The Fireball Roberts Legend and Legacy

HPP: Fireball Roberts depended upon Smokey Yunick to get him to the finish line first. Did your dad ever share with you the inside story on any of Smokey Yunick's "beat the rule book" inventions used on the #22 '62 Pontiac Catalina race car?
PR: It's funny you should ask about that. I guess you can tell these things publicly after everyone that was involved is deceased. At one of the Daytona races, Smokey had devised a way to get more gas in the car by putting a basketball in the gas tank. He blew it up when it went through inspection [to make it pass the fuel tank size rule], then deflated it in the garage and added more gas [to allow more laps between pit stop fueling]. Dad always told Mother things like that so that she would know and not get anxious about him not pitting. Well at this particular race, it so happened that Dad stayed out longer than the rest of the field. Joe Epton, the chief scorer, kept asking Mother, "Why hasn't Fireball pitted?" She just shrugged her shoulders and took another drink of coffee. Thank goodness there was a caution flag and Dad finally pitted. As far as I know, that was never discovered by NASCAR.

HPP: Fireball Roberts passed away on July 2, 1964, from injuries sustained in a racing crash at Charlotte Motor Speedway on May 24, 1964. Was your dad concerned about the life and death risks of professional stock car racing?
PR: It was always known what could happen on the track. Dad told me he had a higher chance of getting hurt driving his personal car than his race car. That satisfied me as a child. These things weren't spoken about very often. We dealt with Marshall Teague's death [February 11, 1959, at the newly opened Daytona International Speedway] as a family. My father was very upset about his accident, being at the track when it happened. They were very close. He explained to me that Marshall was in an Indy-type car and not a stock car, and that was a contributing factor to the wreck. That again satisfied the child.

When Marvin Panch had his accident in Daytona [February 12, 1963], that really hit home hard. I played with his children. Marvin got better and Lee Petty got better. Dad told me at times that he was too mean to get hurt.

Then Joe Weatherly was killed in Riverside, California, [January 19, 1964], and Dad had a talk with me about it. He was more open and to the point that time. He told me that he knew that he could get hurt in a race car, but he told me he loved racing "this much more than he loved me and my mother," holding his thumb and index finger about a half an inch apart. That never bothered me; my father was way too generous with his time and his love. In this conversation, Dad also told Mother and me that if anything ever did happen to him in a race car, he did not want us to stop going to races because those people were our "racing family" and they would always be there for us. Little did either of us know that, in a few months, I would need that conversation to help me through a very difficult time. And he was right; we do have a "racing family."

HPP: Was Fireball Roberts passionate about Pontiacs off the track?
PR: Absolutely yes! In 1960, Mom and Dad both got new Pontiacs. They got a new one each year through the '62 model. Dad always got a Bonneville convertible, and Mother, a Catalina convertible. I especially remember the '62s. Dad's was red with a white top, and Mother's was baby blue with a white top.

HPP: Did you inherit a love for Pontiacs?
PR: My first car was a Ford because Mother was still driving Fords at the time. But my second car, which was my VERY favorite, was a '70 Grand Prix, silver and black. That car and I drove up and down the Florida Turnpike most every weekend when I attended school in Miami.

HPP: tell us about the re-creation of the #22 '62 Pontiac Fireball Roberts race car.
PR: Mother and I didn't have anything to do with the re-creation of the '62 Pontiac. Mr. Jimmy Kellett of Laurens, South Carolina, did this all on his own. Mother and I met him in Charlotte at a car show and saw the #22 Pontiac re-creation race car for the first time. You know, the original was destroyed. We both cried when we saw it. It brought back so many wonderful memories to us both.

HPP: Have you driven it?
PR: I haven't driven it, and I really don't want to. I'm sorry; it's just not something I want to do. But I had an absolute blast when Jimmy and I drove it around the Charlotte Speedway during the Good Guys get-together in Charlotte. You could really "get it" down the back stretch and the front one. I loved that and I love to ride in it with Jimmy. It was truly my favorite of Dad's race cars.

HPP: Fireball Roberts is a hero to many readers of this magazine. Pam, did your dad have any heroes?
PR: As far as heroes, I can't say. I just know my father respected Red Byron, that's why he chose the #22 for his car's number when he had a choice. He admired and respected Marshall Teague, who gave him his first race car that he drove at the first race at North Wilkesboro, North Carolina, in 1947. That was Dad's first race, and he didn't finish it. Here's something you wouldn't have known: Fireball Roberts' favorite movie star was Clark Gable.

HPP: Did your dad teach you about racing?
PR: Dad really didn't teach me anything about racing. He had no intentions for me to be a part of racing. He expected me to go to college, and then decide what I wanted to do. But Daddy taught me how to drive. I will always remember sitting in his lap, steering the car on the beach and up and down the driveway. Once the speedway was built in Daytona, we would go out there and have driving lessons in the infield. He taught me to brake with my left foot, which is highly frowned upon today. I'll never forget in Driver's Ed, my teacher, Coach Hossfield, fussed at me for using my left foot braking. I stopped the car, tears running down my face. I said, "But Coach, my daddy is Fireball Roberts, and he taught me to brake with my left foot, and I just don't think I can ever drive any other way." He couldn't argue with that.