The Iowa Hall of Fame and Racing Museum inducted 14 Iowa racing heroes and legends into our Hall of Fame on Saturday, November 2, 2024.   This list includes many Iowa legends in various areas of the motorsports industry in Iowa, which for years has led the nation with the number of tracks holding weekly races in a per-capita basis.  The 2024 Hall of Fame Class joins our previous inductees in representing the best of the best in Iowa racing!

 

Pre – 1990

Harald "Andy" Andersen

Andy first raced in his brother's 1937 Ford Coupe at the Okoboji Speed Bowl in July, 1953, winning the B-Main.  He raced in approximately 235 races with 59 wins.  Andy was a consistent winner at Dayton Speedway!  In one night, he had the fastest qualifying time, 18:80, won the first heat and the feature, took third in the trophy dash and second in the handicap race.  Just a typical night of racing for the "Duncombe Speed King"!  Andy built his own Chevy race cars and raced at 12 tracks in Iowa and Minnesota.

Dave Chase

Dave started racing in 1968 in a 1963 409 Chevy Biscayne.  He followed with a 1957 and 1955 Chevrolet, racing at Playland, Nebraska City, Sioux City, Sunset and all the western Iowa tracks.  Chase had over 300 wins in over 30 states with 22 track championships.  He raced the Nascar circuit for over ten years with ten Top 10 finishes and a best finish of third in 1987.  Highlights of his racing career include driving for Jack Housby and being a teammate of Ramo Stott.

Ron Hutcherson

Ron was the 1964 IMCA National Stock Car Champion and three-time ARCA Menards Series Champion in 1972, 1973 and 1974.  In 1972, Ron was named ARCA Royal Triton New Car Champion.  In 1977, Ron won an ARCA race at Daytona Speedway and the Texas 500.  In 1978, he drove one of A.J. Foyt's cars in the Daytona 500.  He qualified second and finished fourth.  A.J. qualified in the third position!  Ron was also a very strong competitor on the Keokuk track and at Illinois and Missouri modified tracks.

Bill Kirk

Bill started his career in 1959 when his wife and parents talked him into going to a local track in Onawa, Iowa and he caught the racing bug!  Within in few weeks, he had a race car and he raced on to become the only Sioux-land triple crown winner when he scored championships at Collins Field, Interstate Speedway and Raceway Park.  He won 14 championships throughout the region.  The "Salix Speedster" drove everything from a coupe, to a modified, a stock car and ended his career in late models.

Hilbert Schramm

Hilbert is one of the true pioneers of dirt track racing!  In the winter of 1949-1950, he bought a '32 Ford Coupe with an 85 hp V-8 in running condition for $50.00.  He spent the winter and spring getting it ready to race at Fort Dodge and finished second in the A-main in the first night out.  A Freeman Journal article dated August 7, 1952, reported that in a previous race, Hilbert set a new speed record on the fifth-mile oval of 18.54 seconds.  A new number of entries was also set, 72 cars were entered, nearly 25 more than usual.

Randy Smith

Randy raced and competed across the Midwest and was the eighth all-time feature winner at Knoxville.  He began racing sprint cars in 1975, competing in 23 states, Australia and Canada, and winning features at 32 different tracks.  Randy had the honor of driving for 35 different sprint car owners, winning features for 19 of them!  In 2008, he won the Masters Classic, and after a 305-feature win in 2010, his name was added to the elite list of drivers that have won features at Knoxville in five different decades.

Drivers 1990 – Present

Rick Brown

Rick started racing in 1988 at the Marshalltown Speedway in the bomber/hobby class.  In 1991, he moved to the IMCA Stock Cars and was Rookie of the Year and finished fourth in season points.  In 1993, Rick, the "Flying Farmer", started racing a Ford powered stock car and won his first track championship.  He never missed a Friday night of racing at Marshalltown in 23 years of racing, winning five track championships, 124 feature wins, 17 top-five's in season points and in all 23 years finished in the top-ten in season point standings.

Steve Jackson

Steve was the first stock car driver in IMCA history to reach 100 feature wins.  He also won the IMCA Super Nationals five times - 1988, 1990, 1993, 1996 and 2000 and was a two-time National Champion in the IMCA Stock Car class in 1988 and 1991.  Steve started racing in 1986 in a stock car and won his first track championship in 1987.  He has 285 feature wins and 30 track titles in his career.  Twenty-seven of those wins came at the Osky Speedway, the toughest place to race stock cars in the state of Iowa during the 1990's.

Karla Lampe

Karla started racing in 1995 and won her first race in 1996 in the #7 car at the Audubon track in the pure stock class and is still racing!  She raced Denison, Springfield, Boone, Webster City, and others.  Karla was the first woman to win a feature at the Dallas County Speedway in 2012.  She raced in the ARCA Re/Max Series in 2001 and 2002.  She continues her racing career in IMCA dirt and asphalt modifieds.  She won a track championship at the historic Boliver Speedway and was the 2022 USRA Stock Car Track Champion.

Drag Racing

Dale Suhr

Dale started his racing career in a supercharged gas dragster and has continues for five plus decades as a racer, owner, engine builder, fabricator, tuner and teacher!  He won Bowling Green in 2001 and Norman, Oklahoma three years in a row.  Dale's racing highlight was being one of the first ten people in the 250-mph club!  In 2000, he was also the fourth person to go down the 1/4 mile in five seconds.  Dale purchased a 1997 Canode dragster, the "Orange Crate", and it was raced by many highly respected drivers over the years.

Motorcycle

Jerry Smith

Jerry raced motorcycles from age 18 through 72 years old.  Soon after Jerry and his wife, Josie, were married in 1971, they embarked on cycle adventures from Iowa through Central America and across the Panama Canal!  In 1975, Smith rode 8,752 miles across Africa.  The trip included 250 miles across the Sahara Desert; 11 men started, and Jerry was one of three who finished.  A professional flat track racer and member of the Chenoweth Racing Team, he competed at all C, TT tracks and hill climbing competitions in Iowa and central Illinois.

Promoter | Official | Media | Event/Series Sponsor

Jeff Broeg

Jeff became a columnist for Hawkeye Racing News at the age of 15, and the Back Stretch has appeared either in print or online for forty-six years.  He got his first job in racing as the PR man at 34 Raceway.  Broeg picked up the microphone in the early '80's and has announced at tracks throughout the Midwest ever since, currently teaming with Bill Wright to call the Sprint Invaders series.  He has compiled the All-Iowa Points from 1967 to present and is a proud voting member for the National Dirt Late Model Hall of Fame.

Doug Haack

Doug grew up in a racing family.  His dad, Russ, was a very successful racer in the 1950's and 1960's.  In 1969 at age 15, Doug got an official's job lining up cars at the Jackson County Speedway in Maquoketa and at 19 years old, he began flagging at the same track.  Doug has been on the flag stand for almost 50 years and shows no sign of slowing down.  He currently flags at four eastern Iowa tracks and has worked many top Iowa dirt track special events, including UMP Summer Nationals and Deery Bros. Summers Series.

Owner | Builder | Car Sponsor

Lynn Richard

Lynn started racing go-karts in 1977, moved to a stock car, racing a sportsman in 1979 and then a late model in 1980.  In 1986, he and his son became car owners.  The Team 15 drivers included Ron Pallister, Ron Jackson, Jerry Pilcher, Mike Smith, Ray Guss Jr., Denny Banks, Brian Harris, and others.  For many years, Lynn and his family have been involved with the Knoxville Late Model Nationals as auctioneer for the Saturday auctions to benefit the Iowa Sprint Car Hall of Fame and the Late Model Hall of Fame in Kentucky.

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