Full Throttle

The 2007 list of nominees for induction to the International Motorsports Hall of Fame has been released. There are 20 finalists, look over the list and see if your are as stunned as I was to realize some of the legends that have not been inducted as yet.

Cotton Owens, the highly successful race driver and car owner, and Jack Ingram, the five-time champion of what is now NASCAR’s Busch Series. Owens won over 400 Modified and Late Model Sportsman races, then captured 40 more as a car owner. Ingram won three Grand National titles in a row, then won the newly-named Busch Series in its first year in 1982 and then again in 1985.

That duo heads a group of ten candidates that are affiliated with NASCAR. Others include former Champions Red Byron, Rex White (here is an interview with White on NASCAR history and tradition), Jerry Cook, and Ray Hendrick, car owner Junie Donlavey, engine builder and crew chief Maurice Petty, promotional guru Ralph Seagraves (RJR executive that brokered the Winston sponsorship of NASCAR) and track owner Bruton Smith.

Grumpy Jenkins (known as “Mr. Chevrolet” in Drag Racing, ahem…circles. Here is a beautiful lithograph of Grumpy’s Camaro), who won six NHRA titles as a car owner, and Warren Johnson (The “Professor of Pro Stock”), NHRA’S all-time winner in Pro Stock with 98 victories, represent drag racing.

Sports car legends Oliver Gendebein and Brian Redman, Grand Prix driver Rene Dreyfus, car owner and promoter J. C. Agajanian (it’s unrelated but note the ref to Jocko Flocko and ask yourself, what would HWSBO think and how much would the fine be), and Jan Opperman (acknowledged as the first “Hippy” race driver), who won big in both midgets and sprint cars, carry the banner of open-wheel racing.

Others on the list of 20 finalists are three-time World Land Speed record holder Art Arfons (holder of the Land Speed Record on 3 different occasions), two-time AMA Superbike champion Wayne Rainey and record-setting test pilot Chuck Yeager.

The nominees that contain a link will take you to that individual’s history in auto racing.

Last years Class included Harry Gant, Dale Earnhardt, Janet Guthrie, Jack Roush and Humpy Wheeler. It will be interesting to see if the voters will be as top heavy with NASCAR selections this year. Final voting will be held over the next two months, and the five-man Class of 2007 will be announced in early November.

Here are my selections based more on my surprise they have been overlooked this far than any other reason. Cotton Owens, Rex White, Junie Donlavey, J. C. Agajanian and Grumpy Jenkins. (with Jack Ingram and Jerry Cook in a very close tie for sixth choice)

While looking thru the Junie Donlavey history a name form the past jumped out at me, (yes I’m that old) and it relates to the current “hot story” L