Marty Little just reminded me we lost a great guy 10 years ago today… Hard to believe it’s been that long… I roamed many an infield with Bobby long before I started announcing… He was an incredible human being and the racing photographer of racing photographers… Thanks to Bobby’s foresight, we still have so many memories of the now lost Hialeah Speedway to look at…
Time goes fast. I remember him at the Lakeland Interstate track (1/4 mile) before USA was built.
Bobby was a super guy. I worked with him for 10 or 12 years at Desoto. I’ll never forget Bobby. He put the Special on special effects, and that was before computers. He used to have a lab at the track and he developed pictures on site so if you wanted to wait you could get pics the same night.
I can remember that old cart of his. Bruce Carbone re-built the enginge 3 or 4 times over the years. I am proud to have known Bobby. Bob…
I still have a few pictures from my short racing days by Bobby, he was a master at his craft.
I have to relate this Bobby Day story which involved me as well… We were both shooting the 1977 Governor’s Cup race at Golden Gate from the turn 3 area… All the photographers had to stay behind the light poles in the infield, so we were between the turn three pole and the figure 8 track shooting with telephoto lenses… There were a pair of team cars driven by boat “racers” Bob Castoro and Billy Elswick #'s 30 and 31… About midway thru the race they came off turn two on to the back stretch right next to each other and locked fenders… They then proceeded to drive off, full-bore, into the infield and were headed right at Bobby and myself… There was nowhere to go, but at the last second they separated, banked off each other again, then split around us, one going by Bobby and one missing me by about two feet and now sending the other photogs scattering… Bobby and I stared at each other for about 10 seconds, then he shook his head and we both went back to work…
Its too bad his photos are not available for purchase. I know a bunch of guys who chase old photos.
Ditto all the Kudos above. Bobby was a great guy and talented at his craft.
Somewhere there’s a treasure chest full of golden memories from the best days of Florida’s short track racing IMHO.
:ernaehrung004:
I HAD one of the treasure chests! Bobby and I were friends, and I was a good customer too, so when he moved away from Hialeah he called me to clean out the pictures from his apartment. He had already given away a ton of them, but I drove home with thousands, maybe tens of thousands of pictures.
So I kept them at my parents house while I finished school, but I didn’t have a place to keep them safely in my first house. I had then out in a shed; a very bad place for photo storage. Looking back, it would not have been hard to find someplace better, but at the time I was busy with a young family and a job, so I gave them to race historian Marty Little. He in turn gave the collection to Eddie Roche.
I wish I still had them. There would be ready access to them. Sigh…
Eddie Roche has Bobby’s entire collection of negatives from day one… They are even catagorized…
Oh that was him. I recall somebody advertising to sell Day photos quite some time ago so I guess it was him. The prices for reprints were ridicules so I never pursed them. It too bad cause there some great stuff there.
WOW Boneman, that would be like hitting the lottery for some of us! (well, almost).
Sorry guys, don’t know Eddie Roche.
So how far out of reach were they price-wise? Anybody know if they’re still available and for what price?
I’ve got a suggestion for the ‘Suggestion Box’.
IF they are all in one place and IF they are priced somewhere short of all the gold in Fort Knox, what say we put on a drive here to fund the purchase with the knowledge / agreement up front that if the drive was successful, the entire package would be donated to someone like Dave (Or Karnac, I’m showing my ignorance here because I’m not really sure of the tie-in) who has dedicated a web-site to the preservation of Florida’s Short Track History.
I for one would be more than happy to contribute to such a fund as well as offer my help in any other means needed to get it done.
Opinions? Suggestions?
Jim, most of those old photos can be viewed in Eddie Roche’ two books, Florida Motorsports Retrospective Pictorial.(Vol. I & II)
Rog,
Eddie’s two books are excellent, but trust me on this, they contain a tiny fraction of the pictures he has. No doubt he included the more interesting ones in the books.
OK, thanks. Yeah, I see it now available for sale on-line HERE.
Oh well, just a thought.
Hey Bone, (just as an aside and nuttin to do with anything here) I’m gonna be in your backyard later today! (Kars Park out on Audubon Road).
Setting the record straight here…
Bobby Day left his entire collection of NEGATIVES to Eddie Roche… These number in the thousands… Nowadays it is quite expensive to get a B/W photo printed… It’s hard just finding B/W film!!
Eddie is also the Head Archivist for International Speedway Corp. in Daytona… He oversees a literal “museum” of several MILLION photos, magazines, newspapers, film, videos and other memorabilia consisting of old trophies, helmets, car parts… you name it… Some of this stuff has to be kept in cold storage including a number of glass negatives dating back to the late 1800’s!! I’ve had a chance to visit him over there (in his old building - they have a new one now) There were file cabinets with photos of EVERY driver who has ever competed at Daytona!! I was tripping over old trophies, some that came from a collection donated by the family of Curtis Turner… There were boxes and boxes of old photos etc. that had been given to the Speedway that had yet to be opened simply because Eddie just doesn’t have the time… Needless to say, that would be a dream job for a guy like me…