The staff of “National Speed Sport News” reports on the loss of Bob Newton, founder of Hoosier Racing Tires:

The racing community lost a true legend Wednesday when Bob Newton, the founder of Hoosier Racing Tire, died at the age of 84.

Newton started his career in the motorsports business as a race car driver in the 1950’s, racing successfully at small asphalt tracks in Northern Indiana. Not satisfied with racing on street tires, which weren’t built with race cars in mind, Newton came up with the idea to design tires specifically for racing.

In 1957, with the support of his wife, Joyce, Newton began producing his own racing tires by re-treading street tires with softer tire compounds. The business was based inside an abandoned horse barn in South Bend, Ind., and quickly began selling tires to local racers.

The name of the company, Hoosier, was chosen to reflect Newton’s racing roots on Midwestern short tracks while the company color purple came from Newton’s old No. 4 race car.

In 1962, Newton made an arrangement with Mohawk Rubber Company in Akron, Ohio, which allowed him to design, engineer, compound and oversee the production of racing tires. That arrangement remained unchanged until 1978 when Mohawk closed its doors.

Not one to give up, Newton opted to build his own tire factory solely for the production of racing tires. That company was named R & J Mfg. Corp. (for Robert and Joyce). By 1985 the company had eliminated all outside production sources and was making all of their tires completely in-house.

Now, all these years later, Hoosier Racing Tire is the largest racing tire manufacturer in the world. Newton’s vision to create a company specifically to build racing tires was a radical one, but the company has become synonymous with auto racing.

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The Indianapolis Star journalist Phillip B. Wilson reports on the funeral of Scott Roembke:

Scott Roembke would have been amused by some of the stories shared Wednesday about the Rahal Letterman Lanigan COO. In a mixture of laughter and tears, the racing community came together at Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church on the Eastside to remember a devoted family man, a diehard Indianapolis 500 fan and participant, as well as a straight shooter with one of the more engaging personalities at the track. Roembke, 51, died Sept. 9 after a long illness.

David Letterman had mourners laughing for much of his testimonial, which included the talk show host’s admiration for a closely-connected Roembke family of about 60. “I want to be a Roembke,” Letterman said.

Team owner Bobby Rahal spoke of his right-hand man’s candor, a frugal nature in purchasing used Corvettes as opposed to new and an unbridled passion for racing. Roembke was born in Bloomington, Ind., but grew up in Indianapolis, went to Howe High School and was almost instantly attracted to Indianapolis Motor Speedway. He would go on to fulfill his dream of being a part of the Indy 500.

Better than that, he was on two Indy 500-winning teams, Emerson Fittipaldi for Patrick Racing in 1989 and Buddy Rice for Rahal Letterman Racing in 2004. Team Penske’s Tim Cindric said his best seven years in racing were spent alongside Roembke. He shared a story from 1995, when Roger Penske’s cars didn’t make the Indy 500, and the two had an Indianapolis Motor Speedway announcement for Dr. Jack Kevorkian to report to the Penske garage. That was obviously long before Cindric was hired as Penske’s president.

Roembke’s brother, Greg, mentioned how Scott probably never did forgive Rahal for passing Kevin Cogan with two laps to go to win the 1986 Indy 500 when Scott was a member of Patrick Racing. The congregation, including Rahal, couldn’t help but laugh.