Schwartz scheduled to be in IMS field tonight.
Inland Motorsport Speedway is hosting the Bobby Schwartz tribute championship tonight to honor Schwartz, who has been one of the most well-respected and accomplished speedway motorcycle racers in the world the past 30-plus years.
The 53-year-old Schwartz resides in Costa Mesa and is still a regular on the American Speedway Scene, which has seen a resurgence lately with the revival of IMS. Schwartz has won nearly everything possible during his distinguished career in all parts of the world. He became a teenage star in California in the 1970's, when U.S. Speedway was at its highest peak and the riders were making full-time living's from their large earnings. By the early 80's he had left to forge a career in England against the very best, where he would stay for almost 10 seasons while winning titles in many different countries. In the late 80's Schwartz decided to return to racing Stateside, where he absolutely dominated the racing, at one point taking 55 feature wins in one summer of races.
Schwartz has continued riding ever since and is still a top performer in Southern California. He won the Main Event at Costa Mesa Speedway only a few weeks ago and has been competing at IMS since opening night, June 19.
His titles include: 1981 and 1982, World Best Pairs Champion; 1982 World Team Cup Champion; 1977 and 2003 U.S. Open Champion; 1986 and 1989 U.S. National Champion; 1988 and 1991 California State Champion and USA World Team Captain from 1983-87.
Schwartz will be in the lineup for tonight's championship which begins at 8 p.m. Gates open at 6:30 p.m.
Bobby Schwartz is one of the coolest guys I've ever met. When I was covering motor sports for The Sun in the early part of this decade, he would race at AMS (Arrowhead Motor Speedway at the Orange Show) and although he wouldn't normally win, he always had the biggest smile on his face and genuinely appreciated any coverage we would provide. I don't know if you can look it up, but I wrote a lengthy feature about him during the summer of 2002, I think.