Bobby Hillin, whose Longhorn Racing team notched 10 USAC National Sprint Car victories with drivers Bruce Walkup, Jackie Howerton, Jan Opperman and Bubby Jones between 1975 and 1977, passed away last weekend.  He was 79 years old.

Hillin, out of Midland, Texas, debuted in USAC victory lane during the 1975 season, winning its first National Sprint Car feature event, a 40-lapper, at Ohio’s New Bremen Speedway with driver Bruce Walkup.

In 1976, Hillin-owned machines garnered three victories in the series, twice at Ohio’s Eldora Speedway, first with Jackie Howerton and then again less than a month later with Jan Opperman.  Opperman won again for Hillin later that summer at Dayton (Ohio) Speedway.  Just weeks later, Opperman was seriously injured at the “Hoosier Hundred” driving Hillin’s Dirt Champ Car.

The following season, 1977, proved to be Hillin’s breakout year, scoring six victories with driver Bubby Jones on the USAC Sprint trail.  Jones won thrice at Eldora, once at the Terre Haute (Ind.) Action Track and doubled-up on a memorable weekend on the paved high banks of Indiana’s Winchester Speedway in which Jones won twice on consecutive days.

Hillin’s team also competed in the Indianapolis 500 and with the USAC National Championship and CART in the late 1970s/early 1980s with drivers Opperman, Jones, George Snider, Al Unser and Sheldon Kinser.  Unser scored Hillin’s best finish as a car owner at Indy with a fifth-place result in 1982.