Author and race car driver’s wife, Nancy Roe Pimm, was a guest at the Henry F. Schricker library this week. Nancy’s husband, Ed, raced in the 1980’s in the Indianapolis 500.
In her library presentation, Nancy talked about some of the drivers, and the drivers’ wives that she grew close to. She talked about Al Unser, Sr.
“He was a very, very nice guy,” she said. “I liked Al Unser. He was a good guy. His son I didn’t know quite as well. I knew him but I don’t feel that I could give you an opinion on him, but I liked Al Unser. My favorite driver, I think was Rick Mears. He was super nice.”
According to Nancy, one thing drivers are superstitious about is that they usually don’t visit the hospital when a driver is injured in the track.
“It seems weird to me that you have this bond, you are racing together and you’re hurt and no one even calls. Rick Mears did call and say, ‘How are you? I know how it feels to crash at Indy.’ It was so great to hear. One time, my husband and I went to see another driver who crashed at Indy and he had his feel all mashed up and he was on morphine drip. It was then he realized why drivers don’t go. No one wants to see that end of it. You kind of don’t go there.”
Nancy Roe Pimm’s husband Ed stopped racing after losing his sponsor. She has written two books, one on the Indy 500 and the Daytona 500. She also has written two books on gorillas.
Nancy grew up in Brooklyn, New York, and lives now in Dublin, Ohio with a daughter, her husband, four horses, three cats, three dogs, and a python snake.
