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Photo: Tom Morris Racing Photography
Waterford, CT- On Saturday, October 4, The Modified Racing Series will be at Connecticut’s New London-Waterford Speedbowl for the Bob Horn Memorial 85, the Crown Jewel race of the MRS 2025 season.
The BHM will pay the race winning team a minimum of $8,500, plus a very special trophy in Bob’s honor. Second place will earn a $5,000 payday, and with the event paying $1,000 to start, plus lap money, the total purse is expected to exceed $45,000.
Horn was a frequent competitor at the Speedbowl, and at the Danbury Race Arena, both as a car owner and driver, beginning when he was a teenager. In the 1990’s he began fielding pavement Modifieds, and he continued that for more than 20 years.
The Norwalk, Connecticut car owner teamed up with a number of drivers, but most prominently with current Modified stars Matt Hirschman and Ron Silk, where success followed them to many different venues through the years.
“He was just a really good friend of mine,” Silk said before winning the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour race at Oswego (NY) Speedway. “I spent a lot of time with him. We’re from the same town, so I would stop by his garage all of the time and see him. Big difference in age, but we really got along well.
“Bob loved Modified racing. Didn’t have a whole lot of money, but with hard work and dedication he was able to accumulate the stuff to go racing. We always had a lot of fun racing together.
“It is hard to believe that he has been gone since February. I would stop by and see him every couple of days, so I definitely miss him a lot and I look forward to racing in his honor in October.”
Remembering Horn is something that MRS president Bill Doucette is very passionate about. In 2023, Horn was a competing car owner at the September MRS event at New Hampshire’s Star Speedway.
It was at that event in which he was awarded, in a vote by his peers as the recipient of the prestigious Chuck Montville Car Owner Award. The annual award was presented to the competing car owner who best exemplifies Chuck’s ‘get along with everyone’ attitude, and Horn fit that mold perfectly.
Hirschman fondly remembers his time working with Horn, but he also had the utmost respect and admiration for one of many car owners that the Northampton, Pennsylvania driver has found success with.
“He meant a lot to me, in part because of the amount of success we had together, but in my career I have never worked with someone that got more out of what he had for equipment than Bob,” Hirschman noted. “I think that just says a lot about what kind of smart individual he was. I probably had the most success with him of any driver, but Ron also won some races with Bob.
“Between the two of us, he had a pretty good run in Modified racing for a guy that had raced way back, and then did some SK Modified racing. I got him to transition his car from an SK to a Tour Mod. For close to a decade run in Tour Modified racing he accomplished quite a bit with what he had for equipment.”
In Horn’s memory, the MRS, The Racing Guys and also family and friends of this great man are grouping their efforts together for this one of a kind race. Money is being raised through special donations, but also through selling laps at a minimum of $85 each. Several laps have already been sold, some for well over the minimum amount.
Apparel is being sold as well, with information and a site link located on the “Bob Horn Racing” Facebook page, with all proceeds from sales going directly into the purse for the October event. To contact the MRS and add your support, just email: viperracing2@gmail.com, or send a check made out to “MRS Tour LLC” for $85 per lap to: BHR ℅ Tom Sargent, 3447 E. Grant Street, Slatington, PA. 18080.
