Bob Marshman

2018 NMARHoF inductee

George Robert “Bobby” Marshman was born on September 24, 1936 in Pottstown Pennsylvania into a racing family, as the son of George Marshman who reigned as the 1949 American Automobile Association (AAA) East Coast Midget series champion and later became the promoter of Hatfield Speedway.

At age 19 Bobby started his racing career with the United Racing Club in a sprint car and was the club’s 1955 Rookie of the Year then the following season he was eighth in URC points in the Ellis Brothers Dodge.  After he finished second in URC points in 1957 though with no wins, in 1958 Bobby began his midget racing career with the American Race Drivers Club (ARDC). 

At just 23 years of age, Bobby drove for the powerful Harry Hespell 4-car team with multi-time ARDC champions Ed “Dutch” Schaffer and Len Duncan and Wayne Doerstler and wound up third in 1958 points in that very competitive series. Bobby started his record of success at the big Trenton New Jersey one-mile track as he won a 25-mile ARDC feature on August 3, 1958.  Marshman branched out into USAC (United States Auto Club) competition in the 1959 season still with the Hespell team teamed with Duncan, Al Herman, and Don Allison. 

Bobby started his 1960 season with a win in a 35 lap three quarter midget race on the 1/10 track inside the Island Garden on January 3, then at the end of February he scored a stock car win inside the Teaneck New Jersey Armory. Marshman drove for Bruce Homeyer’s ‘Konstant Hot’ team in 1960 and won the 300-mile ARDC midget race held at Trenton on July 24, 1960.  Bobby led the final 109 laps and finished in 3 hours 8 minutes, yet he finished only 25 seconds ahead of Chuck Arnold.

At the 1961 Indianapolis ‘500,’ Marshman was the youngest driver in the field as he started last in Eph Hoover’s ‘Hoover Motor Express Special.’ With just five days of practice, he finished the race in seventh place and shared the Rookie of the Year award with Parnelli Jones.

Bobby’s career record includes eight ARDC feature wins and four USAC feature wins, and he excelled in long-distance midget races, particularly, as he won the 250-mile USAC/ARDC at Trenton on July 2, 1961.  Due to the sweltering heat Bob gave way to relief driver Jimmie Davis after 186 laps but the pair still finished at an average speed of over 93 miles per hour (MPH). 

Marshman’s midget schedule slowed down in 1962 onward as he became a regular on the USAC championship car circuit – in 1962 he was the third fastest qualifier at Indianapolis and finished fifth in championship points. On September 16, 1962 Marshman won the USAC sanctioned 100-mile midget in a record time of one hour and 1.48 seconds. 

As Bob’s fame began to spread he got more opportunities to display his skills – he won the shortened 1962 Bobby Ball Memorial race for dirt championship cars at the Arizona State Fairgrounds in Lindsay Hopkins’ Kuzma Offenhauser,  a victory in USAC Sprint Car competition 1963 at the Terre Haute Action Track for Wally Meskowski,  and in 1964 driving Don White’s Zecol-Lubaid Ford stock car, Bobby won the   Allen Crowe Memorial raceat the Illinois state fairgrounds without a pit stop.

In 1964, his tenth season of racing Bobby qualified second at the Indianapolis ‘500’ and led 33 laps, but sadly one of racing’s brightest stars passed away on December 5. 1964, just a week after a fiery crash during a tire test at the Phoenix International Raceway at just 28 years old.

Mario Andretti

2018 NMARHoF Inductee

In 1961, young Italian immigrant Mario Andretti began his open wheel racing career in a three-quarter midget purchased from Bobby Marshman with the American Three-Quarter Midget Racing Association, then he scored his first of four ATQMRA wins with a 100-lap race win at Teaneck New Jersey in 1962. In 1963, Mario graduated to full-size midgets in his first race at Danbury Connecticut with the American Race Drivers Club (ARDC) with such legendary drivers as Len Duncan, and Ed “Dutch” Schaefer.

On Labor Day 1963, at 23 years of age Andretti accomplished the near-impossible as he won three midgets features in one day in a single car at two different tracks. In the afternoon program at the fast 5/8-mile Flemington Speedway in New Jersey Mario scored a “clean sweep” he set fast time in qualifying, won his heat race and scored the feature win.

The Mataka Brothers team then loaded up and towed west to Pennsylvania’s 1/3-mile Hatfield Speedway for the evening’s twin feature program. In the first race, Mario again scored a “clean sweep,” then won his third feature of the day with a victory in the make-up race from an earlier rain out. In one day, Mario scored three of his five career ARDC feature wins and from that day on, Mario Andretti was bound for superstardom.

Besides a NASCAR midget win and a United States Auto Club (USAC) midget win in Berlin Michigan in 1966 Mario’s record includes Rookie of the Year honors at the 1965 Indianapolis ‘500,’ victory in the 1967 Daytona 500-mile stock car race, the 1969 Indianapolis ‘500,’ and the 1978 Formula One World Driving Championship. 

Mario’s career record also includes three Sebring 12-hour race victories, four IndyCar championships with wins in each of four decades, Driver of the Year honors in three different decades and he was named the Associated Press Driver of the Century in 1999.

As a driver who started his illustrious open-wheel career in midgets, we are proud to welcome Mario Andretti into the National Midget Auto Racing Hall of Fame.