He was raised by his grandmother, who enrolled him in a military academy as a teenager in an attempt to take his mind off cars and motorcycles.

[3] On January 4, 1953, he was involved in an accident at Carrell Speedway in Los Angeles which left him with terrible head injuries.

He remained in a coma, first at the UCLA Medical Center and then at home in Phoenix, but died 14 months later of an infection.

The Bobby Ball Memorial was first run in the fall of 1954 and 1955 as a 100-mile race on dirt, sanctioned by AAA at the Arizona State Fairgrounds.

[13] Bobby Ball naming returned for the 1976–1978 editions, the last of which was title sponsored by Miller High Life.