Robert Kirby

Robert "Bob" Kirby ( February 2, 1925 - April 13, 2005 ) was an American racing driver .

Career

Robert Kirby was a sports car driver in North America for almost four decades. He had his first race in 1957 in a sports car race in Santa Barbara . The starting field included drivers such as Ken Miles (who won the race in a Porsche 550 RS Spyder ), Bob Drake and John Lawrence . At his last race start, the Daytona 24-hour race in 1993 , he drove against well-known and successful sports car drivers from the early 1990s. In Daytona in 1993 PJ Jones , Rocky Moran and Mark Dismore won on an Eagle MkIII from Dan Gurney's All American Racers Team .

Kirby, who mostly financed his many races himself, contested his races almost exclusively with racing cars from the Porsche brand . After his first few years in regional races, he began to compete in the SCCA sports car series from the early 1960s. Kirby celebrated three overall victories in his career. All three at the aforementioned regional sports car championship races.

In the major international sports car races, his greatest successes were seventh place in the final classification at the Sebring 12-hour race in 1968 and ninth place at the 1979 Le Mans 24-hour race .

statistics

Le Mans results

year	team	vehicle	Teammate	Teammate	placement	Failure reason
1977	Wynn's International	Porsche 911 Carrera RSR	Dennis Aase	John Hotchkis	Rank 20
1978	Brad Frisselle Racing	Chevrolet Monza	Brad Frisselle	John Hotchkis	failure	Cylinder overheated
1979	Wynn's International Dick Barbour Racing	Porsche 935/78	Bob Harmon	John Hotchkis	Rank 9
1980	Wynn's International Dick Barbour Racing	Porsche 935K3	Bob Harmon	Mike Sherwin	failure	accident

Sebring results

year	team	vehicle	Teammate	Teammate	placement	Failure reason
1967	Fellow Tuned Exhaust	Porsche 911S	Alan Johnson		9th place and class win
1968	Don Burns VW	Porsche 911S	Alan Johnson		Rank 7 and class win
1971	Bozzani Porsche Inc.	Porsche 911S	John Hotchkis		Rank 20
1972	Bozzani Porsche Audi Inc.	Porsche 914/6	John Hotchkis		Rank 15
1975	Johnson-Bozzoni Porsche-Audi	Porsche 914/6	John Hotchkis	Len Jones	failure	malfunction
1976	Max Dial Porsche-Audi	Porsche 914/6	John Hotchkis	Len Jones	Rank 14
1977	Kirby-Hitchcock Racing	Porsche 914/6	John Hotchkis		failure	malfunction
1978	Wynn's International	Porsche 911S	John Hotchkis	Dennis Aase	failure	mechanics
1979	Personalized Porsche	Porsche 914/4	Wayne Baker	Tom Winters	Rank 20
1983	Weld fixturing	Porsche Carrera RSR	Phil Byrd	Freddy Baker	Rank 32
1985	Kendall Racing	Porsche 935K3 / 80	John Hotchkis	Chuck Kendall	Rank 8

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
1967	Boy Tuned	Porsche 911	DAY	SEB	MON	SPA	TAR	ONLY	LEM	HOK	MUG	BRH	CCE	ZEL	OVI	ONLY
				9
1968	Don Burns	Porsche 911	DAY	SEB	BRH	MON	TAR	ONLY	SPA	WAT	ZEL	LEM
				7th
1971	Bozzani Porsche	Porsche 911	BUA	DAY	SEB	BRH	MON	SPA	TAR	ONLY	LEM	ZEL	WAT
					20th
1972	Bozzani Porsche	Porsche 914	BUA	DAY	SEB	BRH	MON	SPA	TAR	ONLY	LEM	ZEL	WAT
					15th
1975	Bozzoni Porsche	Porsche 914	DAY	MUG	DIJ	MON	SPA	BY	ONLY	ZEL	WAT
			36
1977	Kirby-Hitchcock Racing	Porsche 914	DAY	MUG	DIJ	MON	SIL	ONLY	VAL	BY	WAT	EST	LEC	MOS	IMO	SAL	BRH	HOK	VAL
			52
1978	Wynn's International Brad Frisselle Racing	Porsche 911 Chevrolet Monza	DAY	SEB	MUG	VALLEY	DIJ	SIL	ONLY	LEM	MIS	DAY	WAT	VAL	ROD
			58	DNF						DNF
1979	Casablanca Fan Personalized Porsche Cerwin-Vega Dick Barbour Racing	Porsche Carrera RSR Porsche 914 Porsche 935	DAY	SEB	MUG	VALLEY	DIJ	RIV	SIL	ONLY	LEM	BY	DAY	WAT	SPA	BRH	ROA	VAL	ELS
			36	20th				11			9			12
1980	Moana Kirby-Hitchcock Racing Dick Barbour Racing	Porsche Carrera RSR Porsche 935	DAY	BRH	SEB	MUG	MON	RIV	SIL	ONLY	LEM	DAY	WAT	SPA	MOS	ROA	VAL	DIJ
			55		DNF						DNF
1981	Kirby Hitchcock Racing Casa Blanca fan	Porsche Carrera RSR	DAY	SEB	MUG	MON	RIV	SIL	ONLY	LEM	BY	DAY	WAT	SPA	MOS	ROA	BRH
			32				16

literature

• Christian Moity, Jean-Marc Teissèdre, Alain Bienvenu: 24 heures du Mans, 1923–1992. 2 volumes. Éditions d'Art, Besançon 1992, ISBN 2-909-413-06-3 .

Web links

• Robert Kirby at Racing Sports Cars

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Sports car race Santa Barbara 1957
2. ↑ 1993 Daytona 24 Hours