Bobby Ballentine Passes

[ancrdave]

Robert A. Ballantine, Sr., 77, of Frederick, MD died Sunday, July 6, 2014 at St. Josephs Ministries in Emmitsburg. Born August 23, 1936 at the family farm in Princess Anne, he was the son of the late William A. and Margaret V. Pennell Ballantine. He was the husband of Inez V. Smith Ballantine, whom he met at a dance in Dorsey. They were married January 25, 1954. He was a brick and block mason, poured concrete foundation contractor and owner of Robert A. Ballantine, Inc. for 54 years. Bob also loved his farms in Cross Junction, VA. He was an avid hunter and traveled all over the continent to hunt. Bob started racing stock cars at the young age of 14 years old. He continued racing on dirt and asphalt at a professional level for over 50 years.

Bobby's early career was in Modifieds (the picture here was taken at Langhorne in the 1960s) Later he started racing NASCAR LMS and was track champion at Beltsville, MD Speedway in 1968 racing against the likes of Sonny Hutchins and Reds Cagle...

In 1981, he had one of the worst wrecks I ever saw at Daytona in the Goody's 300 LMS race that was run on Monday after being rained out on Saturday (see photos)... He got busted up pretty bad but returned to racing and was the SLM champion at Potomac Speedway in both 1983 and 1985...