Notes:
Robert Macomber Akin III was born in North Tarrytown on March 6, 1936 of Robert Macomber Akin, Jr. and Elizabeth Denton. He and his younger brother William were raised in the Sleepy Hollow Manor, a notable property in town entitled after Washington Irving’s famous fantasy tale. In fact, Irving's book brought so much attention to the town that in March 1997 North Tarrytown itself was renamed Sleepy Hollow.

Akin was educated at Hackley School, an Ivy Preparatory School League located in Tarrytown, near Sleepy Hollow, and remained deeply connected to it throughout his life. He served on the Hackley School Board of Trustees for thirty years, from 1972 to 1992, and was its president from 1980 to 1990. Akin was also a long-time member of the school's Alumni Association board of directors, serving as its president in 1971-72. In 1990 he was awarded the Hackley Medal of Honor for distinguished service to the school.

After Hackley Akin joined Columbia University, where he earned a bachelor's degree in engineering and a master's degree in business administration. In 1955, while he was still in college, Akin started to work at the Hudson Wire Company in Ossining, NY - a firm founded by his grandfather in 1902 that held many patents in wire-making machinery and processes. Bob’s father had became its chairman and president in 1946, and Bob was groomed to succeed him one day.

Akin enjoyed sports, and in the 1950s was a competitive sport fisherman. He was a member of the Montauk Yacht Club team that won the United States Atlantic Tuna Tournament for three years in the late 1950s. His true passion, though, was elsewhere, and Bob began racing cars in 1957. Initially a drag racer, he switched to road racing in 1959. Two years later, though, Akin quit motorsports to focus on the Hudson Wire Company, which was experiencing significant growth.

In 1971 his father left the presidency of Hudson, paving the way to Bob to replace him. Despite the increasing workload, in 1973 Akin resumed his racing activities, competing in sports car events in the Northeast. The following year Bob was appointed president of Hudson; under his guidance the company would undergo a phenomenal expansion, becoming the world leader in the aircraft and aerospace wiring industries.

Akin most enjoyed endurance racing, and was a constant presence in International Motor Sports Association (IMSA) races in the 1970s and 1980s. His Porsche 935 and 962 sportscars – often painted in red, numbered 5 and sponsored by companies like Coca Cola, Domino’s Pizza and, of course, Hudson Wire – were familiar figures in the IMSA circuit. Even though Akin personified the role of “gentleman driver” – and he often referred to himself as such – he became a standout driver in that series.

Besides competing in the United States, Akin also made six forays into the most prestigious sportscar race, the 24 Hours of Le Mans, where luck often failed him. In 1978 he made his first race au Sarthe in a Porsche 935/77A entered by Dick Barbour Racing. Akin Akin shared the car with fellow Americans Bob Garretson and Steve Earle. The trio was amongst the top contenders for the win in the IMSA GTX class when Garretson suffered a terrible accident at the Mulsanne Kink in the sixteenth hour of the race, early on Sunday morning. The 935 rolled countless times for hundreds of meters and was completely destroyed; Garretson was lucky to escape alive. Famously, Barbour made a coffee table with what was left of the vehicle.

In 1979 Akin conquered one of IMSA’s – and sportscar in general – most prestigious races, the 12 Hours of Sebring. In that race he shared a Porsche 935/77A with Rob McFarlin and Roy Woods, in one of the three entries filed by Dick Barbour. Their car qualified behind the other two sister machines – in ninth place, whereas Barbour himself, Rolf Stommelen and Rick Mears put theirs 925 on pole position. Despite such a handicap, during the race Akin and his mates steadily progressed through the field. They inherited the lead some six hours before the checkered flag when other competitors hit trouble, and never released it. Akin, McFarlin and Woods covered 239 laps on their way to victory – just one more than the Porsche 935 of Charles Mendez, Brian Redman and Paul Miller. That turned out to be a dominating performance by Dick Barbour Racing, which clinched first, third and fourth place in the race.

Akin would repeat the partnership with Woods and McFarlin under Dick Barbour on his second try at Le Mans, a few months later Sebring. Unfortunately, this time they were forced into a withdraw in the seventh hour, when the head gasket of their Porsche 935 turbocharged engine blew.

In 1980 Akin entered Le Mans under the banner Racing Associates Inc., fielding his own Porsche 935 K3 built by the Kremer brothers in Cologne. The Kremers had been modifying the factory 935s since their inception. In 1979 – approximately at the same time Porsche built its last 935 – the Kremers presented the 935 K3, which was wholly conceived and assembled at their shop. It sported a stiff spaceframe structure made of aluminum tubing, modified suspension geometry and a Kevlar body that ran closer to the ground. Akin raced it at Le Mans together with Ralph Kent-Cooke and Paul Miller; Roy Woods, who was originally scheduled to race, did not start the event. Unfortunately, the K3 experienced a transmission failure in the twentieth hour of the race, and once again Akin was left dry at Le Mans.

Akin’s miserable chance at Le Mans did not get any better in 1981. In fact, that was an even more frustrating event; his K3, this time partnered with Paul Miller and Craig Seibert, was attacked by electrical gremlins in the very last hour of the race, when they occupied the tenth place overall. The car stopped at the Ligne Droite des Hunaudières straight on the last lap - and, since it was not running at the fall of the checkered flag as the Automobile Club D'Ouest book rule demands, it was not classified.

Akin was becoming increasingly frustrated with his K3; while others were winning races with similar cars, he was often sidelined by mechanical failures on his. Also, the pace of development of the 935 replicas, pushed by the competition amongst teams and builders, was turning his machine obsolete. Akin then decided to commission his own version of a 935 replica – and did that pursuing an unusual route. He commissioned Chuck Gaa of Gaaco to build what he called “a Super GTP 935”, a true departure from the other 935 replicas. The Gaaco car, named 935L1, was constructed around an innovative, purpose-built aluminum monocoque – which was not welded, but bonded instead. Aiming to improve aerodynamics and straightline speed, Gaa and Akin fit the car with the nose section of a Lola T600 GTP, making it distinctively different from its peers. The car also made extensive use of NACA air ducts and of ground effect venturis. The rules mandated that the windshield and the roof section of a standard Porsche 930 had to be used. So did Gaa; but, by tilting the roof backwards, the windshield was leaned to a more aggressive angle and the airflow to the rear wing was improved.

With so many novelties, it was almost inevitable that the construction of the 935L1 got delayed. The car missed the first rounds of the IMSA schedule and made its debut at Le Mans, driven by David Cowart, Kenper Miller and Akin. Untested, it did not fare well. It showed tremendous speed on the straights but poor corner handling. After only two hours, at the end of Akin’s first stint at the wheel, the reserve gas tank malfunctioned and the L1 stopped at the circuit with no fuel. Cowart and Miller did not even get to drive it in the race. Once again Akin endured a disappointment at Le Mans.

The car was then returned to North America to compete in the second half of the 1982 IMSA season. After much testing and development, it scored a fourth place at Mid Ohio with Akin and Hurley Haywood, and a seventh at Road Atlanta with Akin and Derek Bell. Then, in the last race of the season, the finale at Daytona, where it was again raced by Akin and Bell, a tire exploded and shipped the car into a wall. Even though the car was not seriously damaged, it never raced again. The 935 L1 sat in Akins shop until 1999, when Jacques Ravard purchased and restored it. Since then it has been race-prepared by G&S Autoworks, and makes occasional appearances in selected vintage car events in the United States.

Akin skipped his annual peregrination to Le Mans in 1983. Amongst other things, he was busy with the development of yet another 935 replica – one that became known, and rightly so, as “The Last 935”. This time Akin commission the project to Dave Klym of Fabcar in Tucker, GA. The concept, named 935/84, was based on the construction of a strong and reliable car, and it was influenced by the 935K4 – the Kremer’s brother version of the factory 935/78 “Moby Dick”. However, whilst the K4 had an aluminum tubing chassis, the 935/84 structure was made with steel tubes.

With a goal of optimizing the suspension pick-up points and improving cornering, the 935/84 used a standard K3 suspension at the rear and a “Moby Dick” one at the front. The engine was the usual 3.2-litre, twin-plug, twin-turbo unit present at the K3s with a special tune-up carried out under Akin’s supervision. The body used an adapted Kremer nose, but the other panels and elements were designed by Klym. The original body was manufactured in aluminum; after several rounds of modifications and re-settings, a fiberglass mold was then fabricated. Another goal was weight reduction and Klym worked hard to bring it down to IMSA’s minimum weight limit of 2050 pounds (930 kg). By carefully redesigning and relocating components, the crew was able to shed almost 100 pounds (45 kg) in fluid hoses only in comparison with the previous attempt with the 935L1.

The 935/84 was tested for the first time at Road Atlanta on 26 October 1983. After twenty laps of preliminary adjustments, “The Last 935” clocked very competitive times – some four seconds faster than Akin’s K3. It was then entered in the last race of the season, the Three Hour Finale at Daytona, where it qualified a very promising third. Despite minor problems, Akin and John O’Steen finished the race in an excellent second place – and on the same lap of the March 83G – Porsche of IMSA champion Al Holbert and of Jim Trueman. It was quite a fine debut. Unfortunately, though, new rules were introduced for 1984, with the birth of a new class – the GTP. This dated the 935/84 immediately; Akin retired the car, which never raced again, and moved on to a 962.

Akin returned to Le Mans for a last time in 1984, when he drove a Porsche 956B for Walter Brun’s team besides Leopold von Wagner and Brun himself. This time Lady Luck didn’t interfere with Akin’s plans, and the trio finished in a remarkable fourth place overall.

Akin’s second victory at the 12 Hours of Sebring happened in 1986. That year he entered the race own Porsche 962, chassis 113, sharing it with German sportscar stalwart Hans-Joachim Stuck and Austrian Formula 1 refugee Jo Gartner. After a tough fight between Stuck and former World Endurance co-champion Derek Bell, who partnered a Porsche 962 with Al Holbert and Al Unser, Jr., Akin’s entry leaped to the lead of the race, building a sizeable cushion in the night hours. Stuck had a scary moment when a wheel came off the car, but fortunately the incident happened just before the pit entrance and little time was lost. However, Jay Jensen, a mechanic for the Argo-Mazda JM19 entered by Jim Downing, was hit by the loose wheel and suffered a concussion.

Back to the track, Stuck, Akin and Gartner continued to turn quick laps, increasing their gap over its pursuers even more. Gartner took over from Akin for the last stint and, with only three minutes to the end of the race, the Porsche lost a wheel for the second time. Gartner managed to drag the “tricycle” back to the pits, where a replacement was install and the Porsche was sent out to complete a very last lap. Incredibly, that brand new wheel escaped the car in the last turn of the last lap; once Gartner did the necessary to carry the car, this time to the checkered flag – even if amidst a shower of sparks coming from the Porsche’s underbelly. Their triumph registered an average speed of 115.85 m/h [186,445 km/h] over 370 laps – the fastest average and most laps ever recorded at the 12 Hours of Sebring. [The circuit was changed to a somewhat shorter and slower configuration the following year. On 21 March 2009 the Audi team of Allan McNish, Emanuele Pirro and Tom Kristensen set new records of 383 laps at 117.986 m/h [189,88 k/h]. Likely 1986 was Akin’s finest hour, and he won the IMSA title that season.

In the meantime Hudson Wire Company continued to experience success. The main plant, in Ossining, grew to a surface of more than 11,000 square meters and responded by 70 per cent of the company’s 30 million dollars sales. In 1982 Hudson inaugurated what Akin called “the most modern wire facility in the world” in Walden, NY, which responded for the remainder of the company volume. Hudson then produced more than 11,000 different types of wires, ranging from those used in pacemakers to guitar strings. Akin was particularly proud of the cabling used in the United States Space Program, and liked to mention that “75 miles [121 kilometers] of Hudson wire can be found in one Boeing 747 [alone]”. Akin was also very active in Electrical Manufacturers Club, an industry association.

In 1989 Akin oversaw the sale of Hudson to the Phelps Dodge Corporation, and remained the president of the company, which began to focus on high-temperature conductors. After forty years of service, Akin retired in 1995 from what had been by then renamed Hudson International Conductors.

Besides being a competitor, Akin was also a very dedicated member of the Road Racers Drivers Club for a number of years, and rose to the presidency of that organization. He hung up his helmet from active racing in 1991, having conquered four top-ten finishes in IMSA races. Akin did not distance himself from the sport though, and continued to race vintage cars, write articles to the magazine Road & Track and to do racing television commentary for Speedvision (now Speed Channel), TBS and ESPN. Following his retirement, Akin devoted his time to the management of Bob Akin Motorsports. This company, based in Ossining, NY, quickly became one of the United States’ prime historic racing restoration and preparation stables.

One of Akin’s favorite historic racing events was the Walter Mitty Challenge at Road Atlanta, where he annually regained contact with a number of friends from all sorts of racing backgrounds. The “Mitty”, sanctioned by the Historic Sportscar Racing association, includes a series of races for the different types of cars in its program. Its 2002 edition of this annual event, the twenty-fifth, was particularly rich in its variety.

One of these races is an event for IMSA cars, and Bob entered its 2002 edition with a 1988 Nissan GTP ZX-Turbo owned by Wayne Jackson, who had acquired the car from Michael Lauer. In the early minutes of a practice session on Thursday, 25 April, Akin was at Turn Four when another GTP car overtook him on the right side. The two vehicles made a very light contact, but that was enough to force Akin’s Nissan into a concrete barrier at very high speed. The car caught fire as it slid down the barrier before going over it; it was then launched into a series of terrifying rolls, hitting two trees. The car was completely destroyed and Akin was extensively injured. He was airlifted to the Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta and place under intensive care, listed under “critical and extremely unstable condition” as per the medical bulletin. Akin’s wounds included a broken neck – suffering a “complete disruption” of vertebrae C5 and C6 - and fractured left leg, right arm and left shoulder; he also had multiple bruises, lacerations and suffered third-degree burns over fifteen per cent of his body. Despite the best possible medical care, he passed away four days later due to complications arising from his injuries, on the night of Monday, 29 April.

Akin was a resident of Pocantico Hills, New York. He was survived by his wife of 42 years, Ellen, their children Susan E. Akin of Sleepy Hollow, New York, Robert M. Akin IV of Manhattan Beach, California, and Johanna Akin Stolecki of Cortlandt Manor, New York; his brother William D. Akin of Montauk, New York, and three grandchildren, Conor Mook, 8, Ian Mook, 6, and Emily Stoelcki, 3.

In Bob’s memory the Road Racing Drivers Club established the Bob Akin Memorial Motorsports Award. The prize is awarded to drivers who demonstrate the following qualities – for which Akin was known and respected:
- A passion for motorsports and automobiles, and a history of successful amateur, semi-pro and/or vintage racing;
- A high level of sportsmanship and fair play, and an articulate and gentlemanly presence; and
- A record of contribution to motorsports, the community, family and friends.

The Bob Akin Memorial Motorsports Award consists of a Steuben glass trophy, inscribed with the name and year of award of each recipient, which is on permanent display at the International Motor Racing Research Center at Watkins Glen, New York. Individual Steuben glass trophies are presented to each annual recipient, who up to date have been:
2003 – Sam Posey
2004 – Charlie Gibson
2005 – John Fitch (1917-2012)
2006 - Jim Haynes
2007 - Cameron Argetsinger (1921-2008)
2008 - Jim Downing
2009 - Steve Earle
2010 - Augie Pabst
2011 - Don Knowles
2012 - Miles Collier
2013 - Peter Sachs

In 2002 Bob Akin Motorsports was sold and it is now called Hudson Historics. It continues to be one of the United States centers of excellence on historic racing restoration and preparation.

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• E-mail by Rick Kelly, dated 06 February 2008.