Paradise is a Drag Strip

January 12th, 2012 by Drag Illustrated

By Van Abernethy

It was a warm Sunday afternoon in late summer when I discovered Paradise … Paradise Drag Strip, that is.

Ironically, I wasn’t even aware that Paradise existed until I came across its Web site quite by accident and was immediately amused by the track rules, which for some strange reason is something I always educate myself on before visiting any new track—not that I have trouble obeying them or anything.

Number 11 on the list of regulations that are strictly enforced in Paradise humorously declares: “Must order at least one cheeseburger.” I straightaway realized this was my kind of place.

I pulled through the gate and found a spot to dock the DI Sprinter in the grassy, wild-flower-covered pits that bordered a thick stretch of woods. It didn’t take long before a little lady with silver hair and a friendly smile came to greet me and welcome me to Paradise.

“Are you the man from the magazine?” she inquired. “Yes ma’am,” I replied, as she outstretched her hand to offer salutations. “You must be the track owner,” I said. “Well, it kinda’ owns us,” she laughed.

It’s impolite to ask a lady her age, but for the sake of painting a picture, Ms. Carol Timms is 70-ish with youthful enthusiasm and eyes that sparkle of social graces. I liked her immediately. Ms. Timms is forging ahead with clear purpose regarding this quaint eighth-mile drag strip in Calhoun, Georgia, and if not surrounded by children and grandchildren, the tasks at hand would be difficult to perform under the besetting circumstances.

It was just six months ago that Ms. Timms lay to rest the love of her life, Otto Timms, her husband of 45 years and the man who founded Paradise Drag Strip 50 years ago.

“I don’t know how he came up with that name, but I think it had something to do with a popular song in those days; something about trouble in paradise,” Ms. Timms laughs. Her spirit is light hearted as she describes for me the man who was so fondly known throughout this small community in north Georgia.

Otto Timms was a quick-witted soul, routinely making people laugh in an instant and with the least measure of effort. He also was an accommodating man, which is how Paradise Drag Strip came to exist in the first place. Back in the late 1950s there was a “Happy Days-type” cafe at the edge of town, a popular hangout for the young people of Calhoun. American muscle cars were hotly debated topics of conversation in those days, but it was a lack of facilities that lured much of the country’s youth to participate in street racing.

Well, one evening at the cafe, Otto overheard a conversation about how the community needed a drag strip, so he seriously decided to do something about it. On the edge of his family’s 50-acre parcel of farmland was an abandoned cotton field—dimensionally perfect to build a drag strip as it turned out.

Otto didn’t waste any time beginning construction and in 1961 opened the gates of Paradise Drag Strip. He met his future bride, Carol, in 1965 and the two were married the following year. Among the most vivid memories Ms. Timms recalls from the early days of the track are the unforgettable Funny Car races held in the mid-late 1960s, of which, she also counts as some of her husband’s best times at the track.

“Sometimes we would hold Funny Car meets and around 16 cars would show up for a $1,000 purse,” she remembers.

The community would come out by the multitudes to behold the spectacle of touring fuel Funny Cars thundering down the narrow strip which was less than 40 feet wide in those days. Oh yeah, I almost forgot, it also was a full 1/4 mile in those days, too!

If I could wish for anything, traveling back in time to watch a Funny Car shootout at Paradise Drag Strip would almost do. Otto Timms loved cars, especially old floppers, and among his favorites in a vast collection that he passed on to his family is a ‘74 Vega Funny Car that once belonged to former IHRA Top Fuel World Champion Bruce Litton.

“Bruce was so interested to see if it was the same car that he once traveled from Indiana to visit us a few years ago and positively identify the car,” says Ms. Timms.

These days, weekly sportsman racing is held at Paradise, while honorings of Otto Timms can be seen everywhere. Flower arrangements and wreaths still hang on the gates of Paradise, and many of the regular racers have stickers on the windows of their race cars that simply read, “Thanks Otto.”

When I stepped up to the concession stand with intentions of honoring track rule #11, I spotted a sign on the wall that reads, “Just another day in paradise.” Evidence is everywhere of the humorous, easy-going nature of the track’s founder. When his health declined sharply from complications of Alzheimer’s, Carol would take Otto by the hand and lead him out to the back deck of their home on Sunday afternoons so he could enjoy the sights and sounds of his backyard drag strip.

“He very much enjoyed that,” says Ms. Timms.

In addition to their youngest son, Lee, their daughter Susan and her husband Jeff, Ms. Timms says she and the family (which includes a host of grandchildren) will continue gathering each Sunday afternoon to make sure the light of Otto Timms’ vision still burns brightly in the community of Calhoun by way of a humble drag strip called Paradise.

I join the rest of the community in saying, “Thanks Otto”—from a traveling magazine man who never got the chance to tell you in person.