Lee Hobbs has raced for 42 years. He has racked up more than 700 feature wins and 27 track championships. Yet, he managed to add a new accomplishment to his long résumé: DIRTcar UMP sportsman national champion.
“I had never run for points — ever,” Hobbs, of Mitchell, Indiana, said. “I just raced and wound up winning track championships and a couple of state championships. My motto was, ‘I’m here to race, not points race.’ I always lived by that.”
At the beginning of the season, however, his sponsor, Bruce Sturgeon, of Living Room Center, asked Hobbs to compete for the national championship. Suffice to say, request accepted.
Hobbs gave up regularly racing his favorite track, Shadyhill Speedway, in favor of hitting the road. He found his journeys to Illinois challenging.
“The Indiana UMP sportsman are different than the Illinois cars — and we race for the same points,” Hobbs said. “I only went to Illinois to race twice. We were outclassed by the Illinois cars. We run stock suspension, no quick-change rear ends. They have quick changes, three links and bigger tires.”
Despite the disadvantages, territorialism also became a problem.
“We were at Macon Speedway when we had to load up and go home,” Hobbs said. “The drivers took a vote and did not want any Indiana cars racing with them, even though we were outclassed by them. I guess a couple of them were trying to protect their points.”
Hobbs stuck to competing in Indiana, where he earned 14 wins, 25 top-fives and 30 top-10s in 32 starts. After nearly every win, Hobbs gave away the trophy to a young fan.
“I have a 40-foot-long basement, and it was filled with trophies,” Hobbs said. “So I started giving them away a few years back. I save the special ones.”
Winning the national title may have changed Hobbs’ perspective on competing for points.
“I felt that racing for points would hold me down,” Hobbs said. “Now, I say I am glad I did it. I wish I had done it in my modified years ago.”
Sturgeon felt the achievement deserved a celebration.
“Bruce was tickled to death that we won it,” Hobbs said. “He had a surprise party for me at Bandana’s Bar and Grill. He made big banners to hang on his furniture store. I was happy that I got a national championship, but happier that I got it for him.”
At age 62, one might think Lee Hobbs would slow down. This past season might have sparked his competitive spirit.
“I told Bruce, ‘Who knows,’ about going for another national championship next year,” Hobbs said. “I still may be able to win another.”
Mike Adaskaveg has written hundreds of stories since the website’s inception. This year marks his 54th year of covering auto racing. Adaskaveg got his start working for track photographer Lloyd Burnham at Connecticut’s Stafford Motor Speedway in 1970. Since then, he’s been a columnist, writer, and photographer, in racing and in mainstream media, for several outlets, including the Journal Inquirer, Boston Herald, Stock Car Racing, and Speedway Illustrated. Among Adaskaveg’s many awards are the 1992 Eastern Motorsport Press Association (EMPA) Ace Lane Photographer of the Year and the 2019 National Motorsports Press Association (NMPA) George Cunningham Writer of the Year.
