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Born the second youngest of nine children on August first of 1932 (Or 1934 as reports vary) Robert Vance "Bobby" Issac was welcomed to the world on a farm near Catawba North Carolina. As was more common than one might think in that era Bobby had the misfortune of never getting to finish school beyond the sixth grade. While his book smarts may have been a bit lacking back then it didn't stop him from pursuing a dream with plenty of hard work which would make him a legend.

The Isaac family made a modest living on a dozen acres of land used to grow cotton and corn. Rumor persists to this day some of their income came from "corn squeezings" as moonshine was known in those days but it has never been proved and refuted by the family despite persistent rumors. When Bobby was six his father died and the family was shaken to it's core. His mother was forced to take on a job in a furniture factory to try to support them. As his brothers did, Bobby decided to get a job but at the time choices were limited, especially for someone of his age and Bobby spent uneventful years bouncing from job to job going nowhere fast. When his mother passed when Bobby was sixteen the family was basically left to fend for itself. Bobby decided it was time to not just plan to get out of town, but get out and follow his dream.

Bobby decided to hitchhike his way out of North Carolina but by sheer twist of fate his older sister Goldie picked him up and convinced him to live with her and her husband, something he did until he was nineteen when he briefly married. The union only lasted about a year. Tired of the grind of the sawmill Bobby finally realized what the dream was he had been chasing, he wanted to race cars, a seed that was planted in him when he saw his first race at around seventeen. With a new dirt track in Hickory N.C., Bobby purchased a 1937 Ford, equipped it with roll bars and embarked on his journey. His journey was short lived as he flipped the Ford in the second lap of his first race, but the itch was there and he had to scratch it. Bobby kept working odd jobs as he could find them to keep his racing dream alive.

In 1956 at the age of twenty four Bobby began a professional racing career full time making upwards of $125.00 a week which was better than the sawmill could offer. Like many things in his young life success wasn't instant or easy. In fact he was primarily mired on dirt tracks in his early career slowly working up the ranks and making a name for himself. By 1958 he was

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