REMEMBERING BRILLIANT BOB, 20 YEARS ON
I didn’t think it was a stupid question, but my subject obviously did. He put his arm around me as we walked slowly through the Road Atlanta paddock and offered his answer – or rather explanation – in a forthright yet calm manner, all delivered with a trademark wry smile. That was Bob Wollek, the man, down to a tee.
My cherished memory of an incident that occurred at the inaugural Petit Le Mans in 1998 also reveals a lot about Wollek the racing driver. The Frenchman was less than a month short of his 55th birthday, and yet he was still competing at the sharp end of international sportscar racing. For the record, he was driving Champion Racing’s Porsche 911 GT1 Evo that weekend, and my question concerned the brake issues that left the car he shared with Thierry Boutsen and Ralf Kelleners 10 laps in arrears in third position at the finish.
The quirky demeanour of the guy and the longevity of a career that only ended with his senseless death, when he was knocked off his bicycle ahead of the Sebring 12 Hours 20 years ago this week, are essential building blocks of the legend of Bob Wollek. So too, of course, are the four victories at the Daytona 24 Hours, but probably not quite as important as the failure to win the Le Mans 24 Hours outright over the course of 30 attempts spanning five decades.
Wollek never quite managed to crack it at sportscar racing’s big one, but he came close on multiple occasions. He was on the overall podium no fewer than six times,
