Jim Roper

Infobox NASCAR driver
Name = Christian D. Roper
Birthdate = birth date|1916|8|13
Died = death date and age|2000|6|23|1916|8|13
Birthplace = flagicon|USAHalstead, Kansas
Cause of Death = heart and liver failure due to cancer
Best_Cup_Pos = 16th - 1949 (Strictly Stock)
Cup_Wins = 1
Cup_Top_Tens = 1
First_Cup_Race = 1949 Charlotte Speedway (NASCAR's first race)
First_Cup_Win = 1949 Charlotte Speedway
Last_Cup_Win = 1949 Charlotte Speedway
Last_Cup_Race = 1949 Occoneechee Speedway
Years_In_Cup = 1
Total_Cup_Races = 2

Christian David "Jim" Roper (August 13 1916 – June 23 2000) was a NASCAR driver. He lived in Halstead, Kansas. He is most known as the winner of the first NASCAR Strictly Stock (now Sprint Cup) race.

Racing career

Roper lived at his grandfather's horse farm in Halstead. Roper was interested in playing basketball until his grandfather purchased a Chevrolet Pontiac car dealership and gave a 1930 Chevy to Roper. Roper said "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."cite news |title=50 Years of Speed |publisher=American Media Operations |page=10 |date=1997 |accessdate=2007-11-06]

Roper purchased a midget car in 1944. He was first able to use the car after World War II, since all racing was halted in the United States during the war. He drove numerous types of cars after the war. He won the Beacon Championship at CeJay Speedway in Wichita, Kansas in 1947 in a track roadster. He also raced on the International Motor Contest Association (IMCA) circuit in Kansas, Iowa, Nebraska, Oklahoma, and Missouri.

He was nicknamed "Alfalfa Jim" after he drove through a wooden fence into an alfalfa field, turned around, and finished the race with a car full of alfalfa.

NASCAR career

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 'Smilin' Jack' comic strip in his local newspaper. [ [http://www.motorsport.com/news/article.asp?ID=46121&FS=HISTORY Motorsport.com: News channel ] ] 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 winner Glenn Dunnaway, completing 197 of 200 laps. Chief NASCAR inspector Al Crisler disqualified Dunnaway'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 [http://www.dailypress.com/sports/motorracing/dp-68984sy0mar17,0,4238057.story?coll=dp-auto-utility] . Roper was credited with the win in NASCAR's first Strictly Stock race. Westmoreland sued NASCAR, and the judge threw out the case. NASCAR tore down Roper's motor after the race, so he had to get a replacement motor to drive back to Kansas. Clothier kept 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.

Injury and end of racing career

He continued racing in midgets in Kansas until he broke a vertebra in a sprint car accident in Davenport, Iowa in 1955. He decided to retire after his injuries healed. "It was over for me then," he said, "so I flipped a half-dollar (coin) to decide whether to raise horses in Texas or Washington. Texas won." He later became a professional flagman and built racecars. He died on June 23 2000 from heart and liver complications related to cancer.

References

* [http://www.racing-reference.info/drivdet?id=roperji01&yr=1949&series=W Career statistics at racing-reference.info]
* [http://web.archive.org/web/20030708084406/http://thekansan.com/stories/062400/fro_0624000016.html Archived story from The Newton Kansan]
* [http://www.nascar.com/2006/news/headlines/cup/01/15/countdown.daytona.kansas/index.html nascar.com article about Roper]
* [http://www.dailypress.com/sports/motorracing/dp-68984sy0mar17,0,4238057.story?coll=dp-auto-utility Story of NASCAR's first race]
* [http://skyways.lib.ks.us/genweb/archives/harvey/obits/cdroper.htm Obituary]