Bob Earl (born January 13, 1950) is an American former racing driver from

Claremont, California Claremont () is a suburban city on the eastern edge of Los Angeles County, California, United States, east of downtown Los Angeles. It is in the Pomona Valley, at the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains. As of the 2010 census it had a popul ...

. He began racing in

Formula Ford Formula Ford, also known as F1600 and Formula F, is an entry-level class of single seater, open-wheel formula racing. The various championships held across the world form an important step for many prospective Formula One drivers. Formula For ...

in 1972 and was the 1973 national champion. In 1979 he made his professional debut in

Formula Atlantic Formula Atlantic is a specification of open-wheel racing car developed in the 1970s. It was used in professional racing through the IMSA Atlantic Championship until 2009 and is currently primarily used in amateur racing through Sports Car Club o ...

. In 1981 he became the only American to win the

Macau Grand Prix The Macau Grand Prix ( pt, Grande Prémio de Macau; ) is a motorsport road race for automobiles and motorcycles held annually in Macau. It is the only street circuit racing event in which both cars and motorcycles participate, and one of onl ...

, driving a modified Hayashi 320. At the time, the race was contested with Formula Atlantic cars. He moved to sports cars in 1985 and drove a

Pontiac Fiero The Pontiac Fiero is a mid-engine sports car manufactured and marketed by Pontiac (automobile), Pontiac for model years 1984-1988. Designed by George Milidrag and Hulki Aldikacti as a sports car, it was the first two-seater Pontiac (automobile) ...

for Huffaker Racing in the IMSA GTU series for two years. He moved up to the GTP cars in 1986 driving for a prototype for

Spice Engineering Spice Engineering was a British racing team founded by driver Gordon Spice with Raymond Bellm in the early 1980s, later becoming a successful sports car constructor in 1986. They competed in the World Sportscar Championship in Europe as well as ...

. Earl and the Spice team earned a class victory at the

24 Hours of Daytona The 24 Hours of Daytona, also known as the Rolex 24 At Daytona for sponsorship reasons, is a 24-hour sports car endurance race held annually at Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Florida. It is run on the Sports Car Course layou ...

in 1987. He continued with Spice in GTP class in 1988, but in 1989 moved to

Roush Racing Roush is a surname. Notable people with the surname include: Politics *Glenn Roush (1934–2020), American politician in Montana * J. Edward Roush (1920–2004), United States Representative for Indiana, namesake of: ** J. Edward Roush Lake, a re ...

's Lincoln-Mercury effort in the GTO class, capturing class honors at Daytona. He moved to the

Nissan , trade name, trading as Nissan Motor Corporation and often shortened to Nissan, is a Japanese multinational corporation, multinational Automotive industry, automobile manufacturer headquartered in Nishi-ku, Yokohama, Japan. The company sells ...

GTP factory team in 1990 and captured victories at the

12 Hours of Sebring The 12 Hours of Sebring is an annual motorsport endurance race for sports cars held at Sebring International Raceway, on the site of the former Hendricks Army Airfield World War II air base in Sebring, Florida, US. The event is the second round ...

, Miami and Watkins Glen. He stayed with Nissan until they left the series in 1993. For the 1993 season he competed in the Camel Lights prototype class in an

Acura Acura is the luxury vehicle, luxury and performance division of Japanese automaker Honda, based primarily in North America. The brand was launched in the United States and Canada on March 27, 1986, marketing luxury and performance automobiles. It ...

powered Spice with 2 wins. He retired as a competitor after the 1993 season to become a driver coach. In 1996 he was hired to start the

Derek Daly Derek Patrick Daly (born 11 March 1953) is an Irish former racing driver. He won the 1977 British Formula 3 Championship, and competed as a professional racing driver for 17 years participating in 64 World Championship Formula One Grands Prix ...

Academy at

Las Vegas Motor Speedway Las Vegas Motor Speedway, located in Clark County, Nevada in Las Vegas, Nevada about 15 miles northeast of the Las Vegas Strip, is a complex of multiple tracks for motorsports racing. The complex is owned by Speedway Motorsports, Inc., which is ...

. In 2000 he returned home to the Marin County to resume freelance driver coaching. From 2002 to 2009 Bob was the Technical Director and overlooked the Mechanics Training Program at the Jim Russell Racing School at

Infineon Raceway Sonoma Raceway (originally known as Sears Point Raceway from 1967 to 1980 and 1982 to 2002, Golden State International Raceway in 1981 and Infineon Raceway from 2002 to 2012) is a road course and dragstrip located at Sears Point in the southern S ...

in Sonoma California. He has also developed and sells the "Virtual Racing Chassis", an advanced racing sim for use with Racing video games. Bob Earl continues as a freelance driver coach, lecturer on racing organization and mental training, and promotes the advantages of Alkaline Water Ionizers for improving your health. Bob has recently moved to Humboldt County and is involved in many Environmental activities doing Restorations of Beach Dunes, Redwood Forest trails and many others. He has become an environmentalist of sorts working to

address climate change Climate change mitigation is action to limit climate change by reducing emissions of greenhouse gases or removing those gases from the atmosphere. The recent rise in global average temperature is mostly caused by emissions from fossil fuels b ...

Racing record

SCCA National Championship Runoffs

24 Hours of Le Mans results

References

External links

Official websiteOfficial websiteOfficial website
1950 births Atlantic Championship drivers SCCA Formula Super Vee drivers Living people People from Claremont, California Racing drivers from California SCCA National Championship Runoffs winners 12 Hours of Sebring drivers 24 Hours of Le Mans drivers {{US-autoracing-bio-stub Nismo drivers