A Moment Of Calm, With James Hill
Story By: Staff of UTV Sports Mag
Photos By: Brandon Bunch
Since before the induction of UTVs into the off-road industry, James Hill, fabricator and co-owner of IMG Motorsports, has been putting his creative expression into motion. From the beginnings of his childhood, both his father and step-dad’s love for sandrails, jeeps, blown engines, and race boats, sparked a fire and deeply ingrained the nothing-left-stock mentality into James’ mind. Growing up around this created the drive in him to put his mind and hands to work, the drive that he is still incredibly passionate about today.
It all started in the garage with the crew of James, his step-sister (Erica Sacks, the bad*ss off-road navigator), and his step-brother as they disassembled everything they could find in the garage, trying to build go-karts or anything that would be fun… “Everything got ruined, we took everything apart!” James laughs, “My step-dad would get so pissed!” This drive to build and destroy things would obviously further develop, and has yet to slow down.
Around the age of sixteen, while racing minibikes, dirtbikes, and BMX, James was heavily influenced by Jesse James and West Coast Choppers, during the time they showed the world an inside look at what fabrication and bike building is all about. Seeing them in action is part of what motivated James to start toying around in fabrication himself, “I was not so much into the chopper stuff, but more just figuring out how to make something from nothing… That’s what I was always into.”
With some practice under his belt and the ambition to get better, James decided to attend a welding school in Modesto, California. Eight months later, he graduated as a certified structural welder, and after moving back home to Lake Elsinore, he unfortunately found that there weren’t many structural welding jobs available in the area. This all led James to find a job in the off-road industry with PRP Seats, welding up seat frames. After a couple of years in the monotonous grind of producing the same parts day in and day out, that desire to be creative began pushing its way to the front of his mind.
In 2007 at the ripe young age of twenty one years old, James made a wise move that would put him on the path to success. “I kind of jumped from dirtbikes into [Yamaha] Rhinos, which was odd because they were not fast… They weren’t that fun, but it was a thing where we couldn’t get hurt anymore—and that made it a lot of fun.” Obviously James is correct; Yamaha Rhinos are slow, had terrible suspension, and overall, were not engineered for a bunch of hooligans to race around a motocross track, or the desert.
Nonetheless, the trend of racing UTVs began to catch fire, and this opened the door to a whole new world where James could focus his creativity into engineering and fabricating parts to build them stronger, faster, and more fun to drive; as a result, IMG Motorsports was born. Now thirty-four years old, James is more driven than ever to grow the company, and he knows it’s the perfect time. “It’s an awesome time right now,” says James, “UTVs are constantly evolving with Honda and Kawasaki coming out with new models, and Polaris keeps stepping it up—which is great.”
IMG is a family business and a bit of a one-stop-shop, with step-sister Erica still part of the crew as she runs the retail side up front—making sure customers are supplied with whatever parts they need whether manufactured by IMG or not. While James lets his creativity flow into designing new parts and custom builds in the back—building race cars or over-the-top sand cars from the frame rails up. They take pride in what they build, but they don’t view other companies as competition, “We don’t build every component.” James elaborates, “We sell Cognito stuff because it’s great stuff, and if my a-arm kit is not what you want, I can get you Cognito’s kit or even Super ATV’s, depending on the budget.” This is refreshing in the world of builders that only want to tell you how their sh*t doesn’t stink, and no, James is not paying us to say that.
Whether it’s at the races or in the desert, James intends to continue racing and riding UTVs as much as possible, meeting new people and clients, and loving every minute of it. That very work ethic is an extension of who James is, as someone who genuinely cares for others. Being involved in the sport has allowed him to not only meet a ton of people but to keep his creative thinking flowing; never content because his mind never stops moving.