by William (Bill) Bogan
This documentary is written as a tribute to my father and mother, Bob & Norma Bogan, and to highlight the impact of their lives and contribution to the sport of Open Wheel racing. It includes photos taken by many of the photographers that graced the various tracks over the 40 plus years my father participated in auto racing. Many thanks go to family and friends as they help me round out the accounts of events and make sure they're in order. Credits for the photos cannot always be provided, but they are appreciated and recognized as contributions to this document.
My father, Robert (Bob) Bogan, had a serious hobby in automotive racing. He participated in various levels of racing starting with full Midgets, Indy cars, Sprint cars, Three Quarter midgets (TQs), full Midgets again, and eventually he worked restoring vintage midgets. In 1944 he married Norma and together they had five children, 2 girls and 3 boys. Bob was born and raised in Indiana, which may go a long way toward explaining his interest in sports in general and his huge fascination and involvement in automobile racing.
During the early racing years, from spring to fall, the family would be at the race track each weekend watching the action and visiting with friends. Norma would take steno pads for recording qualifying times and race results for each event. Those steno pads came in real handy in the years that followed, when Dad and friends "bench-raced," dredging up the stories of races and results. Mom's racing records were the means for resolving debates and mistakes about the results. Her hard work and effort are not to be overlooked.
As children we were fortunate, in a small way, to enjoy the thrill of driving a race car. Dad built a quarter midget for us to enjoy. Pop would guide one of us to the school nearby and would let us drive the car on the dirt playground. In teaching us to drive it, Dad would ride on the back bumper and help steer, until we were comfortable enough to take over.
The car had a throttle and a hand brake. I recall one time, driving it back from the school with Dad riding on the bumper. As we were turning onto our street he told me to hit the gas - guess I was going too slowly for his taste. I did, and he immediately was thrown off the rear bumper. He had to run to catch up with me.
Linda getting her turn at the wheel.
Dad was involved in racing before any of us children came along. Some of the earliest photos date back to the late 1940's and early 1950's. Bob was primarily an owner/mechanic on the midgets, however, late in his career he managed to become a driver too. Before we get to that... let's roll back the calendar and explain how things progressed.
During the 40's and early 50's Bob could be found at the race tracks of southern Oregon. Then about the mid '50s the family moved to southern California. It was there, for the next 35 years that Bob would participate in racing at the various tracks around southern and central California and Arizona. Initially, Bob bought midgets and began running them while in Oregon. There Donnie Hood drove for him. Dad used to recount stories about those early years. One of them that stuck with me was how Donnie would pull along the outside of another race car, so the other driver would see the nose of his car, then when going into the turn Donnie would tap the brakes as his competitor would drift a little high in the turn and he'd turn left and drop in below the other car, making a clean pass. I believe it was in Oregon that Dad also became friends with Bob Christie. Bob went on to drive at Indy.
During the midget years, Bob built and painted a midget that would be shipped to race in Australia. The car had a candy apple red nose highlight, pearl white body, and candy blue highlight on the tail and featured the number 1 over the American flag. The car was shipped to Australia and ran there for a month or so.As you can see on the side, Lowell Sachs was the driver.
Bob sitting on LR tire of the car before it left for Australia.
Foreground: The car when owned and driven by Merv Neill. Bob Tattersall in background.
Bob's success in auto racing was not limited to the west coast. In 1961 he was a pit crew member for the Kelso Indy roadster. The car had problems throughout May. As it turned out there was faulty tubing in it and the loss of multiple engines was too much for the car owner. They didn't make the show and the car was withdrawn from qualifying and the owner parked it in his yard and planted flowers in it. The following year, Bob was the Crew Chief on the Ray Crawford roadster. This time things went well and they qualified to run in the race. The driver was Bob Veith. Dad's good friend Edgar Elder also played a key role on the team that year.
Bob (Bogan) would never return as a participant in the Indy 500. Instead, he turned his attention back to his racing roots, dirt track racing, both midget and TQ's. It was at this time that Bob began to help revolutionize racing on the west coast. How so?
Bob went to work, for awhile, for Ron Ward brother of famed Indy driver Roger Ward. Bob worked for Ron building sprint cars and what he would learn there about chassis design would soon make its way into midget racing. The technology that was improving Sprint Car handling and performance, Bob realized, could be applied to full midgets with the same result. The technology was commonly known as 4-bar suspension - two torsion bars at the front and two at the rear of the chassis. These bars transferred the weight of the car to the chassis. One of the great features of this chassis was that the car would not spin out as easily. The chassis "worked" better in the corners and as a result, even when "crossed up" pretty hard, it would still allow recovery. In 1964, Bob scaled the technology to use in midgets and built the first 4-bar midget on the West Coast. At the same time Don Edmunds, famed chassis builder, was developing the same technology for midgets in the Midwest. In the following photo of this 4-bar car, Bob is standing and the driver is the young and talented Mike Mosley. Mike eventually went on to drive at Indianapolis.
Later, as full midget racing became more and more costly, Bob saw the opportunity to once again scale the technology, this time to 3/4 midget size. The organization that first benefited from this change was known as NMRA, a racing association in Southern California. Bob built and ran some 30 or so TQ's over the years. The image below shows a lineup of 8 cars, built by Bob, that were running that night at South Gate raceway.
Racing was definitely a family affair. As children our summers were spent going to race tracks in Southern California on Saturday nights, Western Speedway, Gardena Speedway, Ascot, Corona, Orange Show Stadium (San Bernardino), Oildale (Bakersfield), Kearney Bowl (Fresno), El Centro, El Toro, and many others over the years. During the TQ years, Bob even towed cars to run in the Indiana fairground circuits during the summer.
Thus, it was no surprise that some of the children participated in racing too. Linda, the oldest child has been a faithful follower of auto racing for decades. Lin recalls the early days in Oregon when Dad would prepare the race car, then test it at a local track. "I can remember his taking newly built cars to the track in Grants Pass and running them to verify everything was correct. My treat was to sit on his lap for a lap or two around the track after the test sessions." Dad's race cars were reputed for their mechanical soundness. No one ever had to worry about something "falling" off due to negligence, he double checked everything before a race. Unfortunately, in those days women were not allowed to be in the pits, let alone work as drivers. Otherwise, Linda's name might be listed as a driver too! However, the honor to be the first of the Bogan children to pilot a Bogan Racer fell to the oldest son, Bill. From 1968 to 1972, with some time out for service in the military, I drove for my father.
I still think that Dad's cars had some of the nicest lines, body style, I've seen in racing.
Two memorable experiences came while racing at South Gate raceway. The first was a heat race, 8 laps, where I started on the pole and Frank Tifft started outside on the front row. Frank had one of my Dad's cars with a Honda engine in it. He worked for a Honda dealer at the time. We were still running the Fiat engine. The green flag dropped and it was wheel-to-wheel for 8 laps. Never once did we bump each other. Frank's car was performing better than mine because he stayed beside me ( on the outside) the entire 8 laps. Then coming out of turn 4 on the final lap Frank pulled me a little coming out of the turn and won the race by a nose. It was then that Dad realized he needed to take a more serious look at using motorcycle engines in the future.
As you may realize by now, Bob was not shy about trying new things when it came to racing. He always participated with the desire to win. If that meant he needed to improve something, then he looked for ways to get more speed, better handling, and so on. One of the tasks he was asked to perform was to put a Corvair (180 degree opposed) engine into a full midget. Bob built the chassis and fit the engine into it. One of the fascinating things about the engine was that the crankshaft turned backwards from its normal direction. The result was that the engine torque helped force the left front wheel down onto the track thereby improving handling.
Many people, famous or otherwise, have driven Bogan Racers at one time or
another. The following is a partial alphabetical list of some of those who have
and the associations they were linked to.
Note: most of these drivers were also considered friends by Bob. There
are a couple who are noted as close friends because Bob held their friendship as
dear to him for many years, this status is not meant to offend any of the others
who were also friends, but not mentioned here. If a name is missing it is because
I have incomplete or incorrect records available. Feel free to email me with corrections.
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I left for the army after the season in 1969. During the following spring while training as a medic in San Antonio, I flew home one weekend in order to drive the race car and visit with the family. The driver, that season, was kind enough to step aside and let me do this. This photo was taken in the pits that weekend in 1970. |
One of the highlights of Bob's racing career was the year he drove the cars himself. And so, at age 54, Bob began his rookie driver year.
Bob McCaw thought the rear end had locked up on Dad's car and was told to take his foot off the brake and that would solve the problem. McCaw said he'd never driven a car with such good brakes on it. Another must in Dad's mind - driver safety was a paramount concern for him. - Linda (Bogan) Blackie
I remember one evening at South Gate race track, my rookie year, in a heat race, I was trying to pass Bob (McCaw) on the outside coming out of turn four. He drifted up and hit my left front wheel with his right nerf bar forcing me up into the wall. The car started to climb, but I was able to right the car before anything serious happened. Bob knew how to make the track narrow, and I mean that with all the respect one can have. - Bill Bogan
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Robby Flock drove this one |
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| No.1 sponsored by Jim Steele's Durfee Auto Parts | Later model chassis' incorporated the roll cage into the chassis itself instead of bolting on like the early versions. |
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| Parade lap for a heat race | Mike Shaw (32) and Bill Bogan (31) |
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| Bill Bogan (31) and Dean Thompson (9) | Bill Bogan (31), ?4 |
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| As you can see, for awhile I wore a scarf over my face. I finally got a leather face mask and it was a good thing because when we ran El Toro a rock kicked up and hit me in the left cheekbone. Thanks to that face mask there is no evidence of the event. | No.8 Dave Fender, No.31 Bill Bogan |
Tracks that we used to run at....
Midgets: Ascot, Oildale (Bakersfield), Kearney Bowl (Fresno), Santa Maria, Atascadero, Saugus, Corona, Orange Show Stadium (San Bernardino), Balboa Stadium (San Diego), Manzanita (Phoenix), El Centro, 605 Speedway (Irwindale),
TQ's: South Gate, El Toro, Ventura, Carson City, The Forum ( that's right, indoors where the Lakers played basketball), Anaheim Convention Center (indoors),
Author's Note: Feel free to email me if you have a story, photo, or
experience related to Bogan racers you would like to contribute. You will get
credit for your contribution.
Email: bb@b2-design.biz
Work: www.b2-design.biz
Finally.... I'm also working on a small project. I want to model (with CAD
software) one of the later TQ's dad built. Here's what I've done so far.
I'm still trying to locate photos of either a 750CC Honda or similar sized Kawasaki engine. If anyone has photos of an engine alone, I ask that you consider getting a copy scanned and emailing them to me.
Thanks in advance, Bill Bogan Links to other racing webpages.
