Thursday night I had the distinct pleasure ofintroducing Bobby Warren as the first-ever Sportsman racer to become an International Drag Racing Hall Of Fame inductee.
Warren has won three NHRA World Championship crowns (70,74 & 78) and won his last race at Bristol in 2004, becoming Super Stock Elimnator at 69. He is the eldest ever to do so! At 75, he ran the Gators this past weekend driving a Red 98 Pontiac Firebird. powered by a 350 SBC with a GM "200 Metric" transmission. He tunes the car with a laptop.
Aside from his racing wins, Bobby has a compelling life story. He began as a second-generation tobacco and pig farmer who married his high school sweetheart and started drag racing. In 1972, drag racing had become so much a part of his life that he leased the farmland to a trusted family member and founded Warren Engines in Clinton, NC. It's a flourishing enterprise his two sons run today. As youmight imagine this man of the land is possessed of a quiet but deep and abiding faith, it pervades everyrhing he does. Bobby has served as Deacon at Mt.Gilead Baptist Church in Clinton. And ... BTW ... he pays cash - for everything.
Everyone I talked to about this man (family members, friends, those he's raced with and those he's beaten) mentioned his humble, kind and helpful spirit. A most worthy choice for the first Drag Racing HOF Sportsman inductee.
I have anew hero, his name is Robert West Warren!
updated by @jon-w-lundberg-sr: 12/05/16 08:51:04AM