INTERNATIONAL MOTORSPORTS HALL OF FAME TALLADEGA, Hall of Fame Executive Director Jim Freeman stated that this was one of the most diverse classes in the 14 year history of inductions. “We have both men and women, drivers and non-drivers, and have one inductee who will be the very first to represent his particular venue of racing,” said Freeman. Four world-class drivers and the driving force behind the most successful sanctioning body in racing make up the Class of 2004. They are: ·
Charles “Red”
Farmer, who has raced and won in seven different decades starting in the 1940’s. Farmer, who still runs dirt tracks every weekend,
has won four NASCAR Touring Series Championships and was named one of NASCAR’s 50
Greatest Drivers. ·
Bill France, Jr., who took
the reins of NASCAR from his father in 1972 and guided the still-young sanctioning body to
the top of the racing world. He has taken it
from a regional to a national sport, and made it one of the hottest television commodities
in all of sports. ·
Shirley Muldowney, one of
the top performers in all of drag racing history, has won four Top Fuel national
championships, and was named to the All-American team five times. Her career nearly ended in a vicious crash in 1984,
but she fought back and was racing again in 18 months. ·
Bill Muncey, described by
many as the greatest hydroplane race driver in history, is the first power boat racer to
gain admission to the Hall of Fame. He won
eight Gold Cups, seven national championships and four world titles, finishing his career
with a record 62 wins. ·
Bobby Rahal, selected by
RACER magazine as one of the 20 Greatest Drivers of the 20th Century, has won three CART
championships, 24 races and 18 poles. He won
the 1986
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