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<body> <Table Width="550" border="0" style="border-collapse: collapse" cellpadding="0"><TR><TD Width="35"><IMG SRC="//www.totalmotorsport.com/images/spacer.gif" WIDTH="35" HEIGHT="1"></td><td> <CENTER><Table border="0" width="100%"> <TR><TD width="100%" align="center"><B><FONT FACE="Tahoma" SIZE="5">AMERICAN LE MANS SERIES</FONT></B></TD></TR> <TR><TD width="100%" align="left"><B><FONT FACE="Tahoma" SIZE="2">20/03/2001</FONT></B></TD></TR> <TR><TD width="100%" align="center"><B><FONT FACE="Tahoma" SIZE="4">Bob Wollek</FONT></B></TD></TR> <TR><TD width="100%" align="center"><B><FONT FACE="Tahoma" SIZE="3">Fourth Tribute</FONT></B></TD></TR> <TR><TD width="100%" align="center"><FONT FACE="Tahoma" SIZE="1">  </FONT></TD></TR> <TR><TD width="100%" align="left"><FONT FACE="Tahoma" SIZE="2"> <BR> Janos Wimpffen forwarded this ‘vignette’ as his tribute to a fine man;<BR> <BR> A couple of years ago, during a quiet moment at the Portland ALMS meeting, Bob came into the press room and was thumbing through a copy of the Yellow Pages stored behind me. He then asked the young woman working in the office if he could borrow the book for a half-hour. She replied that it belonged in the room, she didn't have authority to let it out, etc. He gently argued that he could be trusted and would return it. I wheeled around and said half to her, "I wouldn't trust anyone who's never won Le Mans." Bob smiled, took the phone book and whacked me over the head with it.<BR> <BR> I remember afterward fantasizing that if he ever won Le Mans I would present him with his own copy of the Portland phone book and share the laugh. Sadly, that will never happen.<BR> <BR> The Editor adds;<BR> <BR> Days later, the events of Friday afternoon still make no sense. Road accidents take place by the thousand every day, and families the world over are touched by tragedy as innocent loved ones are snatched from them. But a man of his experience, gone in an instant owing to one ghastly set of circumstances? <BR> <BR> The Daily Telegraph in the UK provided two sentences to acknowledge Bob’s passing. Over 30 years of racing and he qualifies for two sentences? Supposing he’d raced in F1, what space would he have been given then? Eddie Irvine graphically described his fellow F1 men as ‘tossers’ a couple of weeks ago. Who are we to argue with that? Yet if the same fate had befallen an F1 driver, the newspapers would have gone over the top, wouldn’t they? Remember Coulthard and the crash landing last year?<BR> <BR> But F1 drivers don’t ride bicycles away from the track, they climb into helicopters and business jets. Bob got onto his humble racing bike and found himself with nowhere to go. His passing has been most keenly felt by the Porsche ‘family’, from among the racing community. He wasn’t always a Porsche man, but years of racing with flat sixes behind him meant a devotion to a driver that is rare in modern times. <BR> <BR> I shall remember him from long before he became the man who never did win Le Mans. In ’71 and ’72 he drove for none other than Ron Dennis, in F2. He partnered such as Tim Schenken, Graham Hill, Henri Pescarolo and Carlos Ruetemann. His rivals included Emerson Fittipaldi, Niki Lauda, John Surtees, Tom Walkinshaw, Jochen Mass, Carlos Pace and Mike Hailwood. In one respect at least, Bob Wollek outraced them all.<BR> </FONT></TD></TR> </TABLE><BR> </CENTER> <BR><CENTER><font size="1" color="#808080" face="Tahoma">Copyright ©2000-©2023 TotalMotorSport</font></CENTER> </td> </tr> </table> </body>