[Jerry Shaw]

Yesterday was such a sad day. Not only was Bobby a hell of a racer, he was also a gifted storyteller. And most of his stories weren't even about himself. So many of them were about racers and characters in the early days of the World of Outlaws, the Texas racing scene and he and his dad's travels, in the life of a true "outlaw" sprint car driver. So many of those stories introduced you to those friends and taught you just what kind of a person they were. Jim, James and Shirley McElreath were in quite a few of them, because he was close to them. Jan Opperman, also, because he was a friend and obviously someone Bobby looked up to.

He talked often about the incredible amount of charisma Jan had and in one story, he described how previously Jim didn't like Jan "because he was a hippie", but when he took Jan over to Jim's shop and introduced them, Jan "won him over with his charisma" and Jim liked him from that point on. And James and Jan were very close.

There were hundreds of stories like this, from Bobby and if you followed him in the Facebook groups he frequented, his stories allowed you to get to know not only these racing people, but so many others. Because of Bobby, I almost feel like I knew the McElreaths and Jan. I will always be thankful to Bobby Marshall for sharing what he did. R.I.P. racer.

Jerry