CASC-OR’s Bob Long Recognized
This article was written by Charlie Pinkerton for the London Free Press
Original article can be found here.
At 80, Bob Long’s as quick-witted as ever. And on the racetrack, he’s the fastest he’s ever been.
“Most guys my age play cards or something, well I’m bored as (expletive) with cards. I can’t do that,” Long said.
As the oldest fully licensed Formula 4 (F4) race driver in Ontario, Long recorded his personal best time at the Canadian Tire Motorsport Park two weeks ago.
He’s been building and racing his own cars since 1958, the year he moved to London and joined the London Auto Sport Club.
With the 5-foot-8 senior in the car, the Gamma II — named because gamma rays are faster than X-rays — weighs only 375 kilograms.
“I average at Motorsport — which is uphill, downhill, short corners, long corners — around 170 km/h,” he said.
He races about 10 times a year.
“It’s pretty nice when you get in your own car and it goes fast and you do well.”
According to F4 Canada’s website, Long’s a 14-time national champion in the sport. But Long says being on the track isn’t what he enjoys most.
“I get more of a kick out of building the car,” he said.
Long was trained as a tool-and-die maker before moving to London. He spent 22 years working in the auto sector and 12 more in the food-vending business. For another six years, he dealt with air compression for a friend’s company.
The senior retired for the fourth and final time 15 years ago, and with his wife, Nancy, lives in a central London home, where he maintains a house he owns next door, and keeps the Gamma II and a few other classic cars.
“Nothing gets easier when you get older. Nothing.”
Long says if he could be any age forever, he’d pick 30.
“You’re smart, you’re dumb — so you can associate with anybody,” Long said. “You’re kind of a man, but you can still be goofy.”
Long’s next race is at Calabogie Motorsports Park at the end of the summer. He knows his final race is coming. He’s said if someone buys his car, he will quit.
He says he’s trying to sell it to the right person, preferably a woman, because that would help the sport.
Although his car is one of the fastest on the track, he’s struggled with selling it. He says he’s been told by other drivers that there’s a stigma attached to his car.
“What kind of a stigma, it’s fast?” Long asked when he heard that.
Apparently, no one will buy his car because they don’t want to drive it slower than an 80-year-old.
at Bill became the driver and Bob more the mechanic. In the early sixties they designed and built a tiny sports racer that they called the “Curloo”. It was powered by a 6 cylinder Mercury outboard motor and had “tiller” steering setup like a motorcycle. This car would pull the front wheels off the ground in third gear! But it was only raced a couple of times by Bill. In the mid sixties Bill decided to stop racing, so Bob didn’t race for a year or two. Later on he happened to be reading a British automotive magazine in 1966 that had an ad in it for a small formula car made by Johnny Walker
950’s to the 2010’s. By this I mean he has raced at least once in every decade in this range. I have known Bob since 1965 when I met him through my father and then worked for him as a shop cleanup boy in the late 60’s, early 70’s. I raced for him in the early 70’s when he had two F4 cars and I have crewed for him continuously since 1986, although he has had the odd year off when he may have sold a car and not had the next one ready. There were also a couple of forced retirements in there for medical issues. Oh yeah, by the way, he will be 80 on July 20, 2017 and unless he has a problem over the next couple of weeks when he goes for his medical, he plans to race again this year!”