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Jimmy Finger


Budman

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i work with alot of guys that use to work for jimmy..........nobody has talked to him in awhile though.

if i hear aything i'll let you know

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  • 3 weeks later...

Jimmy really scared me one night at Pan Am. He had a real pretty little #5 Candy Apple red sprint car. That thing would fly. He got down toward turn three and the throttle hung. He managed to get it turned somewhat before he slid into the wall between 3 and 4, side on. Dang he hit hard! The car hit the wall and jumped about 6 feet straight up before dropping back to the track like it "fell out of the sky".

 

He was kind of slow getting out of it, but he walked away. I don't see how, though. Man, it was a hard hit. I bet he was sore for weeks after that, but of course he would never have admitted it!

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  • 1 month later...
Jimmy really scared me one night at Pan Am. He had a real pretty little #5 Candy Apple red sprint car. That thing would fly. He got down toward turn three and the throttle hung. He managed to get it turned somewhat before he slid into the wall between 3 and 4, side on. Dang he hit hard! The car hit the wall and jumped about 6 feet straight up before dropping back to the track like it "fell out of the sky".

 

He was kind of slow getting out of it, but he walked away. I don't see how, though. Man, it was a hard hit. I bet he was sore for weeks after that, but of course he would never have admitted it!

 

You left out the best part. They put his car into the infield and allowed him to work on it there even though the pits at Pan Am were between turns 3 and 4. Anyway, him and his crew busted their tail straightening that car out and were able to start scratch in the feature event. I believe Pan Am called them Super Modifieds then, not sprints. Don't remember how he finished in the feature but I will agree that was one of the hardest wall hits I ever witnessed and I am still amazed that they had the car back on the track in time for the feature.

Dano36 :o

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  • 2 weeks later...

Just an interesting note about Jimmy Finger..........

 

At his recent appearance at THR, Terry Labonte as the Grand Marshall of the NGNW race, in his "On Track" interview, made mention of his only previous appearance in Austin, at Austin Speed-o-rama way back when. Terry said he remembered he ran second in the feature to Jimmy Finger. Nice touch Terry. :)

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  • 8 years later...

The last time I saw and talked to Jimmy “Fireball” Finger was at Don Bierschwale’s funeral viewing. Also present for a lengthy and enjoyable conversation was Tommy Davis, Hubert Bean and “Cotton” Sherland.

Jimmy was quite a race car driver. He won the TIDA Texas Race of Champions at Texas World Speedway in 1978 and 1979. He was also a top 5 finisher several times.

Jimmy won the Texas Grand Prix at Texas World Speedway in the spring of 1981.

All of his TWS races were at the wheel of the excellent prepared #22, Vita-Fresh Chevrolet Camaro.

Jimmy is well over 70 and described an interesting vacation trip on his Harley Davidson. He and his wife rode the Harley from Austin to Seattle Washington. They boarded a sea going ferry with sleeping cabins. It sailed north for three days. They disembarked and rode the motorcycle all over Alaska for about a week. Their return trip by the same sea going ferry to Seattle was followed by riding back to Austin. All of you readers must be as impressed as I was, given Jimmy’s age.

Compiled by - Neil Upchurch
Former Race Director, Texas Race of Champions & Texas Grand Prix at Texas World Speedway

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The last time I saw and talked to Jimmy “Fireball” Finger was at Don Bierschwale’s funeral viewing. Also present for a lengthy and enjoyable conversation was Tommy Davis, Hubert Bean and “Cotton” Sherland.

 

Jimmy was quite a race car driver. He won the TIDA Texas Race of Champions at Texas World Speedway in 1978 and 1979. He was also a top 5 finisher several times.

 

Jimmy won the Texas Grand Prix at Texas World Speedway in the spring of 1981.

 

All of his TWS races were at the wheel of the excellent prepared #22, Vita-Fresh Chevrolet Camaro.

 

Jimmy is well over 70 and described an interesting vacation trip on his Harley Davidson. He and his wife rode the Harley from Austin to Seattle Washington. They boarded a sea going ferry with sleeping cabins. It sailed north for three days. .... All of you readers must be as impressed as I was, given Jimmy’s age.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I think I'm more impressed that his wife did it too. On the back and in high heels (to borrow and modify a phrase).

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