Bob Said

Said left Princeton in 1951, after success in local races and hill climbs, to pursue a full-time racing career. His earliest race cars were an MG TD and a Jaguar XK120. In March 1953 he made his international debut at the 12 Hours of Sebring, driving a Frazer Nash Mille Miglia to a fourteenth-place finish.

Later in 1953 Said became the first American to win a road race in Europe after the war, taking victory at Rouen-Les-Essarts in an OSCA MT4. He added another win that season with the Anerley Trophy at the Crystal Palace circuit in London. For an American driver in the early 1950s, competing and winning in Europe was rare; Said was among the first of his generation to prove it could be done.

In 1954 Said switched to a Ferrari 500 Mondial Scaglietti and continued to collect results at European events. He finished third at the Circuito di Senigallia, second at the Trullo d'Oro, and ninth at Syracuse. His career from 1951 to 1966 encompassed 48 events with 50 total entries, four overall wins, six additional class wins, and eleven podium finishes. He drove most frequently for Ferrari, OSCA, and Sadler machinery, competing at tracks including Sebring, Watkins Glen, Le Mans, Zandvoort, Rouen, and Buenos Aires. Among his most regular co-drivers were Masten Gregory and George Moffett.

On 21 February 1955 Said set a new post-war speed record on the Daytona Beach and Road Course, driving a 1954 Ferrari Formula One Grand Prix car at a two-way average speed of 170.538 mph.

Said's sole Formula One World Championship start came on 12 December 1959 at the inaugural United States Grand Prix, held at Sebring International Raceway. He entered in a Connaught Type C with an Alta straight-four engine, run by Connaught Cars and Paul Emery. Starting thirteenth on the grid, he spun off on the first lap and retired, scoring no championship points. The event was historic as the first Formula One world championship race held in the United States, and Said was among the handful of American drivers on the entry list for that landmark occasion.

That same year Said made one NASCAR start, driving a Chevrolet entered by Buck Baker in the 1959 Daytona 500. He retired on lap 42 with transmission failure and was classified fiftieth.

Alongside motor racing Said pursued competitive bobsledding, representing the United States at two Winter Olympics. He competed at the 1968 Winter Olympics in Grenoble, France, and again at the 1972 Winter Olympics in Sapporo, Japan, achieving a best result of tenth place. At Grenoble he competed alongside fellow racing driver and bobsledder Robin Widdows. Few athletes of any era have combined international motor racing with Olympic winter sport at the level Said managed.

After his active sporting career Said worked as a film producer, serving as executive producer of the documentary The Mystery of the Sphinx. He died on 24 March 2002 in Seattle, Washington, aged 69. His son Boris Said III became a professional racing driver known as a NASCAR road course specialist.