Albuquerque Journal from Albuquerque, New Mexico • Page 30

MONDAY, JANUARY 11, 2016 One-on-One with Jim Guthrie 4 BUSINESS OUTLOOK THE BASICS: Born James P. Guthrie on Sept. 13, 1961, in Gadsden, graduated from Eldorado High School; some college at University of New Mexico; married to Missy since 1982; two children: Sean, 27, and Kayla, 26; two Labrador retrievers, OD and Bella. '71 'I) "14 4 1 I if 0 1 01. 0414 .1 1 11,, .111., 1111 I -T.

ilt' 1 11 I 0 lit 41... 1 lk'''' 7 4, ''-'40" 61., 0 1 rii 4' POSITION: President and CEO of Car Crafters since 1982; board member for New Mexico Motor Speedway. DID YOU KNOW? GREG SORBERJOURNAL have been with the company for more than 20 years and who Guthrie credits with keeping the business strong as he has pursued his other passions. tires and the widest this and the fastest that always fixing it. Here I was 6 years old and always saving up my money to go buy the next hottest thing to put in a slot car.

I think it's a disease I was born with, according to my wife. BY JESSICA DYER JOURNAL STAFF WRITER Jim Guthrie used to sate his competitive appetite by blowing around auto-racing ovals at 200- plus miles per hour. These days, he gets the same kind of rush at much lower speeds and with no horsepower. The president of Albuquerque-based Car Crafters is currently pumped that he broke the 8-minute barrier in a 400-yard swim, which means he was moving shy of 2 mph. As someone who recently committed himself to triathlons, despite no swimming background, it was a triumph.

In fact, the man who has raced in three Indianapolis 500s says just finishing a swim-bike-run race even a small-scale affair in Socorro provides the same satisfaction as anything he achieved on the track. That includes his surprise win at the Indy Racing League's 1997 Phoenix 200. "It's just as good a feeling as when I won that race," Guthrie says. "It's just such an accomplishment (finishing a triathlon). It's you you're racing you.

It's the ultimate competition; it's you against your mind, and I love it. It's perfect." Guthrie, as is probably obvious, takes his hobbies seriously. Car Crafters itself sprouted directly from his teenage fixation with automobiles, whether rigging them to go faster or repairing the damage done from encountering curbs while racing around underdeveloped parts of Albuquerque with his friends. He was 20 and attending University of New Mexico when his parents whose garage he had pretty well co-opted for his car projects told him he needed to either stop with all the car stuff and funnel all his attention into his studies, or move out and open his own shop. "I think they thought that would be tough love and would drive me to quit goofing around in the garage and get serious about school," he says.

"Well, no, I went out and got an apartment, went down the street and got that (first) shop. "Here we are almost 34 years later." Car Crafters today has four sites with a fifth almost completed at Paseo del Norte and Interstate 25 and about 160 employees, including many who Guthrie attended University of New Mexico for three years, expecting to follow his uncle into the dental surgery field. He liked the profession's "meticulous" nature and working with people, but ultimately found cars more compelling than teeth. "Here I get to have the same impact, doing meticulous work, but not having to have my hand in someone's mouth all day," he says with a laugh. He and wife Missy were teenage sweethearts who met at church camp, and married when he was 21 and she was 18.

CI: Describe yourself as a teenager. Motorcycles every day. Loved math and science, wasn't a fan of English. Loved cars if I wasn't working on motorcycles, I was under the hood of a car always trying to make it better. Through my practice of learning how to drive, I also learned how to crash, which then led to learning how to fix cars.

Where does your building, mechanical aptitude come from? Your dad? He sold insurance. He worked for Allstate for 32 years. He did his own oil changes and tune-ups. He drove a little Toyota Corolla and before that he had a little Ford T-Bird, nothing flashy or fancy, and he never changed anything it was always stock. Where I got my got-to-built-it-better-andbigger-and-faster (attitude), I have no idea.

And he is Mr. Conservative and I'm Mr. Risk Taker, so we're very much opposites, but when I was racing, he was my No. 1 fan. CI: What was your first car? My first car that I owned was an Ambassador.

It was like a cop We peeled the vinyl roof off, put some primer on. It was like a race car. And boy did that car get it. Oh, my goodness. CI: How long did it take before you crashed it? I think I crashed it three or four times in the first year.

Yeah. And then I got a Capri V-6. It wasn't long (before) I crashed that one, too. Guthrie raced in three Indianapolis 500s and was the Indy Racing League's Rookie of the Year in 1997, but says his claim to fame might actually be flipping his Mustang during a Pro-Am "drifting" competition in 2012. A You Tube video of the accident has more than 173,000 views.

"I got 16 seconds of fame," he says. "I am more known for that crash than any of my other racing." CI: Did you have a first job before Car Crafters? I worked for Albuquerque Federal at the time. I ran the purchasing department. I did Walgreens after school before that. That's pretty much it.

I've been an entrepreneur. (Growing up) I'd build mirrors and the wood for mahogany pool tables, so I did a lot of woodwork in the garage. My problem So cars were a lifelong interest? Probably. I remember racing my Hot Wheels and then my slot cars; I souped up every one, and went around the neighborhood and had the biggest See ONE-ON-ONE 10 11M 11 NEW MEXICO MUTUAL kx i COVERAGE WORK' tW k1 505.3453260 newmexicomutual.com.