Jimmy Meets Brenda

Jimmy Summerour and his wife Brenda. Both played a major rold in the success of the Georgia Racing Hall of Fame.

In 1968, Jimmy and Joe Smith opened a garage on Braircliff Road near Clairmont to work on cars. At first, it was a general repair shop but later became a street rod shop.

But the best thing to come out of Jimmy working there was when the cleaners opened next door. A young lady named Linda who worked there told Jimmy about her twin sister, Brenda. Three months later on Halloween night, Jimmy and Brenda were married and have been ever since.

One of the fun cars that Jimmy built was a Ford Falcon for Billy Taylor to drive at the Peach Bowl.

“I started with a 1955 Ford frame and switched the front end around (he put the A-frames from the left on the right and vice versa). This kinda offset the front end forward about three inches,” he said.  “Then I shortened the rear which is the same thing as setting the engine back three inches. But all the mounts were in stock locations. When you looked at the frame, it was all stock but everything is moved forward three inches.

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Jimmy built this Ford Falcon for Billy Taylor to race at the Peach Bowl. The light bulb on the side was painted by his Ford friends to show that Jimmy, who was a Chevy man, had 'seen the light'.

Billy Long who was also running a Ford at the Peach Bowl came over to the shop to look the car over. He just knew we had done something wrong. I told him the frame came out from under a Ranchero. If you could find another Ranchero, you would be all set.” Billy, who had been an also ran, began moving up in the standings running the Falcon.

About this time, Jimmy started building another 1955 Chevrolet to run only at the Peach Bowl. He cut the frame so low “that Charlie (Mincey) had to get a running start to get out of the pits onto the track. He’d run it angled onto track and slide frame over the hump from the pits.” Similar to the Falcon, Jimmy reworked the rear part of the frame to lower the CG.

Jimmy stands next to the winning Chevy that he built for Charlie Mincey.

“First day we carried it to the Peach Bowl, Charlie had never driven it,” he said.  “He sat in it at the shop so we could mount the seat but that was all. I had him go out in the car for about 12 laps to see how it would run. He made about 8 laps and then moved up the track to see how it would work on the top side; made a few more laps and came in. He said, ‘who set this car up?’ What do you mean? ‘Who’s drove it? Nobody! ‘Nobody, then don’t touch it!’ Charlie ran the car the whole season and never put a skint place on it. That is how he drove. He brought back to the pits the car he went out with.

“One night at the Peach Bowl and was leading the race, shut it off and came in. What’s wrong Charlie? ‘I think the right front wheel bearing just tore up.’ I went over to the car and felt the main bearing caps on both front wheels and there was no difference in temperature. When I got to the shop and took the right front off, the bearing race came out in three pieces. Any other driver would have gone on until the wheel fell off.”