CHRISTIAN DAVID "JIM" ROPER - 8/13/1916 - 6/23/2000
Native Kansas racer, Christian David “Jim” Roper was born August 13, 1916; and was the first of a family of Roper racers. His son and grandson also raced. More on that below. Roper grew up on his grandfather’s horse farm in Halstead, Kansas. Roper’s main interest during high school was playing basketball. His grandfather purchased a Chevrolet/Pontiac dealership and gave him a 1930 Chevrolet. Suddenly, Roper’s interest in basketball fell to the wayside, and racing that 1930 Chevrolet took center stage in his life. "I raced that thing seven nights a week, even in the middle of winter, on a figure-eight dirt track, the kind you pass in the middle both ways. I could get that Chevy up to speeds of 60 to 70 miles per hour", Roper would later say in an interview for the publication, 50 Years of Speed. In the post World War II 1940’s, Roper began racing a midget car in the Midwest, eventually moving to roadsters and stock cars at Wichita's Cejay Stadium and Newton's Jayhawk Speedway. In 1947, Roper won the Beacon Championship at CeJay Speedway in Wichita, Kansas driving a track roadster. Roper heard about the first race at a three-quarter-mile dirt track in Charlotte, NC, by reading a note about it in Zack Mosley's "The Adventures of Smilin' Jack" comic strip, in his local
newspaper. Roper convinced local car dealer Millard Clothier to drive two of Clothier's Lincoln cars, more than 1000 miles, to Charlotte to compete on June 19, 1949. Roper finished in second to the winner Glenn Dunaway, completing 197 of 200 laps. Chief NASCAR inspector Al Crisler disqualified Dunaway's car, because car owner Hubert Westmoreland had shored up the chassis by spreading the rear springs, a favorite bootlegger trick to improve traction and handling. Roper was credited with the win in NASCAR's first Strictly Stock race. NASCAR tore down Roper's motor after the race, so he had to get a replacement motor to drive back to Kansas. Clothier kept
Midget 1946
Cup win 1949 Charlotte
the winner's trophy. He used the same car to finish fifteenth in NASCAR's third race in his only other NASCAR start. He finished sixteenth in the 1949 final points standings. Roper would not return to NASCAR competition after 1949, but continued to race stock cars and midget cars, around the state of Kansas including Jayhawk Amusement Park Speedway in Newton, Kansas, until 1955, after suffering a broken vertebra in a crash, while competing in a Sprint Car race in Davenport, Iowa. Roper served as the flagman and official starter at Cowley County Fairgrounds Racetrack at Winfield, Kansas in 1957, and continued to build race cars for several years, after retiring from driving. Roper passed away at Newton, Kansas on June 23, 2000 from liver and heart failure, related to a long
battle with cancer. Roper is buried in the Halstead Cemetery in his hometown of Halstead, Kansas. Jim Roper was inducted into the High Banks Hall of Fame at Belleville, Kansas in 1999. The 1999 NASCAR Winston Cup Series NAPA 500 trophy was named in his honor. He passed away from cancer just ten months after that. Jim Roper’s son Dean Roper died August 19, 2001 from a heart attack, while competing in the ARCA Series Allen Crowe Memorial at the Springfield Mile at Springfield, Illinois, subsequently crashing at the exit of pit lane. Dean Roper had recorded nine ARCA series wins, and had three consecutive USAC Stock championships, 1981, 1982, and 1983. Jim Roper’s grandson Tony Roper, raced IMCA Modifieds and Late Models, American Speed Associations Stock Cars before moving to competing in NASCAR Truck Series, and
JayHawk Speedway 1951
On Pole Kansas State Fair 1952
NASCAR Xfinity Series. Tony Roper died October 13, 2000 from injuries sustained in a crash during the NASCAR Truck Series O’Reilly 400 at Texas Motor Speedway. Prior to his death Tony had made 19 Xfinity starts with three top ten finishes, a best being eighth at South Boston. He had 60 Truck starts, and almost won at IRP, when he finished second in 1998 behind winner Jack Sprague.
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