James Price Thrall, "Jimmy", born October 2, 1954 in Jerome, Idaho, died on July 2, 2004 as the result of an accident at the shop he shared with his oldest brother, Gene, in Nevada.

He was predeceased by his father, Raymond "Jack" Thrall in 2002, and a brother, Clyde Thrall, in 1961. He is remembered by his loving family: Mother, Clara Thrall of Tenmile; sisters Rose Mary Smith of Tenmile and Sherrie Firman and her husband Ted of Eugene; brothers Gene Thrall and Roger Thrall of Sparks, Nevada; 5 nieces and nephews, 6 great-nieces and great-nephews; and a special friend, Bonnie Mulherin. He will be missed by his family and his many friends.

Jimmy graduated from Douglas High School in 1973, though he was working that night so did not attend the graduation ceremony. He was also an ITT graduate, though in those days it was called United Electronics Institute (UEI) rather than ITT. When he first graduated from UEI, Jimmy worked on electrical generators with a company based in Portland.

Jimmy loved working on race cars, off-road races, collecting Cosworth Vegas, hunting (in Oregon in areas familiar to him from growing up in Lookingglass) and shark fishing off the southern California coast, and did all of them as frequently as he could.

Jimmy was a free spirit, who was not hung up on material things, calling it "just stuff", though he did like his toys. He was blunt, but everyone he knew was his friend, immediately. He once dialed a wrong phone number, and spoke with a stranger for two hours on the phone, long distance. To him, they were not a stranger but a friend.

When he was 14, he built perhaps the first Corvette 4-wheel drive, (a classic 1956) and took it to an off-road race in Lookingglass. At first, the other 4-wheelers laughed, but the laughing stopped when he came home with 6 trophies (3 won by him, 3 by his sister, Rose).

This Corvette was still a work in progress, having been in off road races for years and always coming back….more fiberglass work, a wing added to the top, a fancy white paint job, and more modifications.

Jimmy spent years working with race cars, first with Indy 500 car owner Rolla Vollstedt of Portland, and then for more than 22 years with Dan Gurney’s All American Racing Team of Santa Ana, California. In this capacity, he was a world traveler: Canada, Brazil, Japan, Australia as well as tracks throughout the United States. In the last several years, he worked closely with Dan on creating and building the "Grand Prix" Alligator, a prototype motorcycle.

Like his father before him, Jimmy could come up with creative solutions to various mechanical difficulties, and could do a wide variety of tasks. He could do almost anything with a roll of duct tape.

Jimmy and his brother Gene had for many years been collecting equipment for metal fabrication for their many plans for building race cars and other projects. Jimmy spent a lot of weekends traveling from his beloved job at Dan Gurney’s shop in California to spend time at the shop in Nevada, working on his Corvette and other projects with Gene.

Jimmy believed in being responsible with guns, and enjoyed deer and elk hunting. He once entertained us with the story of how he went on a "buffalo hunt", the hide and horns of which he gave to his Mom. When he learned that his nephew, J.B., had taken a hunter’s education class, he gave him a gun with the proviso that J.B. send him two targets showing that JB had learned to shoot accurately.

Jimmy liked his meats "well done" (burnt to charcoal-like consistency!), and was known for always having a Coke at hand. Breakfast often consisted of those little white, powdered donuts from a box, and a bottle of Coke.

He brought humor and love to our lives; he will be sorely missed.

There will be a Celebration of Jimmy’s life on August 7^th in the Sawtooth Mountains of Idaho. For information, call his sister, Rose Mary Smith, at 541-679-6901.