By Don Coble, Florida Sports Wire
Bobby Allison once told a story about growing up in South Florida. One Saturday night, his father decided to take him to the local short track in Hialeah to watch the weekly races.
During the ride, Bobby struggled to explain what he thought was a well-guarded secret. As they pulled into the parking lot, his father broke the silence – and the secrecy that his son was racing under the name Bobby Sunderman because his parents said he couldn’t live at home if he was racing.
“I know. You better not let your mother find out,” Jacob “Pops” Allison said.
Bobby and brother Donnie quickly learned racing in Alabama paid more than in South Florida, so they packed their tools and moved.
Racing history immediately shifted gears.
The Allisons had a profound effect on stock-car racing. They played a major role in the first live flag-to-flag broadcast of a NASCAR race in 1979. Donnie and Cale Yarborough battled for the lead in the final few laps of the Daytona 500 on CBS.
That weekend set up nicely for NASCAR because a massive blizzard crippled the Northeast and forced the postponement of most NBA and NHL games. NASCAR was the only game in town – and on television.
As Donnie and Yarborough entered Turn 3 on the final lap, their bumping became so aggressive that they turned into the outside wall and crashed. Richard Petty was a quarter of a mile behind and eventually drove past both to win.
Donnie and Yarborough got out of their cars and argued. Bobby Allison stopped to see if his brother was all right. He said something to Yarborough, and Cale responded with a punch. The fight was on, and CBS captured every blow. Suddenly, NASCAR was bumped to Page 1 of every newspaper and the lead story of every network newscast.
Bobby later joked, “I blocked every one of Cale’s punches with my face.”
There was a painful side to Bobby that few saw. His career ended when Jocko Maggiacomo hit him in the driver’s side door on the first lap at the Pocono Raceway in 1988 on Father’s Day.
In 1992, his youngest son, Clifford, died when he hit the Turn 4 wall during Xfinity Series practice at the Michigan International Speedway. Bobby went to the scene to oversee the rescue efforts.
A year later, his other son, Davey, died when he crashed his helicopter in the parking lot at the Talladega Superspeedway. He flew there with legendary short-track driver Red Farmer to watch David Bonnett practice for an upcoming Xfinity Series race
Bobby lost most of his lifetime earnings when he started a race team and got the backing of Mane ‘n Tail products. He operated the team for more than a year with the promise of payment, although the company missed every deadline. Eventually, Bobby lost millions and had to shut the team down. He was forced to move in with his mother and live in a spare bedroom.
Bobby and wife Judy divorced, but they reconciled when they comforted Kyle and Pattie Petty when their son, Adam, was killed at the New Hampshire Motor Speedway in 2000. Judy then died in 2015 following complications from surgery.
“You know, the world, I hope, never is that cruel to any other family again,” Allison once said. “But it happened. People helped us and supported us. I just really appreciated that.”
On the track, however, he was relentless. His 85 victories, including three Daytona 500s, are fourth best in NASCAR history, and he won the championship in 1983.
He won races for 12 different car owners and won for eight different manufacturers, but his most remarkable feat was set between Sept. 6, 1971, and Oct. 8, 1972, when he led at least one lap in 39 consecutive races. Along with Richard Petty’s 200 career wins, those two marks are unlikely to be matched.
The patriarch of the famed Alabama Gang quietly crossed the finish line of life at his home in Mooresville, North Carolina, on Saturday. He was 86.
