Ode To Bob Wilber, Former Racing PR Rep Who’s Wrapping Up Book 2

By Susan Wade

So many things these days are just plain weird. But what’s especially weird for many in the drag-racing community is that it has been five years since Bob Wilber decided to stay home in Minnesota and hibernate with his computer and put words to not only the crazy traveling trailerhood that is the NHRA but his life: Bats, Balls, & Burnouts.

He subtitled his book “A Life of Sports, Marketing, and Mayhem.” The mayhem part of Wilber’s life is the one so many of us identify with and cherish. And who better to slog through it all with than this intelligent, fun-loving character who – curiously – was educated at a school named Mary Queen of Peace?

Remember those old small books that showed what was involved with animation – and you’d flip through them super-fast and it would look like a movie? That’s what reading Bob Wilber’s writing is like – each page is so rich with adventure that pretty soon the page-turning becomes furious with suspense . . . but his many followers are still waiting for the movie!

Alas, no movie is in the works, but a second book – this one a work of fiction that has captured Wilber’s fancy. He has a deal with a publisher, and he said he hopes the finished product will be available for purchase in early- to mid-2021.

In the meantime, his debut book, Bats, Balls, & Burnouts (2017, Outskirts Press) is available through Amazon and Barned and Noble. And get your continuous fix of Wilber’s prose online at https://www.perfectgamefound.org/category/bob-wilber-blog/.

Writer extraordinaire Greg Halling edited Bats, Balls, & Burnouts down to only 543 pages, and he said, “During the course of ‘Bats, Balls and Burnouts,’ Bob Wilber became a writer.

“He’d always been a writer, of course,” he said. “As a drag racing publicist, he stood out for his creativity and wit. And, of course, he wrote the most popular blog in NHRA history.

“He knew how to use language to capture your attention.

“But when he left motorsports and set out to write his autobiography, he still tended to write as if he were advancing Del Worsham at the Gatornationals – nearly every paragraph began with a set-up and ended with a kicker,” Halling said.

“Bats, Balls and Burnouts” became a true book when he learned to slow down and relate the arc of his life. When you pick it up, you’re not just reading about a remarkable life. You’re accompanying a talented writer as he masters a new form of storytelling,” he said.

“To me, that’s what makes it so memorable.

In agreeing to share his perspective, Halling playfully dubbed his remarks “Ode to Bob Wilber.”

So that’s what this shall be.

But here’s the twist: It will be in Wilber’s words. He isn’t egotistical of that Thoughts Racing is lazy. It’s just that any attempt to describe it better than he can would force all of us writers to go out and break all of our pencils on the spot.

Here are Wilber’s recollections about writing Bats, Balls, & Burnouts:

“You know, a lot of people had been telling me, for a long time, that I needed to write a book. Apparently I’m a pretty good story teller, but I wasn’t ready to walk away from NHRA drag racing or the teams I worked for until the end of 2015. I needed to be fully ready and fully committed. Doing something this big is a huge challenge and a scary thing, so I knew I had to be ready and able to put 100 percent of my focus into it. And what the heck, some of the best drag racing stories happened in those last few years, so it was probably a good thing I waited. The big moment was at the Seattle race in 2015, at the end of the Western Swing that summer. I knew I was burned out from 20 years of travel. I still loved being at the races, and I fed off the competition side of it, but I was basically completely over getting there and getting home. Too many planes, too many airports, too many rental cars, too many hotel rooms. I’d also written too many press releases and post-event reports to even count. I had lost the edge I had for nearly 20 years and there were days I dreaded heading to the airport for one more weekend. In Seattle, I had a conversation with Kelly Wade, a good friend and PR colleague in the NHRA world, and basically told her I thought I was done. I kind of looked at her like I was wondering if I was nuts and figured she’d let me know if she thought I was. She immediately made it clear that writing my life’s story was my destiny. I had to do it. It needed to be done. That made up my mind. That trusted opinion from someone I shared the press room with was just what I needed to hear.

“I knew I had the material to write about. Growing up in a baseball family, with a dad who played Major League ball and who spent the rest of his life coaching, managing, or scouting, was all there to cover in great detail. My mother was amazing, as a radio personality, then a front-office executive for the St. Louis Cardinals, and finally as the owner of a successful PR agency. I had a lot of good DNA to work with! I played college ball on scholarship and was lucky enough to spend parts of six years in pro ball myself, as a player, coach, and scout. Then a wild trip through global sports marketing. And I was a senior executive for three different professional indoor soccer franchises. It was all quite a ride. Finally, I was almost 40 when I was hired to be the GM at Heartland Park Topeka, thanks to the fact Bill Kentling was the new president there. He had been the commissioner of the Major Indoor Soccer League, so we knew each other and he knew what I could do. The first drag race I ever saw was as GM of a national event track on the NHRA tour. I had never once even pondered the thought I might spend the rest of my working days, 20-plus years in all, working for NHRA nitro Funny Car teams. Never had a clue. It just happened.

“I spent 12 incredible years as the PR rep and manager for Del Worsham and the Checker Schucks Kragen Funny Car team, from 1997 through 2008, and in 2015 I was just wrapping up my seventh season with Tim Wilkerson and the Levi, Ray & Shoup team. When I told them what I was planning to do, Tim and his wife Krista could not have been any more supportive. There were a few tears in the transporter that afternoon, in Indy. Everyone was supportive. All my PR colleagues, other drivers, the NHRA staff. It was really motivating for me to feel and hear all that.

“Landing a real publishing gig these days is ridiculously hard, and for a first-time nobody like me, it was basically impossible. So, I knew I’d need to self-publish it, but even that path is all over the map regarding the various ways to do it. I picked a large reputable publishing house, Outskirts Press, because they offer everything you could need and support the author. They don’t charge huge money to do it because they partner with the author to make it successful and then split the proceeds. That sounded like the way to go, and it was. There are a lot of self-publishing firms that will simply print what you send them, typos and clunky grammar included for no extra cost, and then they’re done. Outskirts Press was definitely more of a partner in the process.

“I sat down on January 5, 2016, and just started writing. I looked at it as my new job, for one very big reason. My wife, Barbara, was incredibly supportive, allowing me to walk away from my racing career in order to write something we both had no idea about, in terms of the eventual outcome. It wasn’t fair to her for me to stop earning a paycheck and then also spend many thousands of dollars to bring it to life, so we launched a Kickstarter campaign to help fund it. The average donation on Kickstarter is about $25. The concept is to raise a little bit of money from a whole lot of people. I told Barbara I thought the NHRA family would be different. Boy, were they! We raised about $23,000 from 100 backers. I felt a very real obligation to deliver the best book I could write for all those fans, drivers, owners, sponsors, crew guys, and PR people who stepped up to help me make it happen.

“I didn’t really have an outline when I started. All I had was an idea about what each chapter would be about. I was writing it chronologically, totally linear, from childhood to the present, so I mapped out that course in terms of chapters and just started writing. Four or five hours a day was about my limit, in terms of putting actual words on the screen, so the rest of my workday would be research and background. You have to get that right or the whole story is worthless. I couldn’t write that I hit .390 with 20 home runs my senior year in college, because I didn’t. I had to have all that background right. Especially the racing parts. NHRA fans are stat geeks just like me. They would know if I had any E.T.s or round-wins wrong. It all had to be precisely correct.

“On January 5, 2017, I put the last period on the last sentence. I didn’t even realize it was exactly one year to the day from when I started. That was pretty bizarre. At first, I just saved the work I’d done and got up from my desk like I’d done each day for the prior 12 months. And then it hit me. I was done. I’d written a damn book. There were some tears shed that day. And a lot of goosebumps. I remember I had to sit back down just to feel grounded and get it together again. It was kind of overwhelming, really.

“I had handpicked an editor, and that was crucial. Greg Halling covered NHRA drag racing for a number of newspapers over the years, and that’s how we got to know and respect each other. He’s also a big baseball fan, so that helped. His guidance was priceless. He didn’t so much directly teach me or instruct me. He just made some subtle changes and let me know why he had done that. He explained in detail why he thought the changes made it better. Before long, I was writing in that style, and the changes or edits became fewer and fewer. I learned so much from him. He was the true definition of a mentor. He single-handedly made me a much better writer, and I was a pretty good one when we started.

“Greg and I had a huge mountain to climb with the initial manuscript. He told me right up front to just write everything I could remember. We can always trim, but it’s hard to stretch, so write it all. So, that’s what I did. I follow orders well. When we did the word count on the initial manuscript, we realized it was going to be at least a 900-page book. That’s ridiculous.

“For two solid months we went through it, page by page and paragraph by paragraph, and some really good stories ended up on the cutting room floor. Some entire pages didn’t make the cut. And then we got with Outskirts and changed the format of the book. Instead of the standard 6×9 size, we went with 7×10 inches. We used the narrowest margins they could print. We even went so far as to take out the spaces between paragraphs. In the end, we got it down to about 545 pages. It’s still a big book, but we really didn’t feel we could slash anything else out of it. It came out on May 20, 2017. I’ll never forget that day. My heart was absolutely racing.

“I had utilized two racing colleagues to make it look big league, in terms of the front and back covers. Phenomenal photographer Mark Rebilas took the cover photos, and uber-talented graphic artist Todd Myers did all the graphics. They both nailed it. I couldn’t wait to hold it in my hands, but the funny thing was I got emails from purchasers who had bought it on the first day and were already reading it, well before I got my first shipment of author’s copies. It sure seemed like I was the last person who got to see it and hold it.

“I honestly had no concept of how it would sell or if it would sell at all. Zero concept. But, I kept my expectations very low. After all, who would want to read about my life? I wasn’t a famous race car driver. I was a PR guy who got a little bit known for my blog at NHRA.com. That first day it was for sale on Amazon was like a blur. I was blown away. On that first day, the book went into the Top 50 on Amazon in the Sports Books category. It sold solidly for a full year. When I got my first royalty check, for the enormous sum of $1,410.08, I copied it and framed the copy. That was about $1,400 more than I ever thought I’d be paid for writing a book.

“It was a phenomenal experience, and it continues to be just that. It still sells, a few here and a few there, and the little royalty checks continue to come in. I was beyond honored when Dean Skuza, one of the most popular and talented guys to ever race in the Funny Car class, bought it just a few months ago and then posted a lengthy review on his Facebook page. We sold some new books that week, more than three years after it was put on the market. That’s amazing to me.

“With such a widely varied life, I knew there would be some challenges in terms of flow and interest. Since it was linear, could I keep the drag racing fans interested and engaged until we finally got to my first job in the sport? Conversely, did I have a smidgen of hope that I could keep the baseball or soccer fans interested once I got to the chapters where I was writing about racing? I’m beyond pleased with the results. The unsolicited reviews on Amazon tell me all I need to know about what people thought about it. I’m really proud of it and very proud of what I have done.”

That certainly isn’t the end of Wilber’s story. He’s just as enthusiastic about his second book.

“Right now,” Wilber said, “the working title is How Far? and I’m pretty sure that’s what we’ll go with. It’s an apt title, considering what the main characters go through.

“After a year and a half promoting and publicizing Bats, Balls, & Burnouts I knew it was time to figure out what the next writing project would be. At first, I wanted to write my father’s biography, with all the details of his life and career in baseball. A lot of guys he managed or coached are still around, and I needed help to get in touch with them. The Minnesota Twins were amazing and hooked me up quickly with everyone from Tony Oliva to Rod Carew and Jim Kaat, then all the way down to guys who played in the minor leagues on his teams. Unfortunately, I really needed the Texas Rangers to step up in the same way, since Dad managed their Triple-A team for five years and won three championships along the way. Plus, he managed the Rangers themselves for one game, after they fired Whitey Herzog but hadn’t yet hired Billy Martin to replace him. He’s still one of only a handful of Major League managers to have an undefeated record, at 1-0. The title of the book was going to be “1-0,” actually, but the Rangers basically couldn’t be bothered to help with contact info. That was really disappointing. My dad’s jersey actually hangs in their museum, and they couldn’t be bothered to help put me in touch with any of the guys who played for him.

“So, I put that on the shelf and started trying to figure out what was next. And then I had a weird revelation out of the blue. Seriously. Completely out of nowhere like a lightning bolt. I was a big fan of an author by the name of Whitley Strieber, who wrote the best-seller Communion about an alien abduction he and his family went through. He swears it was all true, and it was a gripping book. Back in the mid-80s, we all passed it around and shared it. Then he co-wrote a book called War Day with another author. They wrote it as fictional characters who lived through World War III, which of course means they somehow survived nuclear war. They alternated chapters to give the book two viewpoints, and they played off each other. It was fascinating, and horrifying, and a whole bunch of other things. I loved how they put it together. So, one day I just woke up and told my wife, Barbara, about it, saying, ‘I think I need to co-write a book like that. I just need to find the other writer who will be as passionate about it as I’ll be.’

“Not more than one day later, I told her I was going to do it myself. I could easily write both parts. I’d construct it as historic fiction, meaning real places, real events, real other people, but my two characters would be fictional. I’d even have them alternate chapters in their own voices. Somehow, deep inside, I knew I could do that. I still had to figure out the story, the characters, and the plot, but I knew I could do it.

“And now I’m almost finished, and it’s been nothing short of thrilling to make this come to life. My two characters are a surfer dude from Southern California who happens to be a gifted pitcher with a golden arm, and an underdog hockey player from the northern tier of Minnesota, who has to bust his butt to accomplish his dreams. I did location scouting trips to both places, just to make sure I had it right. Roseau, Minnesota, is a legendary hockey hotbed, despite only having about 2,600 residents. I loved being up there and meeting dozens of key people to get a feel for it. I also spent a week in SoCal getting a real feel for what places like Huntington Beach and San Clemente were like. I needed to see it all and have it in my brain what these guys were like and where they were from.

“Now, I have both of them in my head. Yes, I’ll admit it. I hear voices in my head. I hear their voices. I put my fingers on the keyboard and let them talk. It’s a phenomenal process and gosh I hope people get it and like it. Just like the first book, it’s not about sales or royalties for me. It’s about the process and just doing it. And fiction is a huge stretch after my autobiography. Totally different writing style and writing muscles, as I call them. Way out of my comfort zone. All I did to prepare was to go on those location trips to get it all into my head, and then write two character studies about the two guys. Once I had that, I just let them write. My fingers on the keyboard are just the conduit for the two characters to write. It’s bizarre. And I never would’ve come up with the concept had I not been a fan of Whitley Strieber’s work.

“In addition, the success of the first book helped me immensely with the new venture. I did a lot of publicity work for it, mostly because I hired Elon Werner, one of the best PR people in drag racing, to help me get out there to talk about it. One of those hits was a lengthy Podcast interview, and when the host and I were done and he turned off the recorder he told me he would be very interested in publishing the new book. We talked about it after talking about Bats, Balls, & Burnouts, and he was really excited about the whole concept. It turned out that he was also an aspiring publisher who was making a name for himself in that business, and he offered to sign me to a contract right then and there. So, now my only responsibility is to write and create, and I have an October deadline to get him the initial full manuscript. My self-published first book was successful enough to get me a real publishing deal for this new project. It was all meant to be, I guess.”

What Others Are Saying

From Outskirts Press:

Praise for Bats, Balls, & Burnouts

“Bob Wilber grew up steeped in the baseball of a different time. He became part of the game professionally, along the way meeting countless unforgettable characters and collecting the memories of successes, disappointments, and adventures detailed here. The baseball parts of Bats, Balls, & Burnouts really resonated with me. As for the drag racing, dear reader, you will have to consult a source more familiar with the sport than me.”

– Bob Costas, Broadcaster, NBC and MLB Network

“I give Bob a lot of respect for the passion he has displayed for everything he has been a part of. This book brings his journey to life.”

– Antron Brown, 3-time NHRA Top Fuel champion

“I highly recommend reading this compelling book about the sports-based life of Bob Wilber. The baseball world has so many different adventures, at every level, and the people that are in the game are there for the love of the game. It’s clear in ‘Bats, Balls, & Burnouts’ that the same goes for sports like soccer and drag racing.”

– Bert Blyleven, former MLB pitcher and Baseball Hall of Fame inductee

“Whether he’s hitting home runs, selling soccer tickets, traveling the world, or watching a Nitro Funny Car go from zero to 300 mph in four seconds, Bob Wilber tells the tales powerfully. Bats, Balls, & Burnouts is a joy to read.”

-Bob Griese, former NFL quarterback and member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame

“Bob Wilber made a big name for himself in the NHRA world because of his fantastic writing style. ‘Bats, Balls, & Burnouts’ takes it to completely new level. A great read from front to back.” – Ron Capps, 2016 NHRA Funny Car Champion

From Facebook:

“I thought Father’s Day weekend was an appropriate day for me to post this, as Bob’s father Del had been such an important influence in shaping his character as well as his life’s journey. Imagine having your father play and manage in the MLB. Imagine having Hall of Fame legends such as Stan Musial as weekend guests at your house for cookouts and other get togethers. That was Bob Wilber’s normal, so it’s no surprise that he too would play professional baseball and embark on a life of exciting sports careers. Luckily for us, Bob turns out to be a very talented writer, has a great memory, and genuinely loves telling stories. Bats, Balls, and Burnouts is one of the few works that made me feel as if I was there, sitting right next to Bob at that dinner table, or freaking out with him in the clubhouse when the only uniform pants for his professional debut were 5 sizes too big, or having to tell his brother, who put his neck on the line to hire him, that he would be leaving to pursue a risky career. I’ve never read a memoir and experienced suspense and hope to such degrees as I did with BB&B. Maybe it’s because I know Bob and have more of a personal connection to it? Well, if anything, there would be less suspense when already knowing most of the framework of Bob’s life. I’ve come to the conclusion that emotions like that can come from only one place: honesty. It is the highest honor, I would think, that an un-embellished story of one’s life would turn out to be not only worthy of print, but able to entertain and emotionally move the readers. It made me examine my own life. Am I playing it too safe? Am I still creating memories that I’ll be proud of in ten or fifteen years? Should I re-think some important decisions recently made? These are some pretty deep questions from a book penned by someone other than Nietzche. Honesty and integrity. Put those two ingredients in any body of work, print, cinema, painting, sculpture, etc. and you will find people admiring it, but more importantly, gaining something FROM it.

I’m not sure if I would have read Bob’s book if it wasn’t for the COVID virus. I guess my mom is right, every cloud does indeed have a silver lining.

– Former NHRA Funny Car racer Dean Skuza