CRESTVIEW — When Jimmy Woodley read about the city of Crestview working to create a radio-control, or R/C, car track, an idea popped in his head.
Woodley, who has been an R/C car enthusiast for 25 years, decided to open his own hobby shop to sell R/C cars and parts.
“It only made sense to me that if there is going to be a race track here in Crestview, there should also be a shop to get supplies.”
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His shop, Jimmy’s Classic R/C Shop, opened its doors on Dec. 17. The store is located at 585 South Ferdon Boulvard, Unit B.
To open the shop, Woodley sold many of his valuable possessions, including a speed boat and his new truck, and saved up money for almost three years.
“I realized that money and the nice things didn’t really bring me any joy,” Woodley said. “This is something that I’ve always very much enjoyed as a kid and to be able to share that with other people, it’s what it’s all about for me.”
Woodley said that because he sold many of his possessions, he is now able to help R/C car enthusiasts save money. According to Woodley, he can have a car part at his store within two days at the same or sometimes lower price than if the customer ordered it online.
Woodley also added that the cars sold in his shop are different than those found in department stores.
“What you get there typically you won’t be able to get into to service or replace parts,” Woodley said. “When it breaks, you’re done and you have to go buy another one. With these, every single part has an associated part number and it’s all serviceable just like a full-size vehicle.”
While the shop currently focuses only on R/C cars, Woodley said if the demand were high enough, he would love to eventually sell other R/Cs like planes and drones.
“My biggest focus with this business is not necessarily to sell everybody models and make a healthy living and be done,” Woodley said. “My goal here is to grow the radio control community and provide low cost or free events for the youth.”
For more information visit the shop’s Facebook or classicrcshop.com.
This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: Local R/C car enthusiast opens hobby shop in Crestview
