Born : September 25 1942
Deceased : April 25 2007
Biography Bob Snodgrass
Bob ‘Robert’ Snodgrass was born in Muncy, a small village in Pennsylvania. At the age of 6, Bob Snodgrass watches his first race at the Watkins Glenn race-track, that’s only a 2.5 hour drive. That race made a huge impression on the young Snodgrass. It was a little spark, that ignited a life-long passion for motorsports and speed. And despite being a child, Snodgrass realized he would pursue that passion for the rest of his life. Bob Snodgrass graduated from Elmire Free Academy in 1960. He than started studying Economics at the Northeast Louisiana University. In 1965 he received his Bachelor of Science in Economics degree. He then moved to Jacksonville, Florida.
Brumos
Even during his studies, Bob Snodgrass started racing cars, and made some money buying and selling them. 1973, the year that Peter Gregg and Hurley Haywood won the Daytona 24 Hours in a Porsche 911 RSR, Snodgrass joined Brumos as a manager of the Porsche dealership. That was the moment his personal race-career took a back-seat. When Peter Gregg, owner of Brumos, commited suicide in 1980, Bob Snodgrass became business partner with Gregg’s widow Deborah. Later she pursued her own race-career. Bob Snodgrass joined with Jacksonville businessman and racing enthusiast Dan Davisto acquire the ownership of Brumos. The duo focused the dealership’s mission on its racing heritage.
Snodgrass believed that Porsche racing was the foundation of the company’s sales, service and marketing concepts. They strongly believed that the racing history with Porsche was ingrained in all that Brumos did. Money was no issue for Snodgrass. He once said : “If you pay peanuts, you have to hire monkeys!”. One of his pupils was Hurley Haywood, who won several races in a Brumos Porsche. Hurley Haywood would later become co-owner and vice-president of Brumos.
Rewards and founder of the Brumos Collection
From 1991 through 2001, Snodgrass was the Chairman of the Porsche Board of Regents. Under his stewardship, Brumos won 5 consecutive “Porsche Perfect Service Awards”, and he ranked the number one Porsche dealer in the USA. In 1985, Bob created “Brumos U”, the only dedicated Porsche dealer driver training program in the world. Snodgrass was a 10-time C.A.R.E. & Historic Sports Car Racing Champion. As a hobby, he raced Porsches from The Brumos Collection, a private collection which Snodgrass founded during the 1990s. The Brumos Collection consistis of rare and significant automobiles and motorcycles. In 2002, Bob was among the elite group of racers and businessmen who created the Grand American Road Racing Association and its headline Daytona Prototype class.
April 25 2007, Bob Snodgrass passed away rather unexpectedly.
Some of the more notable achievements of Bob Snodgrass
– Team Manager, Brumos Racing 1991-1994 all resulting in championships for Porsche.
– Inducted into the Goodyear Legends Walk of Fame 2007 at Daytona International Speedway
– Winner of the John Gordon Bennett Award as America’s outstanding historic car racing driver 1996
– Executive Board, International Motor Racing Research Center at Watkins Glen
– Board member, Automobile Competition Committee United States
– Vice Chairman, Grand American Road Racing Association
– Team Owner, Brumos Racing Daytona Prototypes
– HSR Rolex Endurance Champion 1995, 1996 1997 1999 2000 and 2001
Pictures courtesy unknown
