The 2010 class of the Kentucky Motorsports Hall of Fame will be officially inducted in August at the Swope Cars of Yesteryear Museum in Elizabethtown, Ky.
In addition to the 2010 class, the late Harry Hyde of Brownsville, Ky., a member of the 2009 class, will be reinducted at the ceremony with his son, Harry Lee Hyde, on hand to accept.
Hyde was a master mechanic and the only crew chief for the K&K Insurance team in what was the NASCAR Winston Cup Series. His cars posted 56 victories in that series, and under his guidance the team won the series championship in 1970 with driver Bobby Isaac. Prior to the organization of the K&K team, Hyde-prepared cars won the Late Model championship at the old Fairgrounds Motor Speedway in Louisville in 1963 with driver Jesse Baird, and repeated in 1964 and 1965 with driver Andy Hampton, a member of the KMHOF class of 2010.
In addition to Hampton, honorees for 2010 include Austin Myers of Valley Station, Billy Howell of Hodgenville, Milt Hartlauf of Jeffersonville, Ind., Billy Campbell of Litchfield, Bill Stebbins of Louisville, Darrell Alderman of Morehead, Danny Sullivan of Louisville, Morris Smith of Bowling Green, along with the “Owensboro Boys.”
The OWENSBORO BOYS
The “Owensboro Boys” – Billy Joe Miles, Jerry Baird, Carl Mercer, Donnie Bittel, Joe England, Walter Harder, Jim Burns, and Gene Wilkerson – were arguably the founders of the billion dollar industry of indoor motorsports. A group of farmers and tractor pull enthusiasts, they organized the first National Farm Machinery Show tractor pull at the Kentucky Fair and Exposition Center in 1969. That event has grown into one of the premier pulling events on the motorsports calendar. They went on to form TNT Motorsports, which brought tractor pulls and monster truck competitions to indoor arenas all over the country and gained national recognition through television coverage.
ANDY HAMPTON
Hampton posted a total of eight wins in ARCA competition, including two in the ARCA race at Daytona – in 1968 and 1972. In 1972, he also started in 27th place in the NASCAR Daytona 500, and drove his way to tenth place. In addition to the two Late Model championships at the Fairgrounds Motor Speedway, Hampton was the track’s first Figure 8 champion in 1961, and won the title again in 1962 and 1963 – giving him five straight and making him the only driver to win championships in both divisions at one of the toughest speedways in the country.
AUSTIN MYERS
Myers was a premier drag racing competitor, with several NHRA National Event championships, having success in Competition Eliminator as well as in Top Gas, Funny Car, and Top Fuel. His first points win came in Competition Eliminator at Indianapolis Raceway Park in 1968. He was honored as the NHRA North Central Division’s Top Professional Driver of the Year in 1971. The same year he won the NHRA World Finals in Amarillo, Tex. while resetting the Top Gas speed record at 209.58 miles per hour.
MILT HARTLAUF
A native of Louisville, Hartlauf began driving in 1948 at the Jeffersonville (Ind.) Sportsdrome. He won the Kentuckiana Racing Association championship and was four times Kentucky Dirt Track Champion. Driving for the Fish Carburetor team along with Fireball Roberts, he competed on the old Daytona Beach and Road Course as well as at Darlington, S.C. and Raleigh, N.C. In 1958 he turned to promoting and served as general manager of the Sportsdrome, then took the same position at the Fairgrounds Motor Speedway, remaining in that capacity until the facility closed following the 1980 season. He also served as promoter at the Salem (Ind.) Speedway, and a director of competition for the American Speed Association.
BILLY HOWELL
The 1975 Late Model champion at the Fairgrounds Motor Speedway, Howell drove hemi-powered Chrysler products before taking the seat of a Camaro prepared by Terry Elmore. He later teamed up with Bill Clary, operator of one of the region’s leading speed shops. Howell and Clary with the “Kopper Kat” traveled the country from short tracks in Kentucky, Tennessee, and Florida as well as running at Winchester, Salem, and Anderson in Indiana with ASA. During this time they held nine different track records, including one at Highland Rim Speedway near Nashville which stood for years until it was broken by Bobby Allison. He drove until 1988, when he won his final feature race at Kentucky Motor Speedway near Whitesville.
DARRELL ALDERMAN
Beginning his drag racing career at local race tracks in Kentucky, Alderman began racing professional in the Pro Stock category in the early 1980s with IHRA and AHRA, recording several wins. In 1986, he teamed with Wayne County Speed Shop to drive a Dodge Daytona, and earned the NHRA Pro Stock Rookie of the year title in his first full year of competition. He earned the NHRA Pro Stock World Championship in 1990, 1991, and 1994, and had 28 National Event victories, sixth most in NHRA Pro Stock history. In 1991, he recorded 59 round wins and 11 National Event titles in the 18 on the schedule to break the NHRA record. His career bests were an elapsed time of 6.734 seconds and a top speed of 205.38 miles per hour.
BILLY CAMPBELL
Campbell’s most notable success came in the cockpit of Jack Hart’s Gold Digger twin-engined Top Fuel Dragster, in which he was the winner of several IHRA national events, and winner of the Popular Hot Rodding Championships in Martin, Mich. in 1974. Campbell began his racing career in the 1960s, and retired from the sport in 1975.
DANNY SULLIVAN
Louisville-born Sullivan participated in the Formula One World Championship in 1983, and won two SCCA Can-Am series races before beginning competition in the Championship Auto Racing Teams open wheel series. He recorded 13 victories in CART, including the 1986 Indianapolis 500-Mile Race. On the 120th lap of that race, he passed Mario Andretti for the lead in the first turn, then spun his Miller American Special in the short chute. He recovered control of the car after spinning 360 degrees with no damage except for flat-spotted tires. After pitting for new tires, he returned to the race and passed Andretti again on his way to the victory. In 1988, he won the CART season championship for himself and team owner Roger Penske.
MORRIS SMITH
Smith served as track manager at Beech Bend Park in Bowling Green, working for the Garvin family in supervising operations on the quarter-mile oval and the drag strip through the 1960s and 1970s and into the 1980s. He was responsible for bringing the two tracks to prominence among motorsports facilities and helping to turn the family-owned recreational facility and amusement park in to a popular tourist destination.
BILL STEBBINS
Starting as a drag racer as well as oval competitor in the early 1960s, then started his chassis building shop. He fabricated Top Fuel dragsters for race teams all over the country in the 1970s and 1980s. Cars he build recorded over twenty National Event victories and at least five World Championships. He later on raced midget cars, and sponsored many stock car racers competing in the Louisville area.
The Swope Cars of Yesteryear Museum is located at 1110 North Dixie Avenue in Elizabethtown.
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