Bob Sharp Racing: over two decades of Championship Success
Bob Sharp has one of the most interesting racing stories in the history of
American racing. Sharp is the man behind Bob Sharp Racing, probably the
single most
successful Datsun racing team of all time. Between sedans and Z cars, Sharp
holds six national SCCA championships. Jim Fitzgerald, Brad Frisselle, Elliot
Forbes-Robinson and Actor Paul Newman won many races and a long list of
championships in BSR
Datsuns.
Sharp, who would eventually become a full-fledged Datsun dealer in Wilton,
Connecticut, originally started racing with Bugeye Sprites and Lotus 7 kit
cars. Bob was working for Paul Bruck, a Rambler-Datsun dealer in Greenwich in
1964 when he and friend Alan Wiley asked Bruck if they could have a spl-310
roadster to race in SCCA competition. Bruck said yes, and then gave them a
second roadster later in the 1964 season. Sharp
took his car to the first SCCA Riverside runoff's that year after a few race
victories.
Bruck went bankrupt that year, and Bob Sharp started at Gulf Gas Station. Sharp
had been bitten hard by the racing bug, so he went to Nissan USA's East Coast
head, Mr. Kawasoe and convinced him to sponsor a racing team for 1965. Kawasoe,
as much a racing fan as his western counterpart Yutaka Katayama, agreed. Sharp
began developing Datsun racing
parts as a side business, much the same way Brock would do in later years. The
1600 and 2000 roadsters became Sharps weapons of choice.
In 1966, Bob Sharp took the G and F production races at the SCCA National
Championships in 1500 and 1600 roadsters. Bob started selling Datsun of his
gas station, then opened up a full fledged dealership.
Bob Sharp was also the first racer to get the 240z. The 240Z was introduced to
US racing way before it was supposed to be, all because on an unfortunate, or
for Bob Sharp, fortunate event. Bob had gone to see the New Z car at the New
York auto show well before it became available for sale. He fell in love with
it and called up Mr. Kawasoe and asked him if he could have one for racing. He
was told, "none were available, unless a salt damaged one shows up".
The Car went on to the Toronto Auto Show. While there, a model sat on the
roof and put a rather large dent in the car. It was immediately pulled from
the publicity tour. Sharp got a call from Mr. Usami one of Kawasoe's people,
who told him to come pick up the damaged car before Nissan execs changed their
minds. His West Coast counterparts, Pete Brock and BRE, would have to wait a
couple more months to get their first Z car. Both teams would have 2 240z's
each on the track by the end of 1970.
With his new 240z, again with number 33 painted on the side, Bob went on to win
divisional titles in 1970 and 71, and C production championships in 1972, 1973,
and 1975 before turning the drivers seat over to other people, namely Elliot
Forbes-Robinson and Brad Frisselle.
Brad Frizzelle driving a Imsa Z for Bob Sharp
Paul Newmans 510
Datsun was pushing the 510 as a race car at the same time as the Z and bob Sharp, like BRE, was right up front . Sharp drove his number 33 510 to B SCCA Sedan national titles in 1971 and 1972 at the same time as John Morton was taking his car to Trans Am Series championships. Sharp moved up to a 610 for 1973, but Dave Frellsen took the B Sedan title in an older 510.
It wasn't until 1979 that Sharps BSR team would see another major title, this
time with an unlikely driver at the wheel, actor Paul Newman. Paul Newman had
learned to drive for the movie "Winning" at Bob Bondurant's
Performance Driving school at Riverside, CA. Paul, and fellow actor Robert
Wagner, had been Bondurant's 4 th and 5th
customers after Bondurant's separation from Carroll Shelby's racing
school.
Bondurant was using 2 Datsun roadsters and a 510 at the time, as well as a
formula Vee.
A few years after Bondurant's School, Newman began campaigning a 510 in
regional events in 1972. He then moved into SCCA B sedan in 1973, qualifying
for the SCCA Runoffs at Road Atlanta, finishing in ninth place. Acting caught
up to Newman in 74, leaving his new 610 racer sitting idle for most of the
season, but he got back in the drivers seat for '75 and took the SCCA's
Northeast division title, with a sixth place finish at the Runoffs. He then
went on to win a spectacular SCCA D Production championship in 1976 in a
Triumph TR6, while returning to a 510 to compete in B Sedan at the same time,
placing second in the Northeast in the 510. Newman had become fast friends
with Sharp, and with legendary driver Jim Fitzgerald the 1970 D production
Champion in a 2000 roadster. I believe it was 73 when they met. At the
time Fitzgerald was driving 510's as well. The legend goes that Newman and
"Fitzy" met at Road Atlanta, where "Fitzy" offered to show
Newman the lay of the land, they both wandered off around the track with a
case of beer in tow.
Newman began racing on and off for Sharps team in 1977, after Newman assisted
previous Sharp Driver Elliot Forbes Robinson in a successful run in a Budweiser
sponsored Can Am racing team. Newman took the controls of a Z car for BSR ,
and was one of 4 drivers given a shot at the new 280zx in 1979.
Newman had a better year in 1978 when he drove a 280z and a 200sx to division
Championships, and qualified well at the Runoffs.
Then came 1979. Newman's 200sx had all the bugs worked out of it by then, and
he won all 8 races he entered in that car, winning the regional title. He also
raced the new 280zx for Bob Sharp. Newman took the pole at Summit point in May
of that year to debut the car, then went on to win the race by a comfortable
14 second margin. Newman and the BSR team would go on to win 6 out of 8 races
entered, becoming North East Champion, and then going on to beat BSR drivers
Bob Leitzinger and Logan Blackburn for the 1979 C Production National title at
Road Atlanta. He set a new lap record at 99.557MpH, beating the record
previously held by Sharp. On winning the title Newman said, " this is
better than the Oscars".
Paul Newman on the Podium 1979
On a non-BSR note, Newman also took a Porsche to the 1979 Le Mans and finished
in second place!
At the same time Newman was racing the ZX in SCCA, Sam Posey was racing a more
modified car in IMSA GTU for Bob Sharp Racing, with a few successes. Newman
moved over to IMSA with Sharp for the 1980 season, but the Mazda Rx 7 rotary
had entered the field, and it proved too dominant a force for the ZX or any
other make for that matter.
For the 1981 season Sharp, in partnership with Electromotive, decided to escape
GTU and the Mazda's and move up to IMSA GT class for cars over 2.5 liters.
With a Nissan President 4.5 liter V8 engine and the work of Gene Crowe and
chassis designer Trevor Harris, the two teams developed a couple of
unsuccessful turbocharged ZX's. They had the power, but the engine design
lacked strength and cracked under pressure. The IMSA now shifted focus to allow
even more highly modified prototype cars that outclassed even a 700 horsepower
twin turbo V8 ZX. The project was abandoned.
SCCA C production became GT-2 in the early 80's, but Bob Sharp set his team
goals on the GT-1 class. With a series of outstanding 300zx turbo cars, and the
even more outstanding driving of Jim Fitzgerald, Paul Newman and Bob's son
Scott Sharp, BSR won the GT-1 class five years in a row from 1984 to 1988.
Bob Sharp Racing became Newman Sharp Racing in the 80's, cementing
a shared love of
racing into a very successful business partnership.
Scott Sharp actually won his first National Championship in the 1986 GT-2
series in his father's original 240Z. The car had been sold to Jim Fitzgerald
in the mid Seventies, and eventually sold back to the senior Sharp when it was
retired in 1979 for a new ZX. The car was lovingly restored in Sharps basement,
then taken back out on the track in 1986. With updates to 280z specs, Scott
Sharp drove the same car to victory in '86 that his father had taken to victory
in '72 and '73. Between Bob Sharp, Scott Sharp, and Jim Fitzgerald, the Z with
the number 6 serial number, the first Z car on American soil, has won
umpteen regional titles, at least four National SCCA titles, and an incredible
number of races. Not bad for a car that couldn't take the weight of a model
back in 1969 Toronto.
Jim Fitzgeralds Z
On a tragic note, Newman's long time friend and co-driver Jim "Fitzy"
Fitzgerald was killed in a tragic accident during a 1987 IMSA race. Newman and
Sharp were both completely devastated by the accident. Newmans' Eulogy for "Fitz" adorns a plaque dedicated to Jim at the track where he died.
With over 20 National titles, and probably double that in regional titles, and
a son who now races in the IRL, it's
fair to say that Bob Sharp and Bob Sharp Racing is one of the most successful racing
stories in the history of American, and Nissan Motorsports. It's a pretty
amazing story for a guy
who started out sharing a car with another driver, and who started his racing
team out of a gas station garage in Connecticut.
There is a Bob Sharp Fan Club on the East Coast, check it out.
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