The Bob Pronger Story

by Wayne Adams (published in Raceway Park program, 1962)

 When Bob Pronger saw his first stock car race at Raceway Park late in the 1948 season, he realized immediately that he simply “had” to drive in competition. When he drove his first race on this oval in 1949 with a 1940 Mercury, every spectator who witnessed his initial effort realized they were watching a potential Champion.

 Now, thirteen years later, Pronger has finally achieved one of his life’s ambitions – he won his first Raceway Park Championship last season after winning 23 feature races in the Bob Roeber, B and B Auto Parts, 1956 Chevrolet. During his wild title season, Pronger included wins in both Twin-50 features on the July 4^th program; won the Mid-Season Title Race at 50 laps; scored wins and over-all victories in two of the six Monza Style events; and climaxed the year with a three lap margin over Stash Kullman to win the 14^th Annual 300 Lap Classic – an event he also won back in 1953.

 A lot has happened since that day in June, 1949 when the Blue Island, ‘tall-boy’ started his career of speed, and the day he was crowned at Raceway Park for the first time in Sept. 1961. During the intervening 13 years, Pronger had thrilled racing throngs all over the Mid-West and thru the East and South. He set many records including world marks at Daytona Beach; he drove all types of cars from battered 1939’s to the very latest sleek, new Cadillac on all types of tracks; and wherever he appeared, fans recognized Bob as one of the great showmen in the racing game.

 Back in 1949 during his first year with the Championship Stock Car Club, Pronger exhibited natural ability and thru the season, won feature races at Anderson, Indiana, Peoria, Ill., Springfield, Ill., and Raceway Park. His first win here was in a driving rainstorm.

 He came back to Raceway in 1950 to enter the all ‘late model’ competition driving a 1949 Mercury No. 151. Within six weeks, he had won five features and had amassed a huge point lead, however, this torrid pace cooled and he finished the year with only six wins and 5^th in final points behind Champion Hal Ruyle, Bud Koehler, Don O’Dell and Bob Meyers.

He had a ‘great’ year here in 1951 – his driving ability and mechanical knowledge paid off with 19 feature wins including 100 lap wins in the mid-season and season title races. Bill Van Allen eked out a scant victory for the Track Title by a mere few points during the final few races – events which Pronger missed because of severe damage to his car. He drove a 1950 Mercury and near the close of the season, Pronger became the center of numerous controversies. Discussions and protests on the car finally resulted in ‘out-lawing’ the vehicle but Pronger bounced back with a new machine and continued to win against stubborn competitors. At the end of 66 hectic sorties at the World’s Busiest Track, many fans considered him to be the ‘true’ Champ because of his steady, hard and relentless driving thru the season.

 Switching to Oldsmobile for 1952, Bob clicked early in the year and won the Memorial Day Classic 100 lapper. Later that season he ran only occasionally but still finished with eight wins and was 2^nd to Champion Bud Koehler when final points were tabulated. He had joined the SAFE late model circuit and toured many leading tracks throughout the middlewest – gaining many new fans and ranking with the leaders.

An apparently ‘unknown’ driver from the midwest amazed the racing world in Feb. 1953 when Bob Pronger appeared on the scene at Daytona Beach with a new, fiery red Oldsmobile. During that week of Feb. 8^th, Pronger amazed not only the racing world from coast to coast but gained respect of more than 200 of the nation’s leading stock car drivers, who watched this 6’ 5” giant from Blue Island as he practically re-wrote the World’s Record Books.

 He set a new American Stock Car Record for the measured mile as he ripped the sands on the south run at 111.21 mph and returned on the north run at 115.34 mph for a record average of 113.38. The old mark of 100.28 had been set in 1950. The next day – another record for Pronger in the acceleration tests – he ran one mile from a standstill at 75.40 to top his nearest rival by better than 2 mph. Feb. 12^th he set still another mark when he blistered the Beach at 116.05 on a one-way run, then the following day he earned pole position for the NASCAR Grand National, 160-miler by hitting a record clip of 115.77 – the top qualifier among the top drivers in the nation.

 Misfortune struck Bob in the first turn of the big race. Hitting the high-banked, spongy sand corner at better than 100 mph, his speed carried him up the bank – thru the guard rail and flying end over end in space. The car bounced several times on its roof then landed right side up – still running. Bob drove it along an asphalt road leading back to the track and hit the backstretch running 11^th in the 57 car pack. He drove five laps on the four mile course with the roof crowding him down in the seat then a leaky radiator forced him out. The car was sold as a complete wreck.

 Back at Raceway Park that summer (1953) Pronger drove a 1939 Buick, a 1939 LaSalle and a 1953 Olds to gain 12 feature wins including a victory by four laps in the Annual 300 Lapper. Bryant Tucker with 17 and Bill Cornwall with 13, were the only drivers to top his performance for the year.

 He won the Eastern States Championship with SAFE in 1954 driving a brand new, 1954 Cadillac. He was the drawing card at every track with this sleek beauty and won 29 out of 32 features including the Raceway Park show on July 14^th. He ran the SAFE circuit again in 1955 with a Chrysler ‘300’ but found time to win two Raceway Park features driving a 1955 Chevrolet convertible. He ran with the NASCAR convertible circuits in 1956 and 1957 and finished 5^th at Daytona in 1958, driving a Ford. He took ‘time-out’ late in the 1958 season to visit his old home track at Raceway and really ‘cleaned up’ – winning both ends of the Labor Day Twin-50 Classic. Then he finished 2^nd to Bob Williams in the Annual 300.

 Back in regular competition at Raceway Park in 1959, Pronger scored nine wins – drove a 1956 Studebaker, a 1958 Ford and a 1957 Chevrolet to finish 3^rd in points behind Bob Williams and Bud Koehler. He finished 6^th here in 1960 – winning five events with either a ’56 Chevy or his ’57 Ford. During these years, he also became a top contender in United States Auto Club late model events and finished 5^th in their final standings one season.

 Pronger once drove midgets at Raceway Park and in 1951, he won the first race in which he ever drove – a ten lap consolation. This career ended abruptly because he could not find a car large enough to accommodate his 6’ 5” – 225 pound frame.

 Pronger is a native of nearby Blue Island and has lived his entire life in the same house. He was born here January 22, 1922 and attended Blue Island High School where he played center on the basketball team. Later, he owned a service station locally then worked a 25 acre farm tract but more recently, has devoted full time to racing interests. He is married and during last year’s Championship season, his wife, Lois, presented him with a son, Jay Pronger – now ten months old.

Bob’s racing career has been marred by only four roll-over accidents and he has never been injured. He escaped from a flipping wreck in Peoria, Ill. back in 1949; he crashed the wall at Raceway Park in 1950 and landed upside down; he survived the sensational aerial flip at Daytona Beach in 1953; and he flipped a Ford at Langhorne, Pa. in 1958 while leading a 250 mile race on the one-mile dirt track.

 Last year, Bob Pronger defeated Bill Van Allen by over 1600 points to win his first Raceway Park Championship – the largest margin ever enjoyed by a winner here. He has always driven with apparent ease – with a cool, methodical understanding of his competitors and his own car – he drives only one way – to win – and the delicate adjustments so necessary to successful operation of a winning stock car are well known to Pronger and his associates.

 He will drive a 1957 Chevrolet at Raceway Park in 1962 and keep your eye on Pronger – he could very well repeat as the Raceway Park Champion. Regardless of what happens this year or in the future, Bob Pronger has certainly written his name in the annals of auto racing.

(Thanks to Todd Miller for his editorial help with this story.)