Driver Harvey Jones, and car owners, builders and mechanics Johnny Cooper and James Cooper with their race car at the Thunderbowl Speedway in Valdosta, GA.

By Mike Bell
Posted in Feature Stories 7/27/12

Do you remember going through all those small South Georgia towns and seeing some kind of race car at a garage or gas station? This is the story of one of those little towns and three brothers that had a garage just like that. The place?  Ray City.  The time?  Late sixties into the seventies and later.  Johnny Cooper is the oldest and grew up fast in that little town. The Cooper brothers are, from oldest to youngest, Johnny (July 22, 1945), James (August 18, 1947) and Tommy (August 27, 1956 – who has always gone by the name Skeeter and prefers it that way. “My uncle gave me that name is what my mother told me”).