The photo above, from the collection of Dale Fairfax, is of Bob Bollheimer, uncle to Diane (Beck) Lane, and brother-in-law to Harold Beck, Sr.  Bob started his driving career in a roaring roadster, like the one shown here.  By all accounts, Bob was a good driver and usually did well.

     Since Bob was a race car driver, it only made sense that he would get behind the wheel of Harold Sr.’s midget when Harold decided to go racing.  But Mrs. Beck felt otherwise.  She didn’t want her son, Harold Jr. (“Sonny”) to drive her husband’s car (Sonny had to build and drive his own stock car) and she didn’t want her youngest brother Bob driving it either.  Period.  Case closed.  Not subject to negotiation.

     And so it was that Harold routinely put Russ Royce of Dayton or Jack Seether of Germantown in his midget.  Until one day, in 1951 it was, for reasons that Diane can no longer remember, neither Russ nor Jack were available for a big race at Powell Speedway near Columbus.  And Bob Bollheimer got the call to drive.

     We will never know what was said between Harold and his wife in the time leading up to Bob’s appearance in the midget, but as things turned out we’re betting that Mrs. Beck issued a long string of warnings and regrets, and Harold should have listened.

     The Powell Speedway event featured 33 starters arranged in eleven rows of three, just like at Indy.  Bob started second, in the middle of the first row.  On the first lap, or perhaps the second, Bollheimer hooked a rut or was bumped by another car, and the Beck entry began a dizzying series of flips.

     It was in the middle of one of the flips that the seat belt holding young Bob in the car broke.  That’s right; it broke.  And Bob fell out onto the track.  In front of the entire field.

     And miracle of miracles, 31 racing midgets missed Lucky Bob Bollheimer.  Missed him completely.  And he was able to get to his feet and walk off the track.

     Now if this story was the stuff of fiction, I would tell you that Harold fixed the midget and Bob got back behind the wheel and went out and beat the stuffing out of the rest of the field and took home the big trophy.  But it’s not fiction.  So here’s what happened.

     Bob Bollheimer went on to drive other midgets for other owners, until one day he got married and started a family.  He stopped driving race cars and took a job with Goodyear driving a truck hauling tires.

     And Harold Beck Sr. went on to race midgets and sprints but never again, and I mean never again, did Harold put a family member behind the wheel of any of his race cars.  Period.