Community Cares Bob Consani

-By Robert Haugh

Longtime Bay Cities Racing Association Midget and Hardtop owner Bob Consani passed away in his Santa Rosa home, at age 74 after a long illness on Sunday, September 2.

Consani, known for showing up with meticulously maintained and detailed race cars died from a massive heart attack after battling health issues, including a recent fight with pneumonia.

Consani fielded several race cars throughout his racing career, including Dragsters, Hardtops, Sprint Cars, Midgets and Silver Crown cars for several great drivers including Davey Hamilton, Hank Butcher, Jimmy Sills, Rick Bussell, Chuck Gurney and Billy Vukovich III.

In the 60s, Consani opened Performance Engine, a high-performance engine shop in Santa Rosa, where he maintained main-event winning race car engines.

Consani became a licensed Indy 500 mechanic in the 80s, eventually entering elite company, fielding a car in the 1989 Indy 500 with Vukovich III driving.

Consani amassed 18 BCRA Midget car owner triumphs from the 60s through the mid 1990s.

In 1990, Consani recorded five BCRA Midget wins, two each with Sills and three-time BCRA Midget champ Bussell driving and one with Hank Butcher chauffeuring his #4 Pontiacs. In 1991 Sills scored two BCRA wins in the Consani mounts while Idaho's Davey Hamilton and Butcher each scored one victory for Consani in 1992, with Butcher adding another feature victory for Consani in 1994.

Consani's success carried over into other forms of Motorsports also. Consani won the illustrious 1990 USAC Silver Crown Championship with driver Jimmy Sills. Sills piloted Consani's car to victories in the 1990 Golden State 100 at the Cal Expo mile in Sacramento, the 1992 Tony Bettenhausen 100 in Springfield, Illinois and also won the Golden State 100 again in 1993.

Consani is survived by several family members including his wife Jona.

*** Some information courtesy of the Santa Rosa Press Democrat Newspaper and BCRA Historian Jimmy Montgomery. ***

Source: Robert Haugh