Tom Ormsby's, RacingRemembrances

By Tom Ormsby

The “Journeymen Drivers”, where would racing be without them? They had long careers, maybe won a few races during their career. They worked at a job all day and worked on the racecar most of the night.

Outside of Long Island in the 70’s and 80’s you probably didn’t know of him, but Bob Krollage was one of those “Journeymen Drivers”.

Starting racing in 1970 in Riverhead Raceway’s Figure 8 division, Bob won the first race he ever competed in, a heat race. Bob says, “this is what hooked me hook, line and sinker into auto racing”. “I loved the feeling of carrying around that checkered flag on the Victory Lap”. Bob continued to race in the Figure 8 division for the 1970 and 71 seasons.

Bob moved up to the modifieds in 1972, trading the motor in his Figure 8 car for an old Bob Park Studebaker Lark Modified that was in pieces. “I didn’t like the car much but at least I was running a Modified". Bob raced the Studebaker at Riverhead in 1972 and 73.

During the end of the 1973 season, Bob started work on a 1937 Chevy Coupe that he completed for the 1974 season. Competing at the famed 1/5^th mile Islip Speedway, Bob got off to a rocky start. The second race of the season Bob made the feature only to have the throttle stick to the floor coming off the fourth turn. The car of Long Island legend Art Tappen blew the motor, oiling down the track bringing out the caution flag.

The #67 Coupe

Bob lifted off the gas pedal. The pedal stayed to the floor. “The next thing I know the track crew was trying to get me out of the car”. “The car was junk, I saved the body and cage. The motor was split in half, there went the 1974 season”.

It took Bob and his buddy Charlie the rest of the summer and most of the winter to build the “New Coupe.” The new car had independent front suspension, four-wheel disc brakes and a Ross big block engine. At the time most everyone was building the Pinto and Vega bodied modifieds. “A lot of people still loved the old coupe so I vowed to race it for as long as I could”. Bob continued to race the Coupe for three of four more seasons.

Bob's Vega

During the 1979 season Bob began work on a Vega while still racing the coupe. The Vega wasn’t finished until the end of the 1981 season. The #67 Coupe ended up being the last coupe to run a modified feature in Long Island. As Bob says, “a fitting end to a great car”.

During a career that ran the 70’s, 80’s and early 90’s Bob raced at 26 different tracks in the northeast and a few times in the south competing in NASCAR, besides trying his hand in the midgets of ESMRA, ARDC, NEMA and a few Sprint Car races.

Rich Bowser of Hialeah, Florida has restored the #67 Coupe. Both Bob Krollage and the restored Coupe owned by Rich Bowser will be in attendance at Modified Reunion II being held during Daytona Speedweeks at New Smyrna Speedway on Friday February 13, 2009.

For more information and information on former drivers and vintage cars expected to attend the reunion visit the Modified Reunion II website at: modifiedreunion.homestead.com.

Photo Gallery

Rich Bowser restored the #67. This is what it looks like today.

The Original Coupe