From Shoeless To Hotshoe

Bobby Isaac came late to the brutal, cut-and-thrust world of NASCAR, says Paul Fearnley, but he certainly made his mark

- Paul Fearnley

This prototype stereotype of nascent NASCAR was the eighth of nine children. Fatherless at five and orphaned by 12, he spent a shoeless childhood in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains. He worked in a mill and a pool hall, delivered ice in summer and drilled for oil in winter. Married at 19, it lasted a year. Hungry in every sense, he had to win, be it the race or the brawl afterwards – and is thought to be the most-fined in US stock car history.

Robert Vance Isaac had throughout the 1950s won heaps on the shade-tree short tracks of the Carolinas and Georgia, against the likes of future multiple NASCAR Grand National champions David Pearson and ‘Gentleman’ Ned Jarrett.

“Our backgrounds were similar,” says Jarrett. “He delivered lumber to Dad’s yard and I checked it in. His upbringing had not required him to speak much; he said what he felt needed to be said. A regular guy in a regular job, but he had a God given ability to get everything out of a race car.”

This hardscrabble hard man already felt the need to shorten his age when at last he reached the majors in ’61. But though he drove for several big names – ‘Smokey’, ‘Junior’ and ‘Cotton’ – he failed to hit pay dirt. He did, however, strike a reporter who mocked his lack of schooling.

“Education doesn’t help you race a car, but it does help you to deal with circumstances,” says Jarrett. “That had something to do with Bobby’s slow progress. He was not the type to knock on doors. He just waited until it came to him.”