Jimmy Howard

Flamboro’s most popular driver in 1964 was a pint size 43 year old stock car jockey from Hamilton named Jim Howard. Winning most popular driver title is nothing new for Jim, he has won this honour every year at every track he has competed at.

This quiet friendly fellow with the big cigar poking out of his crash helmet has collected more than his share of trophies.

Jim has always been a Chrysler man. He started out running a six cylindar Dodge and now over 20 different cars later, he is still using Chrysler engines. This years car is powered by a 426 cubic inch Chrysler engine and Mr. Howard is confident that he will have the power to give Jack Greedy a real run for his money for this years championship.

Jim has not fared too well in the past two years and he attributes this to his trying too many new ideas at once. He has experimented with ram induction, torsion bars, etc…but has now returned to fuel injection and conventional springs. He still has not given up on ram induction and plans on using it on Gary Witter’s car. Jim reports that Witter’s car should be just as fast as his own this year as it is also powered by a 426 cubic inch Chrysler.

The Howard Engineering racing stable will include a new car and driver this season. In addition to the #38 and #19. Jim has built a new car to be driven by last years Hobby Champion at Flamboro, Bob McGillvary. The car will carry McGillvary’s number 28 and should prove to be a good addition to the Howard team. Bob looks like he has all the potential to be a good driver and he should win a lot of races for Mr. Howard.

Jim is the only true professional driver on the track – he earns his living solely from racing and has been quite successful. Even though he is 43 years old he doesn’t intend to quit until he has to, then he plans to build and design cars for other drivers when he is too old to race himself. He has a 19 year old son who may be able to step into his shoes one day although Jim would prefer him to become well established in the world first.

Howard has a very good theory on racing that we heartily endorse. He doesn’t build his car to be the fastest on the track and he doesn’t try to win a lot of races. He finds that consistency pays – by finishing second, third and fourth all the time he figures that he makes more money and doesn’t wear out his car as fast. Jim also very seldom gets into accidents because of his attitude.He just sits back and waits for the openings to present themselves instead of forcing his way past other cars and maybe causing an accident.

“A Tip Of Our Hat To A Fine Sportsman” Jimmy Howard

By Doug Haney