CHICAGO, Ill. — Bob Roper, who gathered quite a few laurels during his Chicago area stock car racing career, including the Chicagoland Driving Championship in 1974, passed away in Florida on August 8 at the age of 91.
The CDC title was based on an accumulation of points for late model features at three local paved tracks – Grundy County Speedway, Illiana Motor Speedway and Waukegan Speedway. In 1974, Roper won a total of 13 Chicago area main events in his Earl Hall-owned ’73 Chevy Vega No.20. Hall had a courtesy light installed inside the car with Roper flipping on the light after each victory in the “Controversial Vega.”
Roper, a resident of Chicago’s northside, tried to start his racing career at Waukegan Speedway in the 1950s but was thrown out because of being underage. He raced a few times at Blue Island’s Raceway Park in 1955 and also competed at Mance Park in Hodgkins early on.
Roper raced at O’Hare Stadium and Rockford Speedway in the early 1960s – the Cadet division at O’Hare and late models at Rockford. Racing at Rockford in 1962 and 1963, Roper won a couple of early-season feature races at Rockford in 1963, including a 50 lapper on Memorial Day afternoon.
Roper also competed at Chicago’s Soldier Field, racing a ’57 Chevy convertible in 1964. 1965 saw Roper win the figure 8 division championship at O’Hare and finish third in the “hardtop” (Cadet) standings. Driving Bill Anderson’s ’57 Chevy in 1965, he won both the “hardtop” and figure 8 division feature races at O’Hare – the banked, quarter-mile, paved oval in Schiller Park, Ill.
Roper was the Cadet division champion at O’Hare in 1966, winning 10 feature races in his Lorrain’s Records-sponsored “Yellow Devil” ’57 Chevy No.7. He also raced at the Rockford oval in the semi-late model ranks. Roper finished 26th in the late model points at O’Hare the following year (1967) and sixth in 1968 – the final year of racing at O’Hare.
In 1967, Roper seemed to race all over – at Rockford, on the dirt at Bob-Jo Speedway in Sycamore and Wisconsin’s Lake Geneva Speed Center, scoring feature wins at all three tracks. He won two feature races at O’Hare in 1968, including his first career late model win there in his R&R Sinclair-sponsored ’63 Chevy II No. 6.
Roper raced at Illiana Motor Speedway in Schererville, Ind., ending up in fourth place in the points in both 1967 and 1968. 1969 saw Roper capture the late model championship at the Mazon Speed Bowl in Mazon, Ill. He won seven feature races, including the 50-lap Mid Season Championship event at the high-banked, quarter-mile, paved oval in his bright-yellow Chevy II No.6. Roper was second in the points standings in 1969 at Waukegan Speedway, which was paved prior to the season opener. He won nine feature races, including a 100 lapper at the quarter-mile oval.
Being listed from Hollywood, Calif., because of traveling work commitments, Roper competed at Waukegan in 1970 and finished seventh in the points with two feature wins. Roper ended up 10th in the points at Illiana and second at Mazon – the final year of racing there. From time to time, Roper would make an appearance or two at Raceway Park in the 1970s.
Grundy County Speedway in Morris, Ill., replaced the Mazon speed plant in 1971 and Roper finished third in the standings at the new, third-of-a-mile, paved oval. He won his first career Grundy feature win on Friday night, June 2, passing for the lead on the last lap. The 1971 racing season saw Roper, driving the Anderson Automotive-owned and sponsored Camaro No.6, finishing sixth in the points at Waukegan and in a tie for second place at Illiana with fellow driver and close friend Rich Sundling.
1973 saw Roper wheeling Troy Robinson’s Northside Auto Parts/Ardmore Garage-sponsored white 1972 Chevelle No.5 most of the season. He won seven feature races at Waukegan and captured late model track championship honors. Roper finished fifth at Illiana with a feature win to his credit and fifth at Grundy with three feature victories.
After winning the CDC crown in 1974, Roper’s racing slowed down a bit in 1975 as he was not list among the final “top 10” at either Grundy, Illiana or Waukegan. Toward the end of the season, Roper got a ride in Marv Palmer’s Camaro. Roper finished second in the inaugural ARTGO Wayne Carter Classic at Grundy and fifth in Illiana’s annual Tony Bettenhausen 100 in Palmer’s No.6.
Roper worked for Art Frigo’s Super-Cut company and had gotten Frigo interested in racing. Frigo, along with immense help from John McKarns who Roper introduced to Frigo, started the ARTGO Racing late model series.
Roper’s raced at Illiana in 1977 and finished 23rd in the points. Coming out of about a five-year retirement, Roper competed in the ARTGO Wayne Carter Classic event at Grundy in 1982. He did a little more racing at Illiana and competed in the track’s sport stock (sportsman) division 1986, finishing 11th in the points.
Roper relocated to Florida and worked at Disney World as a mechanic. He was inducted into the Mazon Speed Bowl/Grundy County Speedway Hall of Fame in 2006.
