St. Louis, MO ... In the early ‘70’s Jim Smoot was an avid dirt bike rider & amateur racer. His first race was the Steel Helmet Enduro where he took a 3rd place award. But Jim’s interest in dirt bikes would take a unique & interesting turn.
While attending the University of Missouri, he accepted a position as a National Marketing Manager. His first assignment was in Charlotte, North Carolina so at 19 yrs. old Jim loaded up his Yamaha YZ125 in the back of a 1965 Chevy van (that he had customized) & hit the road. Dirt bikes were still his passion & his very first, 1st place trophy would be in Columbia, South Carolina. He remembers the excitement of the win, then disappointment that his friends & family were back in St. Louis & not there to share the glory.
In the next 6 months Jim opened up several offices throughout the South, but when he was assigned to Santa Monica, CA, his exposure to the west coast van scene changed his career path.
At the age of 20, Jim returned home & with a $500 loan from his high school sweetheart (now his wife) Rose Colona, opened up Fantasy Coachworks, a van customizing company. Many of his first clients were motocross racers who used custom vans to haul their bikes to the track. “I remember that 1st year in business, we closed down for the entire month of January, loaded up our race bikes and took off for California riding Saddleback Park & Indian Dunes…we were crazy” says Jim, but with business booming his dirt bike riding would soon take a back seat.
Jim was a creative promoter. He developed a persona known as “Fantasy” Jim who would appear in television commercials with a bevy of bikini clad beauties that he called the Fantasy Girls. He went on to promote a contest where the first prize was a modeling contract to appear in the next series of commercials. More than 46,000 screaming fans attended the 1983 world finals of the Ms. Fantasy Beauty Pageant at the Cervantes Convention Center.
“Fantasy” Jim & the Fantasy Girls would go on to star in hundreds of TV & radio commercials, thousands of full color posters & make hundreds of personal appearances. A local news reporter dubbed “Fantasy” Jim the Hugh Hefner of St. Louis.
With this phenomenal success Jim developed a franchise expansion plan. To promote his new Fantasy franchise, Jim & fellow motocross racers “Radical” Randy Shekell & Mike Giaffino raced a highly modified Dodge van, complete with a 340V8, 12 point roll cage & 120 gallons of fuel on board, in the 4 Ball Rally (an outlaw coast to coast road race from Boston to San Diego). The story made national headlines and Jim would go on to see Fantasy Coachworks expand to 34 franchises in 8 states within 3 years. Entrepreneur Magazine listed Fantasy Coachworks in their Franchise 500 as one of the fastest growing franchises in the USA for 1984, 1985 & 1986.
“Fantasy” Jim developed 3 publications that he used to promote his company & the “Fantasy” lifestyle…Fantasy News, Auto Show Weekly & Auto Exotica Magazine. Hundreds of thousands of issues were printed & enjoyed by motorsport enthusiasts all over the country. This explosive growth & multiple ventures would be his undoing though & by 1992 the company imploded. “Fantasy” Jim was left with just one store, his original location. “There are no failures, just lessons learned” he says with a smile.
Jim sold his original store located at 6034 S. Lindbergh Blvd. in St. Louis, MO on October 1, 2007 (he was 53 yrs. old). In 32 years, his company had customized more than 50,000 cars, vans & trucks. Rose says he still owes her that $500!
But once again his love for dirt bikes opened up new opportunities. “I remember the time that my good buddy Bill Burns & I jumped on a pair of Honda mini bikes & ran those things till we broke them in half, we laughed till it hurt!
When the Pit Bike craze hit the market, Jim opened Fantasy Powersports & became a top pit bike dealer for Xtreme Motor Company & Piranha Pit Bikes and he began racing motocross again. “The adrenaline rush of the starting gate along with the belly laughing fun of adults bangin’ bars & squirtin’ dirt on mini bikes was more exciting than that 1st win in South Carolina” said Jim “I was hooked!”
From 2009 to 2014 “Fantasy” Jim was the self-proclaimed “world’s oldest pit bike racer” traveling the state with his sons James & Zach, all three competing in the ShoMe State Pit Bike Series. At 56 years old he won his first State Championship pit bike title and his 5th & final State Champion title at 61 years old, before retiring from competition.
To this day, “Fantasy” Jim can be seen cruising Lindbergh Blvd in his original 4 Ball Rally Dodge van, the Orange Quest, which draws a crowd wherever it goes.
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