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By Buffy Swanson
The late, great Bobby Wilkins, who made an indelible mark on racing in his home state of Delaware in the 1980s and ’90s, will be enshrined in the Northeast Dirt Modified Hall of Fame this summer. The 34th annual induction ceremonies—free and open to the public—will take place on Thursday, August 13 at the Hall of Fame Museum, located on the grounds of Weedsport Speedway in New York.
A lifelong Milford native, Bobby Wilkins began his love affair with speed as a young boy, racing Go-Karts before making the leap to big stuff in 1975. Starting in Late Models, he drove his own car before climbing in Bill Sterling’s No. 54 Chevelle out of Virginia, coming close but never able to seal the deal.
While attending Del Tech Community College, he formed a friendship with instructor Andy Anderson, who took a liking to the kid—and quickly recognized his racing ability.
Anderson recalled seeing Wilkins wheel a twin-engine Kart in a much-publicized race through the streets of Milford. “He ran into a hay bale—wrecked on the first lap!” Andy said. “And I thought, well, that was short and sweet. But Bobby kept it running, backed the Kart out of the hay bale and took off. He was way behind! And he ended up winning that race.
“You could tell he had a lot of talent.”
Anderson had been building engines for local legend Snookie Vent—and for Delmar’s year-end championship event in 1976, they gave Wilkins a shot in their back-up ’73 Vega Modified.
“We stuck him in our second car—which was just a spare, Snookie kept it to run for points if he needed it,” Andy explained. “There were 50 cars there and Bobby qualified pretty good, made the race.”
His first time in a full-blown Modified Wilkins finished sixth, right on Vent’s heels.
“Afterwards, Snookie said to me, ‘Man, this kid’s got something on the ball! He’s a driver!’”
Eventually, Wilkins and Anderson teamed up. “We built a Sportsman car—bought a frame from Walt Breeding, a Tobias kit car, and a body off Donnie Kreitz which at that time was 100 bucks,” Andy relayed. “Ran Bridgeport because Delaware didn’t have a Sportsman division and we knew we couldn’t afford to run Modified. I had some small-block parts from drag racing.”
They won their first race at New Jersey’s Bridgeport Speedway in 1978; the following summer, Wilkins and Anderson took their small-block to the prestigious Delaware State Fairgrounds in Harrington and beat all the big boys.
Hooked and hungry, they were racing everything—URC Sprints, Mods and Bobby’s family-owned Late Model, sometimes all three in one night. A “dream week” in August 1982 saw Wilkins sweep Mod twin 20s at Georgetown a day after his son Beau was born, and take the URC Sprint feature the next night at Bridgeport. In September 1984, Wilkins claimed both the Sprint and Late Model 20-lappers at Delaware International and was leading the Modified event when a blown head gasket kept him from completing the hat trick.
“In 1985 we won the championship at Georgetown and we didn’t even run all the races,” Anderson pointed out proudly. “We skipped one or two races to run the Sprint Car and still won the Modified championship.”
It was in the Modified that Wilkins really made his reputation. Going on to drive for quality teams headed by Gerald Banks, the Blue Hens, Steve Dale, Brian Gladden, Kelly Hastings and others, Bobby raced to 155 wins in the division, with a whopping 118 coming at Delmar where he tops the all-time win list.
Without a doubt, he was at the pinnacle of his game driving Dale’s impeccable cutting-edge equipment which Bobby fabricated and maintained full-time, working closely with car builders Budd and Doug Olsen. Together from 1991 through 1995, Wilkins and Dale were good for 81 wins and seven championship titles—four at Delmar, one at Seacoast (Georgetown) and a pair at the Harrington Fairgrounds. Over a 25-year span, Wilkins is credited with 163 total victories in four divisions, seven championships at Delmar, two at Georgetown, one at Bridgeport and four Delaware State Fair titles.
Colorful car owner Steve Dale certainly brought Bobby to the next level. “I’ll never forget when Bob got the call from Steve. I remember Bob’s excitement—the luxury of driving for a high-dollar race team where no money was spared! That was the highlight of his racing career,” wife Kim Wilkins affirmed. “It was an exciting year, when Bob started to race for Steve. It was like he was a bigwig! They had a trading card designed, matching crew shirts and jackets, everyone had to wear uniforms to the races. It was a big deal! And it was fun.”
It was also serious business. “It was all guns to the ground—race, race, race,” Kim asserted, noting, “Steve was tough: he wanted to win, he didn’t want to lose. He made it very clear! Because Bob won so much Steve also paid him a salary besides his commission, which allowed us to buy our first home. All-around, it was a great situation, both personally and professionally.”
After Dale gave up the game due to failing health, Wilkins wound up his career driving for Kelly Hastings; he retired after scoring his final win in 2001 to guide his son Beau’s promising path in the sport. In 2024, Wilkins lost a 15-month battle with glioblastoma, an aggressive cancer, at the age of 68.
Beau sized up the caliber of competition in an enclave that’s on the outskirts of—well, everything.
“We’re like an island here—not really in Late Model country and not really in Modified country,” he astutely assessed. “And somehow, we’ve produced some great race car drivers here in Delaware.”
Without a doubt, he puts his dad in that company.
“I can remember sitting in the stands and people booing Bob because he just kept winning,” Kim added. “I remember having Janelle and Beau in the stands with me and I’d have to put my hands over their ears so they wouldn’t hear people say horrible things about their father!
“But we were so proud of him.”
