Bobby Burger

 By Stan Kalwasinski

Former Santa Fe Speedway stock car driver, Robert “Bobby” Burger, 74, passed away at Sacred Heart Hospital in Eau Claire, Wis., on February 6, 2015. 

Hailing from Lemont , Ill., Burger began racing on the dirt at Santa Fe, which was located 91st St. and Wolf Road near Willow Springs, competing in the track’s sportsman division.  He won six features in the sportsman division in 1961.  He moved up into the late model ranks in 1962, purchasing a Studebaker Lark from Bill Van Allen.   With four deuces (carburetors) under the hood, Burger won four heat races and eight trophy dashes during the ’62 campaign and finished seventh in the track’s big 200 lapper on September 2 and second in the 50-lap season finale on September 20.

Longtime friend, Ted Mochel remembers, “I grew up on a farm a 1/2 mile from his shop at Route 66 and I-55. His parents were my parents’ best friends.  I rode my bike up old Route 66 every Saturday and Sunday to help work on his cars – his sportsman Ford No. 222 and the Lark No. 9 that he bought from Van Allen. I went to Justice with him to pick that car up. I was 12 years old.  Bobby absolutely admired Billy.”

Burger was definitely a big fan of Van Allen, who passed away in 1973 at the age of 46 due to cancer.

“He was a million miles ahead of everyone else with except maybe Bud Koehler and Bob Pronger as far as on the chassis,” Burger reminisced about Van Allen several years ago.  “He didn’t have the fastest cars by any means, but his cars handled.  He won every race he ever won in the corners, not down the straightaway.  He was a damn good driver.  I think he lived it (racing), breathed it, dreamed it and thought about it all the time.”

1963 saw Burger win his first late model main event on the Santa Fe clay in his orange Lark No. 9.  He won a total of four feature races during the season, including a 50-lap victory on Santa Fe’s quarter-mile oval on July 4, 1963.  His time of 13:42.19 (minutes) for 50 circuits stood as a record time in the Santa Fe books for more than 20 years.

During the off-season of 1963 and 1964, Burger and Van Allen built a 1962 Ford to campaign on the asphalt at Raceway Park near Blue Island.  With Burger as car owner and Van Allen as driver, the team captured three feature races at Raceway Park during the first part of the year, before moving over to Santa Fe, where Van Allen would win 16 main events and his third consecutive track championship.

 “I helped build the ‘62 Ford with Bobby for Van Allen, “ remembers Mochel.  “I couldn't believe it but once the tin was on the car he let me cut out the fender wells out to make room for the big slicks. That ‘62 Ford was a "lead sled" because of all the 2" square tubing that went into that car, not to mention all the 1/4'' plating. We weighed it at the truck stop and I know it was well over 4,000 lbs. Gene Crowe in Indiana did the 427 (cubic inch engine) for the ‘62 Ford.”

Selling the ’62 Ford and getting behind the wheel again, Burger won one feature at Santa Fe in 1965.  1966 saw Burger take over the driving chores of Bob Pohlman’s ’65 Ford that Ken Finley had been driving.  Sadly, Finley passed away in early June behind the wheel of the car after winning a main event at Santa Fe.  Burger finished eighth in the final Santa Fe points tally.

Burger scored a 50-lap victory in his ‘65/66-style Chevrolet No. 9 on the Santa Fe half-mile the night before the track’s annual 200-lap National Clay Track Championship event in 1967.  Burger finished seventh in the points for the season.

Burger’s racing career began winding down.  When he quit racing, he continued building and selling vintage cars. In the 1980s, Burger and his family moved to Hayward, Wis., where he owned and operated a restaurant – Eatn’ Run. After doing part-time welding work, he opened his business, Complete Welding, which he owned and operated until 2004.

In addition to his wife, Diane, Burger is survived by sons, Roger (Heidi) Burger of Hayward and Patrick (Andrea) Burger of Spencer, Iowa; stepdaughter, Katrina (Darren) McGaffey of Rochester, Minnesota; grandchildren, Molly, Katie, Emily, Craig, Sophia and Isabella Burger and Megan McGaffey; sister, Cindy Rice; and many nieces and nephews.  He was preceded in death by his parents and stepdaughter, Wendy (Steve) Van Camp.

END