9/9/2025
Bloomington Speedway
Hobbs Keeps Rolling
Lee Hobbs: Still Getting it Done
It has been a common sight in 2025; Lee Hobbs exits his racecar with his chest heaving from the effort and searches for a child to gift his winner’s trophy. With over 40 years behind the wheel Lee has collected plenty of hardware so sharing the wealth with a young fan is an easy choice to make. While the precise number is elusive, he guesses that he has won in the vicinity of 700 features. Let that sink in.
No one in his inner circle was surprised when Hobbs decided to devote his life to the sport, after all he was nearly raised at the racetrack. Yet, when you get a glimpse behind the curtain you learn that not all were keen on his choice of vocation.
Hobbs was born in 1964 and spent his early years just south of Bloomington Speedway in Smithville. Lee’s interest in the sport was fueled by three racing uncles, and among that trio Don Hobbs, a member of the National Dirt Late Model Hall of Fame, was unquestionably the most famous. His father Winchell “Harry” Hobbs worked for years at the physical plant at Indiana University and was a talented welder. With that skill on his resume, he routinely worked on Don’s cars, and his wide-eyed son took it all in. “It was Don, my dad and my cousin Dennis who would head to the racetrack, “Lee says, “and there was a bunch of us kids who went along. We would think we were a big deal because they would give us a wire brush and things to clean.”
Doing routine maintenance was a good introduction to racing, but Lee would soon hunger for a new challenge. One lifelong pattern was established early on. When it came to his own career he was going to be involved in every phase of the process. “I learned a lesson years ago,” he says, “When I was eight years old I worked for a guy who lived behind us named Hubert Bex – but he was called Fat Bex. Ezra Bastin raced for him years ago. I always had go-karts and mini-bikes and things like that. One night I didn’t go to the races because I got a new go-kart. My dad left and I broke the frame. I asked Fat if he could weld it for me and he told me he thought I could do it. Well, I went down there and did it. We had an old arc welder, and I didn’t even use a helmet, but that would change. So, I taught myself to weld, and I think by the time I was 11 or 12 years old I was pretty good at it.”
To say he got a hang of the mechanical side of things would be an understatement. He built his first racecars when he was fourteen or fifteen years old and eventually sold them to his brothers-in-law. Everyone was impressed with what Hobbs had accomplished, that is, with perhaps one notable exception. “Here I grew up in racing, but my dad told me I was stupid,” Lee says with a laugh. “He said it was a waste of money and that I needed a racecar like I needed a hole in the head.”
He stayed on the sidelines at first but that was soon to change. Unperturbed by his father’s concerns, at the end of the 1983 season Lee pulled on a helmet for the first time at Bloomington. He was encouraged enough by his performance to reload for 1984. The stock car scene was not a hospitable place for novices. With the slightest prompting Hobbs can reel off the names of the top drivers from that time. “I didn’t get to race much with Mike Gibbs and Joe Holtsclaw, but they were tough,” he says, “but then I raced against Joe Lucas and my buddy Denny Campbell. Every track had guys that were hard to beat. If you went to Paragon big Dave Peeden was there, and if you went to Brownstown you had guys like Joe Johnson and Mike Fields.”
Every young driver takes their lumps, so survival is also, among many factors, a mental game. Hobbs can pinpoint when his racing fortunes began to change. “I had won some heat races,” he says, “but after I won a trophy dash at Paragon I started winning some races.” As simple as it sounds he now had the confidence that he could compete with the best. Proof came on July 4, 1986. On that night Lee scored his first win at Bloomington taking the top spot from Larry “Poodle” Harris on the 13th circuit in a 15 lap race. He was on his way. In 1986 he was the Paragon Speedway champion, and he would tack on additional titles at the ¼ mile paperclip in 1989 and 1992. At Bloomington he would top the stock car points in 1999 & 2000, and in 2002 he would tie Matt Boknecht in the battle for modified supremacy.
Taking an important step in his life and career in 1991 and 1992 he took a position with noted constructor C. J. Rayburn. There was an established connection given that Don Hobbs was the first driver of a Rayburn house car. It was a great experience, but the long commute eventually proved to be taxing. When he left it was clear that the door was always open, but had other plans. By now he had made a critical decision about his racing life – one that was, again, not universally applauded. “I told my dad I was going to do this for a career,” Lee recalls with a chuckle, “and once again he told me I was stupid.”
Nonetheless, in 1992, in conjunction with longtime friend Kim Blevins Checkered Racing was born. It was a good way to get his business feet underneath him. After two years, in his words, “I started my own deal down in Mitchell and have made a pretty good living ever since then.”
Perhaps overlooked, to keep his doors open put real pressure on Lee Hobbs the driver. When he was working with C. J. Rayburn he developed a keen understanding of the pulse of this business. “When I worked at C. J.’s you might get caught up on Thursday, so you started building up stock for out back. Then you turn around and you’re 40 cars behind because somebody won, and now everyone wanted that racecar. It is pretty simple. If I don’t race them and make them look good I don’t sell cars. The last four or five years I have done pretty well, and guys that are in my cars are doing well too.” Even in dirt track racing the formula is the same – if the cars you built win on the weekend your phone starts ringing on Monday morning.
For a host of reasons in recent years he has ventured farther from home enjoying great success at northern Indiana’s Shadyhill Speedway. “I won the championship there the last four years,” he notes, “last year we won 12 out of 14 races. I broke one night and didn’t go to the other. Last season we had 22 wins out of 30 races. I was running a full frame car like a bomber, and I could run it up there or in Kentucky in the KDRA series. I was racing at Paragon and winning and everyone was complaining so I said okay I’ll come home and build a regular Indiana Super Stock.”
Which brings us to 2025. Years ago, Lee finished in the top 10 in UMP National modified points. To do so he estimates he teed it up over 100 times. Championships, as noted have come his way, but rarely has that been the goal. “I never really went to win the track championship,” he says, “I go to race. If it is meant to be it is meant to be. I have done that through my whole racing career and in the end you win some and you lose some.”
This season has been different. “Bruce Sturgeon of the Living Room Center is one of my big sponsors and he wanted to run for UMP points,” he reveals, “the thing with that is you can’t take off a weekend. I told him that I wouldn’t race at Shady Hill as much and instead, I would run more around home. I told him I would do it for one year. Most years I do join UMP, but I never really tried to go after points, but this year we laid it out. I have been pretty faithful to our plan.”
As the calendar hit September Hobbs was clearly in position to reach his goal. Ironically, his biggest competition came from brothers Zach and Isaiah Sasser from Bedford. The relationship with the Sasser family is deep. “Me and Adam have been friends for years,” he says, “The boys are young, and they make mistakes just like I do. We usually race pretty good together.” He feels the overall spirit of this competition is captured in a story. “The Sasser’s were at Circle City one Friday night and they blew a radiator hose on the 79 car,” he recalls, “Adam came down and asked if I had one. I did, and he asked if he could buy it off of me. I said you don’t have to buy it, just take it. He said no. That Saturday he drove all the way down to my shop and brought me a new hose and paid for the one he used. I have been proud of doing things like that. If I have stuff and people need it they can have it. If you don’t operate that way karma comes back on you.”
What he considers his biggest wins have little to do with the size of the purse. The victories he cherishes the most are tied to relationships he has forged on this journey. He points to his victory during the 2025 Josh Burton Memorial at Bloomington as important because of his ties to the family. “The first street stock Josh ever raced was a Hobbs car,” he says, “It was an old Joe Lucas car and then they bought a new one. So that trophy meant more to me. I grew up with his mom, and I went to school with the Burtons.” He also calls winning the street stock portion of the Kenny Simpson Memorial at Brownstown as important, and he also was thrilled to win a race in the honor of Ed “Slick” Griffin at Lincoln Park. “Ed and those guys were friends of my Uncle Don, and they went to Eldora together in the late 1970s,” he says, “I would stay with Ed when we raced at Putnamville, and he would take me home on Sunday.”
He will continue to race as long as it is enjoyable, but sometimes that is a hard standard to achieve. “I wanted to slow down a few years ago,” he says, “I wasn’t having fun, even though I was winning. But when you win you get criticized. People say you’re cheating, or you are doing this or that. That goes a long way to wearing you out on wanting to race.”
Regardless of the naysayers there are a host of reasons why Hobbs is a frequent visitor to victory lane. His mechanical understanding is a clear asset, but there is also the matter of decades of experience. He feels that sometimes it is the simple things that make the difference. Even as a youngster when he took his place in the stands he kept his eyes glued on the prime time players. “I learned a lot about racing by watching,” he notes, “and I always watched the fast guys. I built a car for Jack Shores and one night Denny Campbell and I are at Paragon helping him. He was sitting in the trailer while Denny and I were watching the racetrack and watching Bob Kinser. Guys like Bob would show you where to run. So, Denny and I went back and asked Jack what he was doing in the trailer. We told him to get his ass up there and watch the races. Watch where the fast guys are letting off, where they are getting on the gas, and where they are entering the corner. It made him so much better after he watched five or six races and he ended up winning the track championship. Years ago, when I was running at Kokomo I only lost five or six races over three years. One night one of the track owners asked me if I knew what the sprint car drivers were doing when we raced. I was surprised when he told me they were watching where we were running. It doesn't matter if it is sprint cars, or modifieds you need to watch. The guys who just sit back there and don’t pay attention are the guys who don’t do any good.”
Lee Hobbs has been paying attention since the day he learned to walk. What he has accomplished is a function of hard work. Father time is undefeated, and some tasks now take a bit longer to accomplish, but his record speaks for itself. He hasn’t done this alone. His wife Shelly has been at his side for 45 years, all but five of those as his wife. He admits that there was a time when street cars and drag racing nearly cost him his license. He had come to a crossroads and decided it was time to go dirt racing. Shelly didn’t bat an eye, in fact, Hobbs says “she has been into it as much as I was. Through it all it has been just me and her.”
Lee Hobbs is the 2025 Bloomington Speedway champion. It comes 25 years after his last stock car title at the red clay oval. Time will tell if the UMP Sportsman championship is meant to be. If it happens, Hobbs says, “it would be lovely.” If it doesn’t his position as an Indiana racing legend was secured long ago.
Photos Tommy Kelly Chris Pederson Greg Kendall Collection Easton Hunter
Article Credit: Patrick Sullivan
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