Bobby Isaac
| Robert Isaac | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Born |
August 1, 1932 Catawba, North Carolina, United States | ||||||
| Died |
August 14, 1977 (aged 45) Hickory, North Carolina, United States | ||||||
| Cause of death | Heart attack due to heat exhaustion | ||||||
| Achievements |
1970 Grand National Series Champion Holds Sprint Cup Series record for most poles in a season (20 poles in 1969) | ||||||
| Awards |
Named one of NASCAR's 50 Greatest Drivers (1998) National Motorsports Press Association Hall of Fame (1979) International Motorsports Hall of Fame (1996) NASCAR Hall of Fame (2016) | ||||||
| NASCAR Sprint Cup Series career | |||||||
| 308 races run over 14 years | |||||||
| Best finish | 1st (1970) | ||||||
| First race | 1961 World 600 Qualifier #1 (Charlotte) | ||||||
| Last race | 1976 World 600 (Charlotte) | ||||||
| First win | 1964 Daytona 500 Qualifier #2 (Daytona) | ||||||
| Last win | 1972 Carolina 500 (Rockingham) | ||||||
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| NASCAR Grand National East Series career | |||||||
| 8 races run over 2 years | |||||||
| Best finish | 30th (1973) | ||||||
| First race | 1972 Hickory 276 (Hickory) | ||||||
| Last race | 1973 Buddy Shuman 100 (Hickory) | ||||||
| First win | 1972 Albany-Saratoga 250 (Malta) | ||||||
| Last win | 1972 Coalminers 200 (Lonesome Pine) | ||||||
| |||||||
| Statistics current as of April 17, 2013. | |||||||
Bobby Isaac (August 1, 1932 – August 14, 1977) was an American stock car racer. Isaac was NASCAR's Grand National Series champion in 1970.
Early life
Isaac grew up on a farm near Catawba, North Carolina, the second youngest of nine children. He finished school after the sixth grade, which led to the incorrect rumor that he could neither read nor write.[2]
NASCAR career
He began racing full-time in 1956, but it took him seven years to break into the Grand National division. Isaac won the championship in 1970 driving the #71 Dodge Charger Daytona sponsored by K&K Insurance. His crew chief was legendary Harry Hyde. Isaac & Hyde took the car to Talladega in November and set a closed-course speed record.
Isaac won 37 races in NASCAR's top series during his career, including 11 in his championship season, and started from the pole position 50 times. Isaac currently holds the NASCAR record for most poles in a single season, with 20 in 1969. In 1970 he turned a 201.104 mph lap at Talladega that stood until 1983.
Isaac dropped out of the 1973 Talledega 500 mid-race in an impulsive decision which surprised his pit crew and the team owner. "I wasn't afraid I was going to wreck...I don't have anything to prove to myself or to anybody else. I know how it feels to win and lose. I know how it feels to be a champion. And now I know how it feels to quit. It just entered my mind at that moment," Isaac said. "I decided to quit and that was that. (Team owner) Bud Moore didn't know I had quit until after the race. I didn't know about (Larry) Smith at that time." (Larry Smith was the first fatality at Talledega Speedway, which happened earlier in the race).[3] Isaac did not participate in any further 1973 NASCAR Winston Cup races after Talladega, and the presumption by sports commentators in late 1973 is that he was retiring from the sport.[4]
Ultimately, Isaac did return to NASCAR racing as a driver from 1974 through 1976, on a reduced schedule.
Land speed records
Isaac also made his mark outside of NASCAR.[5][6] In September 1971, he went to the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah and set 28 world speed records, some of which still stand to this day.[5][6]
Awards
Bobby Isaac was inducted into the National Motorsports Press Association Hall of Fame in 1979, and the International Motorsports Hall of Fame in 1996. In 1998 NASCAR honored Isaac as one of its NASCAR's 50 Greatest Drivers of all time. On May 20, 2015, Isaac was announced as a member of the 2016 Class of the NASCAR Hall of Fame.
Death
On Saturday night, August 13, 1977, while running 4th, Isaac pulled out of the Winston 200 Late Model Sportsman race at Hickory Motor Speedway with 40 laps left, and called for a relief driver, collapsing on pit road of heat exhaustion. Weather reports for the area that day showed temperatures which had reached 91 °F (33 °C) at mid-afternoon, and were still around 80 °F (27 °C) around the time of Isaac's collapse.[7] Though Isaac was revived briefly at the hospital and was conversing with friends, he later died from a heart attack caused by heat exhaustion at 12:45 a.m., August 14.[8][9]
Details of Isaac's pit lane collapse on the night of his death were given to reporters by friend and former racing driver Ned Jarrett. Jarrett asserted at that time that the reason Isaac left the 1973 Talladega 500 was because (Isaac) "had heard a voice that told him to quit".[10]
References
- 1 2 3 Driver's statistics at racing-reference.info
- ↑ Decades of Racing - Bobby Isaac
- ↑ "Historical Motorsports Stories: NASCAR's Urban Legends: Larry Smith & Bobby Isaac - Racing-Reference.info". racing-reference.info. Retrieved 2016-03-22.
- ↑ McLeod, Mac (1973-08-20). "A Champion Quits". The Sumter Daily Item.
- 1 2 First hand account of Bonneville Salt Flats land speed record attempts
- 1 2 International Motorsports Hall of Fame page
- ↑ "Weather History for Hickory, NC | Weather Underground". www.wunderground.com. Retrieved 2016-03-23.
- ↑ "Hickory victory to Ingram". Statesville Record & Landmark. August 15, 1977. Archived from the original on February 24, 2016.
- ↑ "Bobby Isaac dead at 43". The Spartanburg Herald. Associated Press. August 15, 1977.
- ↑ AP (1977-08-15). "Heart Attack Fatal - Bobby Isaac Dead At 43". Herald-Journal.
External links
| Preceded by David Pearson |
NASCAR Grand National Champion 1970 |
Succeeded by Richard Petty |
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