Bob Ross

 Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy ~ Kathy Matthews

When we were going through Grandma Pearl's things, Cary spotted these trophies.  He was so excited to see them again.  The trophies brought back fond memories of when he was a little boy watching the  jalopy races in So. California.  Cary's grandfather, Jimmy Ellis, owned some of the cars that were raced.  In fact, sometimes Jimmy got out there and drove them himself, which made everybody skedaddle for cover.  Because Jimmy owned the cars, he received the trophies when his driver won a race.

One of Jimmy's jalopy drivers was Bob Ross.  Bob ended up becoming a famous NASCAR driver and was inducted into the NASCAR Hall of Fame in 2003.   Not only was Bob to become famous,  he also married into the family.  Bob married Grandma Pearl's niece, Lorraine.  Cary's mom, Darlene, thought that Bob and Lorraine were the most gorgeous couple she had ever seen, and being from So. California, that is saying something.


Anyway, we just thought this was pretty interesting, and I hope you will enjoy it.

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I got all of the information below from  Stockcar Reunion.com .   I copied and pasted it, so that you would not have to wade through everybody else who was inducted into the NASCAR Hall of Fame in 2003, but go and take a look if you enjoy this kind of stuff.  Thank you, Stockcar Reunion.com!

Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy ~ Kathy Matthews

BOB ROSS

 SS
"Bob had a varied racing background, competing in jalopies in the early ‘50s and eventually stock cars. In addition, he also loved doing some drag racing-which his wife Lorraine says led to many speeding tickets.

After initially being sponsored by Itches Service Stations, Bob was later given a Mercury by Mr. Urich.  Bob took the car to Bill Stroppe’s shop in Long Beach to be set up for racing. Bill Stroppe, well known as one of the best race car builders on the west coast, dubbed Bob “Country Boy”.   Much of Bob’s later success came behind the wheel of a Mercury built and maintained by Cos Cancilla.

Bob finished sixth in on the Pacific Coast Late Model circuit in 1956 and was fifth a year later. The ‘59 season was his year, as he won the championship over the likes of Lloyd Dane, Scotty Cain, Marvin Porter, Parnelli Jones and Eddie Gray.

One of his biggest thrills, meanwhile, was at Hanford Speedway, where he made quite an impression on Fireball Roberts by beating him for fast time. Fireball remarked to Bob’s wife, “I think that boy is knocking on my front door.”

In addition to his four career wins in the west coast series, Bob led many races and had podium finishes on numerous occasions. those included a terrific runner-up finish to Parnelli Jones at the Sacramento Fairgrounds in 1958 and finishing second to Eddie Gray at the same track in 1961.

As so many racers did in that era, Bob worked on his own car as well as holding down a full-time job - driving a truck. In fact, he worked for Automobile Transport, transporting new cars to dealerships for 31 years.

Known for keeping everything clean and spotless, Bob was considered far ahead of his time in car preparation.

Bob married his wife Lorraine in 1941 and the couple had three children - Bob Jr., Jim and Linda.

Lorraine accepted his Hall Of Fame Honor on behalf of her late husband."

Sorry, this was as big as I could get it.

Here is a link to another post about Bob, with pictures of him and Jimmy Ellis and the jalopies:

 "Bob Ross Revisted"

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