Annette Summer, a pioneering Pro Street racer who just happened to be female, understands she’s got some work to do before she races her trademark, nitrous-injected pink Camaro again, the same one she drove to a stellar reputation in the 1990s and beyond.
Summer, who last raced in the Pro Street arena some decades ago, returned to competition, at least in an exhibition role, at the recently completed 32-year Havlik’s Fastest Street Car Reunion at Tri-State Raceway in Earlville, Iowa. And while it was more of an exhibition outing than an actual competition, the first lady of street legal drag racing had the time of her life.
“I had a blast,” Summer said. “There were so many people, and it was a blast. It took me back to the old days, and I really felt like it was a time machine. I cannot wait for the next one. There were lots of emotional moments for sure.”
Getting Summer’s relic into racing shape was more than just throwing gas in the fuel cell and charging up the battery. The steel car had been sitting on jackstands in her Aiken, SC, shop since 1996. Adding to the challenges was the fact that Summer and her husband Vernon were in the midst of relocating the shop to Hendersonville, NC.
“We didn’t even have electricity in the shop; we were running power from the house by a long drop cord,” Summer admitted. “You do what you have to do.”
Summer admits her Camaro was an 8.50 certification, limiting her to eighth-mile passes only to stay within regulation.
Summer took her ageless Camaro to the Carolina-based “chassis whisperer” Tommy Mauney for crucial updates.
“This is the original back-half car,” Summer explained. “It still got a stock front end under it. Stock steel doors, roll-up windows, everything where, by the rules, when we built the car, we built the car by the rules of 1992 NMCA.”
Summer’s previous best was a 7.61 back in the day.
With all Mauney’s updates and everything structurally sound, Summer wasn’t prepared for a master cylinder failure that left her at the finish of a run minus brakes and a parachute malfunction; she still managed to slow the Chevrolet classic. Slow, in this case, is a relative term.
“The run felt good, real good,” Summer said. “Then it hit me; I don’t have brakes; even if I ain’t got brakes, if the parachute comes out, I can make the turn and get the car stopped. When the parachute didn’t come out, I was like, Lordy Mercy. Tommy was texting me. I said, ‘The man upstairs was looking out for me.”
“You couldn’t have stuck one penny up my ass; it was that scary. Not scary, but I knew I had to make that turn because going off in that sand, I’ve seen what it can do to a car, and I didn’t want to hurt my girl.”
Summer said others would have hated to see her “girl” get even one scratch. She beams when telling the story of a race fan from 30 years ago who was at the event as a little girl who went to the local Walmart to pick up a bracelet-making kit.
“She brought me back this bracelet with pink beads on it,” Summer said. “That bracelet has been in every car I have ever driven. And when I wasn’t racing, it was in my daily driver. I’d swap it from car to car. And that girl walked up on me at the track; she’s 35 now, and her daughter and her husband, and I looked up, and I recognized her right off the bat, especially when I looked at her daughter because I knew. They came from far away and surprised me. Her daughter brought me a little male pig to ride the car with Pigzilla. His name’s Wilbur.”
Summer experienced many stories like this during the weekend, making the risk of bringing the car much less than the reward. There was even the moment she was able to sit in friendly rival Tony Christian’s car and flip the middle finger in fun, just like old times. She initially resisted it out of respect but was encouraged by others for old time’s sake.
“So many people came and were so glad to see these cars. They said, ‘Oh, this takes me back to my childhood. My dad,” or whoever, “used to take him to the track and see all these cars,” Summer said. “People were coming up in the staging lanes with Camaros, telling me, ‘You’re why I built this Camaro because I followed your car back in the day.”
And yes, Summer was ridiculing the fellas like back in the day who had auto shifters while she was still pulling the Lenco levers. She hadn’t missed a beat this weekend, good-natured ribbing and all.
“It was just like a big family reunion of racers and just a really good time,” Summer said. “They’re going to do it again next year, too; I will be back with my car. Just it’s going to have the bars put in it where I can run it to 750.”
And she will still be pulling the levers and razzing the boys who don’t. It’s just in her nature.
