BRUNSWICK, Ga. — The guy they call “The Nightmare” is wearing a retro T-shirt with “Peanuts’” Woodstock and the words “Happy Camper” stamped on the chest.
The latter seems to describe super late-model driver Jimmy Owens better than the former these days. Owens is off to the best start of his career, having taken the SuperBowl of Racing at Golden Isles Speedway by storm, winning three times in the first four nights of the event and chasing winner and teammate/owner Scott Bloomquist to the finish line on the penultimate night of competition, keeping the event’s point title well within his grasp.
“By far, this is the best start I’ve had in any class I’ve ever run,” said Owens, who turned 36 on Feb. 3. “Especially to get a win to end last season and to start off this year like we’ve done, it’s pretty crazy. It’s fun. The guys — (crew chief) Chris (Fox) and the whole crew just don’t get enough credit.”
Owens joined Bloomquist’s Team Zero over the off-season, driving alongside Bloomquist and Chris Madden. Early results would indicate that Owens and his new team are a perfect fit.
Bloomquist praised the way the trio fits together after his victory on Friday night, and Owens couldn’t disagree with the logic.
“It came along at a good time for me and him both, I think,” said Owens. “Before we raced by ourselves at the track, and we’d get help from different folks, but when you get to the track, you’re kind of by yourself.
“Now, we get with Scott and talk about setting up the car. We’re racing with guys who have been there — at every track. It’s a huge help, knowing a little bit about a place before you ever go. I’d never been here for late-model stuff, but Scott and those guys came down here and  practiced, so I kind of knew what to expect.”
But with the additional aid of team strategies and improved equipment has come increased expectations. So far, Owens may have even raised the bar on those expectations here on South Georgia dirt.
“We’ve got the best equipment money can buy, so it’s up to me to get it done,” Owens said. “I ain’t got no excuses.”
None needed.
If the start of this season has been a dream for Owens, it has indeed been a “nightmare” for competitors hoping to come away from Golden Isles with a $10,000 winner’s check and momentum as the super late models head to Florida.
With his three victories and Bloomquist’s two, Owens and Bloomquist have pretty much cornered the market on momentum, while collecting $50,000 between the two of them. The point title paid an extra $10,000, just in time for Owens’s birthday.

'Nightmare' Jimmy Owens

Not bad as nightmares go.
Owens, a native of Newport, Tenn., chuckled at the nickname “The Newport Nightmare,” which he figures was the brainchild of some track announcer or promoter with a gift for alliteration.
“I don’t even know where it came from — some guys just started calling me that,” he said. “I wasn’t too fond of it, but it kind of stuck, and there’s nothing I can do about it.”
Not unlike hundreds of other grassroots racers, Owens became a dirt-track “Nightmare” by following the path to the track laid by his grandfather, Hoppy Gentry.
“My papaw used to race a little bit and my older brother, Curt Owens, started running when he was about 14, so I started helping him,” Owens said. “I can’t remember not being around a race car.”
Owens started in street stocks and then moved to modifieds with very good results from 1995-2002. Late models followed with good, if not stellar, results until the deal with Bloomquist was done after the 2007 season.
And then, “things just started turning around.”
With more victories come more fans and more of those youngsters seeking autographs — one of whom arrived just after Owens’s last statement, asking the driver to sign his shirt.
“That’s what I shoot for — just to be a good role model. I’m not a father or anything, but when the kids come up to you, that’s amazing,” said Owens, who signed with a smile on a shirt proclaiming him the “Nightmare.”
But truth be told, he’s just one “happy camper.”