Bob Update o4/19/06

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Whizzer

Whizzer

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boB was taken home from the hospital about a week ago and is under the care of his family and hospice. I called to speak with boB a few days ago but he was sleeping at the time and it is doubtful boB and I will ever communicate, again.

The following is an update from boB's wife, Pat, received yesterday. I like to refer to Pat as "Saint Pat", a/k/a "Mrs. boB".

"Just a quick update. Bob's condition has gone downhill in the last couple
of days. He's having more trouble breathing and can no longer get out of
bed. We have a very hard time just sitting him up which he wants to do
every few minutes. He has rare moments of knowing whats going on around
him,........................

He is heavily medicated for pain so he has none (one good thing in all of this).

...................he is not up to e-mail and a phone conversation is impossible. I know he really enjoyed the banter and stories. I'll keep you updated.
Thanks again for caring."

The "thanks again for caring" was to all who offfered thier best wishes and concerns for boB. I know boB either read or had Pat read the posted messages on this forum, to him and also know he does appreciate them.
 
Thanks for the info Whiz. He and his family are still in our prayers.

I want to share something that boB told me. I PM'd him once, asking about his background in racing. Here's his response...

fergy,

Please don't take this as any sort of bragging or trying to impress anyone, but in answer to your question as to whether I had any racing background.

I've been around one form or another for as long as I can remember. My dad played around with midgets and motorcycles, I started racing on the ice here in New England when I was either twelve or thirteen, honestly don't remember which, from there to jalopies and what they called cutdowns which morphed into supermodifieds; messed around with the old modified coupes, did a couple of years with the old NASCAR LMS division, was working for Volkswagen and involved with the formation of what became Formula Vee and Formula Super Vee, spent a few years with BMW back in the mid 70's to mid 80's and got to play around with their Group 5/ Group C coupes as well as both VW and BMW in the old Champion Spark Plug Challenge series.

Somewhere in there there was a neat little GT4 Austin Mini Cooper that had to be the most fun race car I was ever involved with.
Fastest shoe box around. This little car either took first or second in class every time we ran it, or we broke the crankshaft trying.

I did do some small bit of driving, but found out that it tended to hurt too much at times, so sort of stuck to trying to make expensive toys go fast and left the driving to others more foolish than myself.

I've worked as a tech inspector and track official at times as well.

When my health started to go bad and I had to get out of the shop, I started writing, did a bunch of PR for some of our local tracks along with some marketing for a few local teams, but the last couple of years getting around to keep that up has just gotten to be more difficult, so....

I still poke around a few of the race shops, have one friend who is a leading chassis builder for BGNN, a few CTS teams as well as PASS and other late model/ProStock cars and has been south both as a driver and builder.
Another friend owns and operates Ric Racing; his cars have won the Formula Ford National Championships several times, he has in the past fielded some very competitive GTO and GTP cars and now he and his sons are doing quite well in National Go Kart racing.


My son works for Dale Shaw Race Cars, was part of the G.O.D. racing team when they were racing both BGNN and Busch, he quite literally grew up at different race tracks all over the east coast and works with Nick Claremont who was Craven's crew chief when Ricky was racing out of Concord, NH.
They're all still good friends and stay in touch.

I've been acquainted with Dick Bergeren of Speedway Illustrated since we were both foolish kids that thought we wanted to be racers.

Bought a couple of racecars from Bobby Allison Racing when his shop was located in an old gas station in Bessimer, Alabama, and shot pool with Davey the night before his last race here at New Hampshire.

Have been fortunate enough to have met more than a few of the movers and shakers in the sport, not just NASCAR, but other venues as well.

We never have achieved fame and fortune playing the game, but it most certainly has been fun and my neighbors have been sorta shocked when they've met some of the folks who have stopped by to visit.

The worst part of all this is that we never bothered to take many pictures until the last few years; was just too damn busy with trying to go fast.

The best part is that we've met thousands of people who are pretty doggone great folks, have seen some really great racing and survived some even greater parties. Some the sort of which legends are made. (Both the racing and the parties!)

Sorry to bore you with all this, but you asked for it and I've been accused of bragging, being conceited and egotistical; thus a PM instead of posting on the message board.

Just one more item here: most of the folks involved in auto racing do, in fact, tend to be rather egotistical.
They wouldn't make very good racers if they weren't convinced that they're the very best in the business.

Thanks for asking and have a great day,

boB
Click to expand...

I hope this doesn't upset him that I posted this, but I though some of you might like to hear his background.
 
I'm sad to hear of his downward turn. My thoughts go out to boB and his family.


fergy,
Thanks for posting that. I don't think that boB would mind you posting it.
 
Thank you Whizzer. This is indeed sad, and boB and Pat are in my thoughts and prayers. I'll respect their privacy and not send any emails, but boB and I had some great email chats.
Fergy, I don't think boB would be at all upset that you posted what you did.
 
Continued thoughts and prayers for boB and Pat.

Thanks Fergy, for sharing a part of the life of a racer.
 
Thanks Fergy,

Wish i got to know bOB and talked racing with him, im sure i could of learned a few things from him.
 
boB and I had some great e-mails Ims a year or 2 back, he knew some people i knew when i was a kid . I grew up hanging out in garages with my dad and his buddies, there was always some local Modified driver there getting work done on his car or using the dyno. I'm truly saddened by this news, i'd hoped on meeting boB one day to talk "shop". Wishing my best to him and his family.
 
Please See "The Black Flag"

boB has joined the Great Racetrack and is probably chatting with Dale right now.
 

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Sorry to hear about Bob. Thoughts and prayers will be with the family.
 
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