Bob Akin

An Alfa Romeo Giulietta Sprint Veloce was Akin's first racing car

The Porsche 935 to 84, with the Bob Akin 1984 in the IMSA GT Championship at the start was

Robert Macomber "Bob" Akin (born March 6, 1936 in Tarrytown , † April 29, 2002 in Atlanta ) was an American entrepreneur, journalist, racing car driver and racing team owner.

Education and Entrepreneur

Bob Akin was born in 1936 in Tarrytown , a small town on the east bank of the Hudson River , about 25 miles north of Manhattan . He grew up in the neighboring community Sleepy Hollow . He attended elementary schools in Tarrytown; in the local Hackley School he was for 30 years on the school board and from 1980 to 1990 president. In the 1950s he graduated from Columbia University in New York City and received a bachelor's degree in engineering and a master's in business administration .

For 40 years he worked for the Hudson Wire Company , a family business founded by his grandfather in 1901. From 1974 to 1995 he was managing director of the world's leading supplier of special cables for the aircraft industry in the late 1980s. In 1989 the family shares were sold to the mining group Phelps Dodge .

Racing career

Bob Akin's racing career was divided into two parts. It began in 1957 and, after a break of twelve years, was advanced in 1973 and finally lasted until 1991 when he retired from professional racing as a driver. By the time he competed in his first street race in 1959, he had already tried his hand at motor boating and drag racing . He hired John Fitch, one of the most famous US pilots at the time, as a driving instructor. In the 1950s, Fitch was a works driver at Mercedes-Benz and Chevrolet , at the start in Formula 1 and won the Sebring 12-hour race in 1953 and the RAC Tourist Trophy in 1955 . In Le Mans 1955 he was co-driver of Pierre Levegh and thus indirectly involved in the greatest disaster in motorsport . In a crash course, Fitch taught Akin the most important basic rules of sports car racing, after which he competed in the SCCA sports car championship with his first racing license and an Alfa Romeo Sprint Veloce . He won his third race, an event in Bridgehampton. The Alfa Romeo was followed by a Ferrari 500TRC in 1960 and with a front- engined Volpini of the Junior racing formula , he contested his first monopostor race . This first phase of racing, which was more a hobby than serious racing, ended in 1961, as from then on he took care of the family business in a leading position.

In 1973 his friend Sam Posey encouraged him to return to motorsport. He drove his Mercedes-Benz 300SL in a historic touring car race and was then active in the historic racing scene in North America for several years. In 1978 he started again with professional motorsport. He contested his first 24-hour race at Daytona , finished his first appearance at Sebring in fifth overall and drove a Porsche 935 from Dick Barbour Racing at Le Mans .

Akin quickly rose to become one of the most famous and successful American sports car drivers of the late 1970s and 1980s. In 1979 he won the Sebring 12-hour race together with Rob McFarlin ; a success that he was able to repeat in 1986 alongside Hans-Joachim Stuck and Jo Gartner in the Porsche 962 . His best placings in Daytona were the finals in 1981 and 1982 . At Le Mans, his best finish was fourth in 1984 . When Akin finally retired as a driver in 1987, he had contested 114 races in his second career. Two overall and two class wins are in the results lists, plus seven second and two third places.

journalist

After his retirement as a driver and in addition to his work as team boss of his own racing team, Akin worked as a journalist at Phelps Dodge after his retirement. He wrote motorsport articles for Road & Track and co-commented on Speedvision, TBS and ESPN .

Bob Akin Motor Racing

Akin was also a racing team owner practically from the start of his second driver career. An initial partnership with Steve Earle and Rick Knoop became Bob Akin Motor Racing in 1981. short BAR. During the entire operating time of the team, it always entered the race with starting number 5. Akin had close ties to Porsche and used Porsche racing cars in the IMSA GTP series . He converted his 935 and replaced the front with the nose of a Lola . His Porsche 962 was the second of this car model to be delivered to the USA by Zuffenhausen. Akin was very successful in acquiring sponsors and was able to draw on funds from Coca-Cola and Ralph Lauren , among others . When the driver's career came to an end in 1987, racing was also discontinued and the team subsequently worked on restoring IMSA prototypes.

Death in Road Atlanta

Bob Akin died in April 2002 when he was testing a Nissan GTP ZX Turbo on the Road Atlanta circuit in preparation for a historic car race and had a serious accident. He suffered several fractures, including a neck vertebra, and severe third-degree burns. He was admitted to Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta and died a few days later. He left his wife, Ellen; one son, two daughters and three grandchildren-

Bob Akin Memorial Motorsports Award

In recognition of the achievements of Bob Akin, the Road Racing Drivers Club created the Bob Akin Memorial Motorsports Award, which was presented from 2003 to 2010. The award was given to drivers of historic motorsport who were able to combine sporting achievements with great sportsmanship, humor and passion for the sport. The award winners were: Sam Posey (2003), Charlie Gibson (2004), John Fitch (2005), James Haynes (2006), Cameron Argetsinger (2007), Jim Downing (2008), Steve Earle (2009) and Augie Pabst (2010).

statistics

Le Mans results

year	team	vehicle	Teammate	Teammate	placement	Failure reason
1978	Dick Barbour Racing	Porsche 935/77	Steve Earle	Bob Garretson	failure	accident
1979	Dick Barbour Racing	Porsche 935	Roy Woods	Rob McFarlin	failure	Cylinder overheated
1980	Racing Associates Inc.	Porsche 935K3	Ralph Kent-Cooke	Paul Miller	failure	drive shaft
1981	Bob Akin Motor Racing	Porsche 935K3	Craig Siebert	Paul Miller	failure	Electrics
1982	Bob Akin Motor Racing	Porsche 935L	Kenper Miller	Dave Cowart	failure	no petrol
1984	Brun Motorsport	Porsche 956B	Leopold Prince of Bavaria	Walter Brun	Rank 4

Sebring results

year	team	vehicle	Teammate	Teammate	placement	Failure reason
1978	Earle & Akin Racing	Porsche Carrera RSR	Steve Earle	Rick knoop	Rank 5
1979	Dick Barbour Racing	Porsche 935	Roy Woods	Rob McFarlin	Overall victory
1980	Racing Associates	Porsche 935K3	Roy Woods	Skeeter McKitterick	Rank 5
1981	Bob Akin Motor Racing	Porsche 935K3	Derek Bell	Craig Siebert	failure	Engine failure
1982	Bob Akin Motor Racing	Porsche 935K3 / 80	Derek Bell	Craig Siebert	Rank 12
1983	Bob Akin Motor Racing	Porsche 935K3 / 80	Dale Whittington	John O'Steen	Rank 2 and class win
1984	Bob Akin Motor Racing	Porsche 935-84	Hans-Joachim Stuck	John O'Steen	Rank 5
1985	Bob Akin Motor Racing	Porsche 962	Hans-Joachim Stuck	Jim Mullen	failure	suspension
1986	Bob Akin Motor Racing	Porsche 962	Hans-Joachim Stuck	Jo Gartner	Overall victory
1987	Bob Akin Motor Racing	Porsche 962	James Weaver	Steve Shelton	Rank 6

Individual results in the sports car world championship

season	team	race car	1	2	3	4th	5	6th	7th	8th	9	10	11	12	13	14th	15th	16	17th
1978	Akin Racing Barbour Racing Preston Miller Distant Thunder	Porsche 911 Carrera RSR Porsche 935 BMW 320	DAY	SEB	MUG	VALLEY	DIJ	SIL	ONLY	LEM	MIS	DAY	WAT	VAL	ROD
			7th	5		5				DNF		19th	10		16
1979	Barbour Racing Distant Thunder Southwind	Porsche 935 BMW 320 Ford Escort AMC Gremlin	DAY	SEB	MUG	VALLEY	DIJ	RIV	SIL	ONLY	LEM	BY	DAY	WAT	SPA	BRH	ROA	VAL	ELS
			52	1		13		4th		DNF	DNF		DNF	3			5
1980	Racing Associates Mendez Woods Akin Amos Johnson RT Europe	Porsche 935 AMC Spirit Ford Capri	DAY	BRH	SEB	MUG	MON	RIV	SIL	ONLY	LEM	DAY	WAT	SPA	MOS	ROA	VAL	DIJ
			54		5			5			DNF	10	7th	DNF	6th	5
1981	Akin Racing Mauricio de Narváez Amos Johnson Holman	Porsche 935 AMC Spirit Ford Capri	DAY	SEB	MUG	MON	RIV	SIL	ONLY	LEM	BY	DAY	WAT	SPA	MOS	ROA	BRH
			2	DNF			22nd	6th	DNF	DNF		15th	8th	6th	12	DNF
1982	Akin Racing	Porsche 935	MON	SIL	ONLY	LEM	SPA	MUG	FUJ	BRH
						DNF
1984	Brun Motorsport	Porsche 956	MON	SIL	LEM	ONLY	BRH	MOS	SPA	IMO	FUJ	KYA	SAN
					4th

literature

• Ken Breslauer: Sebring. The official History of America's Great Sports Car Race. David Bull, Cambridge MA 1995, ISBN 0-9649722-0-4 .
• Peter Higham: The Guinness Guide to International Motor Racing. A complete Reference from Formula 1 to Touring Car. Guinness Publishing Ltd., London 1995, ISBN 0-85112-642-1 .
• JA Martin and Ken Welles: Prototypes - the History of the IMSA GTP Series . Bull Publishing, Phoenix 2000, ISBN 1-893618-01-3 .

Web links

Commons : Bob Akin  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• Bob Akin at Racing Sports Cars
• Bob Akin on the IMSA blog
• Bob Akin at Historic Racing

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Information on the Hudson Wirre Company
2. ↑ 1981 Daytona 24 Hours
3. ↑ 1982 Daytona 24-hour race
4. ↑ on the person of Bob Akin