Biography

    Jim's first experience with racing was at the age of 3 watching his dad, Bert, race at the old Tri-City Speedway. His job was to wash dad's car for race night. He grew up in the pits hanging around his dad and fellow Hall Of Famers Gary Thacker and Lum Owens. Lum was Jim's Godfather.

    Jim's got a taste for competition in 1972 at age 13 when Bob Taylor took him to Winter Carnival in Whitefish and informed him that he was entered in the 12 -13 age bracket snowmobile races with Bob's own sled. He won and they moved him up a bracket and he won that too. He had inherited his dad's sense of competition and raced snowmobiles for several years. That all came to an end in 1978 when Jim was badly injured in an auto accident.

    As a third generation mechanic in his family he concentrated on learning his craft and in 1986 accepted an offer as a field mechanic in California. His neighbor had a dirt modified race car that he raced and suddenly those competitive juices were flowing again. Jim worked as a mechanic on the car as they competed on tracks in the Sacramento, Modesto and Lodi areas.

After a few years Jim moved back to Kalispell and helped Jim & Tim Hegel with their race cars until Gary Gudmundson started the Nostalgia Class. In the winter of 1990 Jim built his own Nostalgia race car which he ran for 3 years. He sold that car and went to work for John and Sharon Slack at Raceway Park where he says he had his most enjoyable job as flagman in turn three.

     In '96 & '97 Jim served as Head Tech Official at the track and it was during this time that he became friends with Wade & Sherry Curtis. When Wade bought a Limited Sportsman car to race Jim resigned and became Crew Chief for Wade. His work on Wade's car helped them win 3 Season Championships in 4 years.

     Jim served on the Board of Directors of the NWMSCRA from '91 to '97, was President in '98 and has served as President of the Hall Of Fame since 2010. His favorite memory is inducting his father into the Hall of Fame in 1998. With Jim's induction this year Bert and Jim Seymour become the first Father and Son to be inducted into the Hall of Fame.