peach Bowl.  He won the Alabama State Championship event at the Iron Bowl in Birmingham, Alabama.

After leaving racing, Wimbish would continue to work around the sport, serving in the role of race official, flagman, technical inspector and event as an announcer well into the
1980s.  During the 90’s, Wimbish became very involved with the early organizing efforts for the Georgia Racing Hall of Fame.  He passed away on June 23, 1998.