On the Road with Jim Shelly: A Great Race Story

Hello, my name is Jim Shelly. Remember the saying that the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree? They will lie to you on purpose! My father was not a car person. He’d buy a $200 car and run it until faced with a larger repair bill than he wanted to pay, junk it and get another one. The car I remember most vividly was a black 1960 New Yorker sedan in which I learned to drive in. We had a ¼ mile long driveway so each morning before breakfast Dad would run down to the mail box to get his paper. When I was old enough this is where I learned to drive. The thing I remember most was him yelling ‘tickle it, tickle it!’ (This meant feather the gas pedal so the car didn’t stall out.) I now know 1 - That the choke wasn’t working. 2 - I know how to fix it. 3 - That Chrysler would make a great rally car, and 4 - At some point this apple rolled away from the tree - I became a car person.

My first car was a 1967 Volvo 144 with 180k miles on the clock. I added another 60k before I traded it in on a very elegant 240 wagon which I eventually sold to buy my first VW Bus. Then a another bus, a couple of Audi sedans, and a Jeep.

When we moved to East Hampton my wife opened a car rental firm named Classic Convertibles. I’d come home from work and she’d tell me the 66 Caddy was going out tomorrow and the top wouldn’t work. So out to the garage I went to fix it. In 1990 I left the job that had taken us to East Hampton and I bought the lease to the Getty gas station at the entrance to East Hampton Village. Since we had no business, I brought over my wife's convertibles and parked them out on the corner. Pretty soon people started to stop in and ask if we fixed old cars. Having nothing better to do I said of course, and a specialty was born. Georgica Getty became known for repairing, restoring and displaying older cars and newer exotics.

I got involved with The Great Race supporting several of our customers who ran in the event. My lead mechanic Clem and I decided we would sign up ourselves one day. In 2019 we were accepted for the Riverside to Tacoma run, but unfortunately, business intervened and we had to put off our entry until 2020. Whoops, then 2021! We prepped my 1939 Buick so it was ready for the event, but in early May, Clem told me his wife was sick and he couldn’t leave her. I was without a navigator. I went to The Pumpkin Run in Delaware where Jeff Stumb introduced me to Tom Kucera who has been my partner in crime ever since.

We met up in San Antonio. “You are going to love this car Tom – it’s completely rally prepped! What do you mean where are the charts? Charts for what?” Tom’s new driver was not fully rally prepped. We drove out to the cemetery and made charts for the Buick. Then we set off for Greenville SC. I knew the Buick’s history and it had never before been west of the Delaware River. I got to drive it past the Alamo, across Texas, through Oklahoma, Missouri and Kentucky. We visited Superman in Metropolis Illinois, I drove my Buick across the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers, and went over the New River Gorge bridge.

I drove into towns for lunch and dinner where hundreds or even thousands of people would come out to see our cars and talk about the one like it they used to own. That they never should have sold… Every night I’d spend an hour working on the Buick, refilling fluids that had burned or leaked out that day, retorquing bolts, fixing electrical issues. I thought this was normal. I learned how good a navigator Tom was and how difficult that job is. I learned how to drive across half the country and see nothing but a speedometer. I learned how much people loved the Great Race and what a truly special fun event it is.

We did well that first year since a lot of the top flight competition hadn’t attended that year after COVID. We managed to come in 11th overall. After Greenville I started driving home but the clutch throw out bearing failed in North Carolina. I had to rent a U-Haul truck and trailer to tow the Buick back to my shop where we fixed that problem and some others. In mid June 2022, I drove up to Warwick RI. I was quite pleased as there were miles and miles of crawling traffic on I95 and the Buick didn’t overheat, stop charging, start missing, lose oil pressure or anything bad. This was going to be a great year! I met up with Tom, and we set off to Fargo ND. I’ve always wanted to go to Fargo. But on day two while driving down a hill into Hancock NY the transmission came apart. Like really apart. We were towed into Binghampton, figured out there was no way to do repairs and caught a tow truck home to NJ. No Fargo for me.

The transmission is the weak link of a 39 Buick. It weighs about 60 pounds and drives a 4000 pound car. I spent the rest of the year rebuilding transmissions until I was ready to go again. Tom flew east and we did The Pumpkin Run without incident. Then we drove south to Lorton Virginia, took the Amtrak Car Train to Sanford Florida and drove to St Petersburg for the 9 day run to Colorado Springs. And we made it!

But later that fall during the ‘Rally Round The Erie Canal’ the tranny locked up again. This was bad.

I sent one transmission to my rebuilder, and I rebuilt a second one with a friend, but when we put it back in we found it would not stay in 2nd gear. What had we done wrong? I called the tranny guy and got his answering machine which said he was in the hospital. Things were really going from bad to worse.

Then one day I saw a rally prepped MGB GT on the Hagerty auction website. I threw in a bid. Why not bid on a rally prepped car to do a rally? I bought it, shipped it to NJ and spent a week learning about the new car. I rented the trusty U-Haul truck and trailer and drove to Owensboro, Ky to start the 2024 race. We rallied all the way to Gardiner, Maine and then I drove back home. AND after 3000 miles my BRITISH car used one quart of oil and had a flat tire. This was living! I hadn't spent an hour under the car the entire rally!

Of course, in 2025 we took the MGB again. I shipped it to St Paul, flew out, met Tom and off we went. At every stop some member of the local MG club would grab us to trade notes. People loved this car. I’ve not met a person who came out to see the Great Race who didn’t love all cars. We had a spectacular year, finishing 9th overall. I do suspect this is the best we are going to do. We were a minute and 37 seconds off perfect, and we came in 9th. Is this a competitive group or not?

But I am worried about the weather. It was HOT in the MG this year, and I’ve been to Death Valley in late June so I’m considering a car with AC for 2026. Does anyone know of a nice 67 Firebird? That’s my Great Race story. I hope Tom and I can keep doing it for years to come!