Bob Sharp

Competitor, Car Owner
CLASS OF 2013

Connecticut’s Bob Sharp and Bob Sharp Racing is one of the most successful stories in American Sports Car Racing, totaling dozens of victories and 20 national championships.

While working as a salesman at a car dealership in Greenwich, CT, Sharp convinced his boss to let him race one of the Datsun Fairlady 1500 Roadsters to help promote the business. The car was a rarity in SCCA at the time, but Sharp maximized its performance. At only 24 years old, he started his own repair station and used car dealership and used one of the garage bays to house his racing operation. In 1965, he secured the sponsorship of Nissan USA-East Coast, the first factory racing sponsorship of its kind.

Between 1967 and 1975, Sharp won the Sports Club Car of America (SCCA) 6 times; once in F Production class (1967), twice in B Sedan (1971 and 1972) and three times in C Production class (1972, 1973, 1975). He also won the 1975 IMSA GTU championship in dominating fashion.

It was Sharp who first introduced actor Paul Newman to racing in 1971. The following year Newman was driving a B-Sedans for Bob Sharp Racing.

Drivers Elliott Forbes-Robinson, Jim Fitzgerald, Sam Posey, Brad Frisselle and his son Scott were successful in equipment prepared by what eventually became Newman Sharp Racing. He was inducted into the SCCA Hall of Fame in 2018.