Air Force Days
Bobby Whitmire in the Air Force. Photo courtesy the Bobby Whitmire collection
Bobby joined the Air Force in January of 1951.
“I wanted to go ahead and join and get my choice of which service I went in,” Bobby said. “If you were drafted, they sent you wherever they wanted. We did a lot of training at Army bases because the Air Force training bases were so full. I was stationed in Texas, New Mexico, Virginia and near Detroit. I spent about 14 months at a radar site in the northern part of the Lower Peninsula at Empire, Michigan. This is right out of Traverse City, MI. I have gone back for group reunions. Nearly everything is still there, the old Shell station, the hamburger joint where we hung out and nearly all the bars are all still there.”
“When I came out of the service in January, 1953, I drove for Roger Warren,” Bobby continued. “He and his brother, Cecil, built a race car. Then Roger wanted to drive it during warm-ups and the heat race. He let me drive it in the feature. That was when I build my own car.
Bobby cleans up the Ford coupe he built after leaving the Air Force and returning to Gainesville. Photo courtesy the Bobby Whitmire collection
“After that, the Hulsey brothers, James and Bill, built me a new car at their shop right there in Gainesville. They were having some trouble with their guys working on the car, so Bill Hulsey told me if I would take the car and finish it, I could have it and they would keep it up. If it got bent, or whatever, at the track, I would take it by their place and they would fix it. They Hulseys sponsored me for a long time. Frank Pirkle Tire sponsored me as long as we didn’t use special tires. I always had sponsors, but those two stuck with me for the longest. I was lucky that way. We didn’t even have space on the car for them.”
“I have a trophy I won at Gainesville in May of 1955,” Bobby told us. “I have a picture of me with a trophy when I won the last race ever held at Gainesville.
“I won my first race at Dixie Speedway in Jasper, Georgia (not to be confused with the track currently operating in Woodstock, Georgia). I had a set of tires that they barred me from running up there. They were snow or mud grips. Doc Stowe, the announcer, rode with me over there. Doc also announced at Jackson County and at Gainesville when Max ran the track. The folks at Dixie didn’t like it because the tires threw rocks and mud all over them.
“R.G. Nethry built me some of the best flatheads I ever head. He wouldn’t build for just anybody. I don’t know how I lucked up. Grady Bobo – Pine Ridge Garage – built me a flathead. It ran good when they revived flatheads for a while.”