Jim Downing

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James Downing (born January 4, 1942) is an American former professional race car driver, he is a five-time IMSA Championship winner, owner/driver of Downing/Atlanta Racing, and was principal in the development of the HANS device.

Personal life

Downing was born in Atlanta, Georgia, and is a Georgia Tech graduate with a degree in industrial management. He married public relations specialist Connie Goudinoff in 1989. He is a member of the Phi Gamma Delta (FIJI) fraternity.^{[citation needed]}

Racing

His father was 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

Looking for new challenges, he joined

Sponsored by the Mazda factory for his entire

In 1999, with the demise/reorganization of the IMSA series, he moved on to the American Le Mans Series with his Kudzu racers until the end of the 2000 racing season, then into an AutoExe Motorsports prototype as his long and successful career wound down.

During his illustrious forty-five-year racing career he has either won or scored highly in races at

Jim Downing has been credited as the first to identify the problems associated with a restrained torso and an unrestrained head in sudden deceleration impacts, following the 1981 death of Patrick Jacquemart at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course during the Red Roof Inns 200 IMSA GT Championship event in May 1981. Jacquemart, the director of Renault Racing in the United States, was at the wheel of his IMSA GTU-specification Renault 5 Turbo when he missed the curve at the bottom of the plunge down Thunder Valley (Turn 7), striking a sandbank with the front of the car. He suffered a fracture of the base of his skull and was pronounced dead on arrival at Morrow County Hospital in Mount Gilead, OH.

With the problem identified, Downing turned to his brother-in-law, Dr. Robert Hubbard, a bio mechanical crash engineer for

Racing record

SCCA National Championship Runoffs

Notable Motorsports Awards

2002 Phil Hill Award

2008 Bob Akin Memorial Motorsports Award

2012 Sebring Hall of Fame Inductee

2014 SCCA Hall of Fame Inductee

References

Internet Source: Road Racing Drivers Club

Internet Source: Mulsanne's Corner: An Interview With Jim Downing

RRDC Press Release, dated February 4, 2008: Motorsport.com

External links

• Downing/Atlanta