Jim Downing

James "Jim" Downing (born January 4, 1942 in Atlanta, Georgia) is the five-time IMSA Championship winning, owner/driver of Downing/Atlanta Racing, and principal in the development of the HANS device.

Downing is a Georgia Tech graduate with a degree in industrial management. He married public relations specialist Connie Goudinoff in 1989.

His father being a major foreign car dealer in the Atlanta area, he grew up around cars and racing. He began racing soapbox derbies when he was 11, raced those for several years, then won a local downhill slalom event when he was 16. In his late teens and early twenties, he raced gymkhanas (known today as SCCA Solo) in almost anything he could get his hands on because SCCA rules of the time prohibited racing before age 21. When he was 21, he bought an Elva Courier for $200 that had been totaled, spent a year and a half putting it back together, and began racing at Daytona Beach in 1963. He continued SCCA racing successfully on the amateur level for the next 11 years.

Looking for new challenges, he joined IMSA in 1974, at the invitation of John Bishop, President and founder of the (then) new International Motor Sports Association IMSA, they were so friendly and helpful that it convinced him that he should give it a try. As a young person coming out of very amateur racing, it was a big step. He quickly discovered in the first year of racing a Mazda RX-2 in the old RS series that he got more experience in one year than he had in the last six years in club racing.

Sponsored by the Mazda factory for his entire IMSA career, Jim progressed up the competition ladder from the near showroom stock Radial Sedan series Mazda RX-2 & Mazda RX3, to GTU Mazda RX3 & Mazda RX7 and GTO in the Mazda RX7, then up to the ultra-quick purpose-built GTP category prototypes, all powered by two, three, and four rotor versions of the Mazda Wankel engine. After competing in an Argo built prototype since 1984, in 1988 he began designing and building a prototype racer of his own design. His Kudzu DG-1, made its debut at San Antonio in September 1989.

...
Wikipedia