Jimmy Summerour-The Man Behind the Scenes


Back To Racing

T.C. Hunt (left) and Jimmy Summerour (behind wheel) at Joe Smith's garage after Summerour left Buckshot's Automotive in 1966.

“I really admire Bobby Allison,” Jimmy said.  “We ran at Montgomery Motor Speedway one night and tore up the quick change. Bobby went out of the ball park backwards and tore his car all to pieces. We went to eat then followed Bobby back to his shop in Hueytown. We pushed our car into one stall to fix the rear end and Bobby and his guys pulled a six-cylinder 1955 Chevrolet into the other side.

“As we fixed our car, they hulled out the 55 and Bobby built a new engine. We finished about dawn and went to the motel to get a few hours sleep before the race that afternoon at the fairgrounds in Birmingham. Bobby showed up late with the car in primer paint with a watercolor number on the side. Not only did he make it, he sat on the pole and led every lap. We ran third or fourth. We use to enjoy going over there. You could run there in the afternoon and make the Peach Bowl for the night races. They would ask were we finished and we would say fifth and be proud of that. That circuit was that good.”

“We would go most anywhere and race,” Jimmy said.  “They told us about Savannah Speedway so we had to try them out. There were three hot dogs there at that time – Tom Pistone, Tiny Lund and Bubba Into. That night Bubba started on the pole and led almost all the race. For the last laps he was mirror driving T. C. trying to keep him in second place. As they came out of the fourth turn for the checkered flag, T. C. turned Bubba around and went on to win. After the races, here come Bubba with about 20 people trailing behind him. I thought we were going to have to fight our way out of Savannah. About that time Tom Pistone jumped in there and told Bubba, ‘I told you we’d find somebody to come down here and put you out.’ T. C. told them. ‘Now wait a minute. Bubba you mirror drove me the last ten laps and you had to know I wasn’t going to stay back there forever.’ Bubba looked at him and said, ‘Yeah, but did you have to do it when I could see the checkered flag!?’

“Also at Birmingham while we were running the 55 Chevy. T. C. and Charlie Griffith got into it. T. C. busted Charlie’s mouth and busted his fist. So where did we go to race the next Friday – Chattanooga. As soon as we got there, here comes Charlie. ‘I had to go to the dentist and get my tooth pulled this week.’’ And T. C. dead panned, ‘Well, I had to go get rabies shots.’”

© 2009-2024 Every Other Man Productions All Rights Reserved -- Copyright notice by Blog Copyright