User:Donnie Park/Bob Sharp Racing

Bob Sharp Racing (BSR) was an American racing team from Connecticut that was run by Bob Sharp, a car dealership owner and former racing driver in Wilton, Connecticut. It is best known for being factory supported by Nissan (Datsun in its earlier career) for the majority of its period in showroom stock and sportscar racing. Although Sharp had been competing for a considerable period, his involvement with Nissan began as a dealer backed drive in the mid 1960s which would become a fully factory backed team and from the mid seventies to the early nineties, he employed notable driver of the likes of Jim Fitzgerald, Brad Frisselle and Sam Posey who helped the team to take titles but the team became best known for taking on film star Paul Newman as a driver which not just brought attention to the team and series that he competed in, he helped to yield numerous championship titles throughout its history.

Aside this, BSR also invited film star Tom Cruise and NFL Hall of Famer running back Walter Payton to drive for the team. The team would also help to launch the racing career of Sharp’s son Scott.

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Roadster years
Bob Sharp began his racing career racing in Austin Sprite s and Lotus 7s before his involvement with the Japanese manufacturer began in 1964, whilst working for P Bruck & Son, a Rambler/Datsun dealer in Greenwich, Connecticut, he and his friend Allan Wylie asked owner Paul Bruck if they could have a SPL310 roadster to race in SCCA competition. Bruck complied as he thought on investing in a race car to advertise his dealership.

Initially, the two shared the same car with both names appearing on the front fenders and later in the season, following their successes; a second roadster 1500 was added to the team later in the 1964 season. Sharp helped to take his car to the first SCCA Riverside runoffs that year, following a win and a second, he finished third in the SCCA's North-East Divisional standings to qualify for the ARRC (American Road Race of Champions) held in Riverside where he failed to finish.

Sharp started a Gulf Oil Gas Station with his own car sales and repair business in Ridgefield, Connecticut at the same time when Bruck’s dealership fell into bankruptcy. Still running two cars, Sharp impressed Soichi Kawazoe, the Vice President of the Eastern Sales Division of Nissan Motor Co. U.S.A. who backed the team for the 1965 season and also began developing Datsun racing parts as a side business. -

Sharp began racing a Datsun 1500 in 1964 and the following year, was hired as the company's motorsport consultant up to 1969,

Sharp realized the potential of the 1600, when in 1967, he used it to win the F-Production Championship at the Runoffs.

Enter Z-Car
When the 240Z was launched in 1969, Sharp took immediate enthusiasm and took to establishing strong sales for the car without sacrificing his racing team effort. He marketed the car toward racing enthusiasts.

Like Kayatama, he saw the potential of it as a race car as well as toward customers

As Sharp received much of the retired press cars, it's rival, Nissan's West Coast representive Brock Racing Enterprise (BRE) also received almost as much. Sharp also claimed to be the first to get Nissan's race cars before it's rival. The two teams first clashed at the SCCA Runoffs in the C-Production with them being defeated by John Morton's 240Z in 1970 and followed this with another win the following year. Sharp took another two victories in 1973 and 1973 whilst Morton and BRE focused on their efforts in SCCA Trans Am with a 510.

Despite the rivalry, Sharp guest drove for BRE in their 510 in which he described it as a "Formula Ford with rooftop"

overall, Sharp himself won SCCA divisional titles in 1970 and 1971, C Production in 1972, 1973 and 1975

Sharp retired from racing in 1976 to focus on managing his team

BRE, Brock Racing Enterprise (BRE), whoed the as BRE was the East Coast representative that Nissan held separate sales divisions for.

Sharp sold a street version of his race car known as GT33 that came complete with modified exhaust, new sway bar bushings and heavy duty front and rear sway bars. It also came with two tone color scheme, velour seat inserts, special steering wheels front and rear spoilers.

Sharp, who would eventually become a full-fledged Datsun dealer in Wilton, Connecticut in 1969, He took hold of a 240Z, after roof was damaged by a promotional model who sat on the there

Paul Newman
First racing the 280Z in IMSA races, but he was mainly synomonus with the 280ZX Took the CP title in 1979 and Such popularity of his involvement and the car would lead to numerous merchandising including die cast and radio controlled controlled.

But the team was involved in the ill-fated spaceframe AAGT (All American Grand Touring) 280ZX racecar, which was commissioned by Nissan to compete against the likes of the dominant Porsche 935 (which belonged to the GTX category) and the newly introduced quick and nimble GTP prototypes. However questions were raised about the car’s origin, though the spaceframe was built in the US, it was based on a Japanese car with a Y44E V8 unit from a Nissan President, a car not sold outside Japan and despite being potentially fast, the car barely lasted the whole race each time it turned a wheel and became obsolete at the end of the season. This was in contrast to the Electramotive campaigned 280ZX from the GTO category which was taking wins in the lower GTO category

For much of the years, BSR continued to compete in the GTU category, Trans-Am and the other SCCA events including GT-1 and CP. The latter two with more success than the former whilst Electramotive would gradually move up to the GTP category.

Actor Paul Newman began racing in the 510 in 1972 then later progressed to a 610 that attracted significant sponsorship from Budweiser and raced a 280Z in 1979. At the same year, Sharp built a turbo 280ZX to compete in it's first race at Brainerd Raceway. After qualifying 7th, Newman managed to win the race.

Newman brought into the team in 1987, thus renamed Newman-Sharp Racing

Built from a 280Z with extended rear fenders and sloped one-piece nose-hood, boasting of more than 940 bhp, it reached 207 mph at Daytona

The team would also introduce son Scott Sharp into the racing world, winning the SCCA GT2 class in 1986 with the same 17-year old 240Z his father raced just after his 18th birthday

Jim Fitzgerald won the 1984 SCCA GT1 National Championship with a newly built 300ZX Turbo

In 1987, the team would suffer one of its setback when its star driver Fitzgerald, a 65-year old veteran with of racing experience of over 350 SCCA Nationals, also spanning 3 decades in addition to being chief instructor at the Road Atlanta driving school, was killed in a fatal accident at the final round of the Trans-Am championship in Grand Prix of St. Petersburg.

This caused Sharp to reduce his involvement in motorsport

On lap three, Fitzgerald crashed his Nissan 300ZX Turbo into a Jersey barrier in turn 1 at over 100 mph, according to fellow competitor Paul Gentilozzi. Fitzgerald was extracted from the vehicle and transported to Bayfront Medical Center, where he was declared dead on arrival. Fitzgerald's teammate and friend, Paul Newman, had planned to continue competing in his honor when the race restarted, but suffered a mechanical problem. An autopsy eventually revealed that Fitzgerald had died from a broken neck.

Further setback came in 1988, when as a result of the dominance and sudden departure of the factory backed Group 44 Audi 200 who took the title for both driver and manufacturer, the SCCA banned foreign cars from competing. As a result, BSR was unable to race Nissans, also the GTO contract was awarded to former privateer RX-7 campaigner Clayton Cunningham Racing and had to switch to Camaros as a result    In 1993, Paul Newman decided to call time on his driving career

Post racing career
Sharp has since retired from the motor trade, selling his business to Bruce Bennett in 2006.