September 30, 2024
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Streator’s Bob Tattersall racing career commemorated

Visitors from as far as Australia attend to honor Tattersall

By Michael Urbanec

Dee Tattersall unveils a plaque dedicated to her late husband Tuesday, Aug. 10, 2021, in downtown Streator. The Indiana Racing Memorial Association erected the plaque in Tattersall's honor. Tattersall was awarded the Purple Heart and other medals as an 82nd Airborne paratrooper in World War II Tattersall, refocused his warrior spirit to become a racing icon. He began in racing stock cars and won UARA titles in 1957 and 1959. Tattersall died in 1971 at the age of 47. (Scott Anderson)

When racer Kevin Olson first started his career, Streator native Bob “Two Guns” Tattersall was finishing his.

“We always chased him down to get autographs and he’d stop and talk,” Olson remembered during a ceremony Tuesday in Streator.

Midget car racer Tattersall was immortalized yet again Tuesday to go along with a mural on the side of Hombaker Automotive on the 500 block of East Main Street.

This time a plaque was presented by the Indiana Racing Memorial Association.

Olson, a racer in his own right, said nobody is more worthy of commemoration in this way than Tattersall.

“I knew him when I was a kid,” Olson said.

Olson said Tattersall came from the old days of racing when the drivers worked on their own cars.

“I’m not taking anything away from the newer drivers, but there was something that was just cool about the way the older drivers handled themselves,” Olson said.

Tattersall, or “Tat” as he also was known, was an airborne paratrooper during World War II and began his stock car racing career after he moved to Streator, winning United Auto Racing Association titles in 1957 and 1959 before moving to the United States Auto Club in 1960. He won the Hut Hundred and 63 other USAC races, including the 1969 championship.

His wife, Dee Tattersall, was touched that so many people came from around the world to see the mural and the new plaque. This included people from as far away as Australia, and people that traveled across the country to be there Tuesday despite temperatures hotter than 90 degrees.

Streator Mayor Jimmie Lansford (left) gives remarks Tuesday, Aug. 10, 2021, during the new plaque dedication in honoring the legacy of race care driver Bob Tattersall, downtown Streator. Ed Brozak, chairman of Streator Tourism, looks on. (Scott Anderson)

Tattersall raced in Australia and New Zealand, making 13 trips starting in 1958 and winning 50% of his races along with 16 championships.

Mark Eutsler, a representative from the Indiana Racing Memorial Association, said Tattersall’s plaque is the 50th the organization has commemorated. Most of them are spread throughout Indiana, along with one other in Illinois, one in Texas and one in California.

Tattersall lost a kidney to cancer in 1967 and died from cancer in 1971 but still raced in between.

Former race car driver Ken Olson speaks to a crowd Tuesday, Aug. 10, 2021, during the dedication of the new memorial plaque honoring Streator native Bob Tattersall. (Scott Anderson)

“There were a lot of old time racers in attendance,” Lansford said during Tuesday’s council meeting shortly after the ceremony. “It’s nice to have a plaque giving some of that info on Bob Tattersall. The event was quite well attended and all of them went down to the Eagles Club afterward to reminisce.”