On November 2, 1941, Bob Baker drove Lloyd Seay's 1934 Ford roadster in a memorial race for Seay at Lakewood Speedway in Atlanta. No one is sure exactly what happened, but the car spun out of control and ran into a ditch.
Baker was taken to a local hospital with serious head injuries. A few days later while his father, Dr. Baker, was talking with another doctor, someone told him that Bob had just died. Dr. Baker rushed into the room, pounded on his son's chest, and started his heart again. The doctors believed that Baker would die during the night.
Baker was in a coma for a week, but by the end of November he was back in Daytona.