Hurd Continues Serving NASCAR Teams Through Family’s Air Gun Business

By Jack Flowers
NSSN Correspondent

CONDORD, N.C. — Jimmy Hurd may be the last of the “fastest guns” around.
That’s the terminology Hurd, in his early 40s, uses to refer to the equipment tire changers use to knock those lugnuts off and put them back on racing wheels with such lighting-quick speed.
Hurd’s grandfather, Howard, started the company that made the guns and, at one time, used a truck to get around to different places, selling tools and equipment out of the back of that truck.
Those adventures and travels carried Howard Hurd to Daytona Beach, Fla., in the late 1940s when the late William H. G. “Big Bill” France, Sr., was promoting races on the old beach course.
“People encouraged my grandfather to go down there and take some of his tools with him because they knew they were needed,” says Hurd, a native of Atlanta, Ga. “Then the Frances opened up Daytona Int’l Speedway and my grandfather had an ‘in’ with NASCAR and he continued to do business with them.

FAST GUNS: The front tire changer rushes around the front of Kyle Busch's No. 51 Chevrolet Silverado during a pit stop at Atlanta Motor Speedway. (Alan Marler/HHP Photo)

“It was a good way to get his tools recognized and in use.”
Besides Jimmy Hurd, there have been many other Hurds who have taken an interest in the business, but all have seen fit, for whatever reason, to step aside.
It’s left Hurd to continue the family tradition, strapping on the “fastest guns” around.
And it’s quite a business, to say the least.
Hurd operates out of BSR Auto Race Parts in Concord, N.C., and attends just about every NASCAR Nextel Cup race every year.
When he’s at a race track, BSR has a parts truck that includes a shop up front from which Hurd can work out of.
“Let me tell you,” says Hurd, “these guys are very serious about what they do and they can’t afford to have anything to go wrong or malfunction with those guns.
“We have to be there and help them out, just in case they do.”
It’s estimated that every tire changer has at least two of those guns, using one as a backup.
They cost an average of $900-$1,800 per gun.
Besides the guns the tire changers use during a race, there are the guns a team uses during the week for team pit-stop practice sessions.
With The Chase to the Nextel Cup now in progress, it’s a crucial time of the season for Hurd and Joe Parker, who helps Hurd at BSR.
“If they have a problem with a gun, they can get it to us during the week and we’ll take care of it,” says Parker, a native of Indiana who’s about 50 and has been helping Hurd for approximately eight years. Parker also does some maintenance work on the race jacks used by the various teams. “We’re not doing as much of that type of work on jacks that we used to do. Keeping these guns up and running keeps us pretty busy.”
Hurd and Parker will rebuild or refurbish the guns as needed.
“We check all the parts, replace what’s needed and then get the guns back to the tire changers,” Parker says.
“We’ll test them to see what’s needed and what we need to do.
“Usually they’ll get ’em to us by Monday or Tuesday of each week, if something’s wrong, so we can get them back to them in time for the next race.
“We’ll either take them back to the team, or the BSR truck will deliver them to the race track or we’ll ship them to the race track. Whatever’s quickest and easiest and most feasible.”
A team’s pit stop practice usually is on Wednesdays before they head for the next race.
It gets busy for Hurd and Parker when the season ends.
“You can count on that first or second week, after the season’s over, of our shop being piled up with guns to be worked on,” said Hurd. “And there’s really no off-season for these guys. Not only are they practicing every week, they’re off testing some place, so they need their guns just about every week of the year.”
There are special bags that tire changers can carry their guns in, something similar to holsters for six-shooters.
“These guys have to depend on the race-car haulers to get their guns to the next race,” says Hurd. “They can’t carry them with them on a commercial flight. Imagine how much confusion there would be at check-in, if they had their guns with them.
“And they want to make sure their guns are there when they get there and are ready to be used.”
That’s not much of problem these days with most teams utilizing their own planes to fly to races, in and out of Concord Regional Airport.
Tom Cotter, a motorsports publicist, first worked for Ingersoll-Rand out of New Jersey before Ingersoll-Rand started assisting Hurd in marketing his tools and products.
“I remember Jimmy Hurd when he was just a fresh little kid, still in school,” says Cotter.
“They’ve really come a long way from the time I first remember.
“After Jimmy, there are no other Hurds to keep the business going.”
Unless another Hurd comes along, Jimmy Hurd may be the last of the “fastest guns.”