Nearly everyone who spent time around Bob comes away with a story, forever etched in their minds. My story involves one of those events referred to above by 66 Hertz, "he put EVERY ONE of his race cars on its roof at Lime Rock..." I'm not sure he actually raced this particular car but it definitely checks the "on it's roof" box.
It was back in the early 90s, a year or so after I purchased my Shelby. I was itching to try my hand at track action so Bob invited me to an open track day at Lime Rock and offered to be my instructor. To make sure I would get the most enjoyment from my first time on a race track, he insisted my first outing that day should be riding with him in his car (Mustang SVO) to get a feel for the track and see the correct line. Near the end of the initial warm up lap, as we passed under the bridge approaching the final corner before the front straight and green flag, Bob had already slowed enough to allow the cars in front to pull away. As we came down the slight downhill and entered the righthander, he put the pedal to the floor. He would later admit he was off line. (It should be noted here that the phrase "never lift" was not in Bob's vocabulary. It's defined as keeping one's foot firmly planted on the accelerator pedal with complete disregard to the possible outcome. It can often end with catastrophic results, but with proper execution has been known to create legends.) Clearly, we did NOT create legends that day.
We exited the corner with both left side wheels off the pavement. With Bob's philosophy of "never lift" at play, he attempted to get all 4 wheels back on the pavement. What happened next is a combination of my sensations (my eyes were closed) and what spectators saw. The car swerved violently to the right, did a couple 360s, went off the pavement to the infield side sliding and spinning on the grass and then hit the tire retaining wall trunk first....estimated at 50-ish MPH. The impact with the tire wall propelled the car into the air. While in the air, it turned over and crashed to the ground squarely on it's roof, crushing the roof nearly to the doors. Thankfully, neither Bob nor I received serious injuries. Both seats broke on impact with the tire wall so we were in a horizontal position as the car came down on the roof. We were both conscious and heard the thunder of feet on the ground as many folks were running to lend assistance. Later in the day we joked about hearing comments, as folks reached the car, like "look and see if they're ok".."no, you look".."no, I don't want to,you look"..No, you". Moments later the EMTs and track staff were there prying the doors open and gently pulling us free. We were checked out at the Infield Care Center and aside from a few scratches and assorted bruises, we were fine. The car..not so much. Need less to say, that was the end of our track activities for that day. And as testimony to Bob's abilities, he totally restored that car.