The Drag Racing World Mourns After Losing Ronnie Hobbs

As most of you reading this know, on Friday night in Great Bend, KS at the SRCA drag strip, we lost Pro Mod driver Ronnie Hobbs in an on track accident.

I sit here, days later, still trying to process what happened and what we witnessed on Friday night at the track. For some reason, in all the years that I have spent at the drag strip, whether it be as a spectator, driver, or journalist, I had put out of my mind the idea that I would ever have to deal with this situation.

Ronnie was truly an amazing man. He was a Texan, a businessman, a husband, a father, a furry dad, and a friend. All those titles were something that he carried proudly, along with being a Pro Mod driver. Ronnie’s smile was one of those contagious smiles, and you couldn’t help but to smile back. If you were at the track and you saw Harley, their dog, wandering around, you knew that Ronnie and Mara weren’t far behind.

Drag racing to the Hobbs family was nothing new, and they treated me like a family every time that I saw them. Ronnie, Mara, Landon, and Harley at the track. They always welcomed me into their pits. Ronnie and I would have a good laugh about something random, or make inappropriate jokes & just laugh hysterically. Never in my worst nightmares did I believe that I would be writing this about him.

There are plenty of people that obsess about wanting to know what happened. I’m not going to sit here and give you all of the details regarding the accident itself. What I will say is that all the staff involved, along with the Mid-West Drag Racing family were supportive and did whatever needed to be done after the accident occurred. Track staff at SRCA had never experienced something like this before and did a great job at handling the situation. The MWDRS staff was on scene immediately, along with Todd Martin and a couple of other folks to make sure that the scene was secured and handled in a professional manner.

As usual, you will always have some folks that want to be on the scene that have no business doing so. As we handled the return road traffic, there were a few men that we sent to do crowd control at the scene and those men handled that in such a professional manner as well. So I thank you Jim, Jacob, & Jonathan. The three of you went well above and beyond.

Per NHRA, both cars were taken to an onsite building to be inspected and follow the protocol that NHRA has in place for a incident like this. Once their investigation is complete and they have everything that they need the cars will be released back to their respective teams.

MWDRS staff members were able to get the Hobbs family rig back to their home in Odessa, TX on Saturday, so that the family didn’t have to deal with that. Ellen, Keith, Jimmy, and Randy, will be putting a plan in place to determine how the points and competition will be handled from the event also. Those decisions will be made as soon as they are finalized.

On a personal level, I really want to thank all of the drag racing community for the calls and messages that not only I have received, but all the outpouring of support for the entire MWDRS family and most importantly the Hobbs family during this extremely difficult time. As I play the entire incident back through my mind, I keep thinking to myself all of the “What-ifs” and “could have been”.

In closing I just ask that you all keep the Hobbs family along with the entire MWDRS family and the SRCA staff in your thoughts and prayers as we work through this tremendously difficult time in drag racing. We need to be there to support each other and the family.

Rest In Peace Ronnie Hobbs. You are loved and will be missed!!