2025 Calistoga Speedway Hall of Fame inductees named
Calistoga Speedway will kick off its first weekend of racing in six years by inducting six new members into the track’s Hall of Fame.
The induction dinner on Friday evening, August 29, will be a prelude to the 14th annual Louie Vermeil Classic on Saturday and Sunday, a tribute to the founder of the Northern Auto Racing Club who nurtured sprint car racing on the historic Napa Valley half mile oval for 50 years.
The induction dinner, sponsored by the West Coast Stock Car Motorsports Hall of Fame, will honor six men who made significant contributions to open wheel racing at Calistoga and throughout Northern California in a variety of roles. They include:
Frank Albert, a former drag racer who migrated to open wheel supermodifieds at the now defunct West Capital Speedway in Sacramento in the 1960s. A mechanic by trade, Albert was honored as the outstanding pit crew member of that track’s championship team in 1972 before opening a business, Frank Albert Racing-Sales and Service, which provided weekly pit-side help to racers for over four decades, at Calistoga Speedway and other tracks on the Northern Auto Racing Club tour.
Bobby McMahon, who began his sprint car career as Rookie of the Year at Placerville Speedway in1982 and is the 2009 sprint car champion at Chico’s Silver Dollar Speedway, a title he won after a racing hiatus of five years. In between he won four races on the Calistoga Speedway half mile and was runner-up in the Northern Auto Racing Club’s Speedweek championship in ‘96 and also runner-up in the overall NARC standings in ‘97, driving the well-known Tri-C sprint car owned by Clyde Lemar.
Ron Horton, who ranks 16th on the Calistoga Speedway win list with 7 victories. Horton is known for being one of the most consistent drivers on the Northern Auto Racing Club tour in the 1970s. Horton won the 1973 NARC driving title and subsequently ran a string of top finishes in the championship ranks. He scored three wins in 1975 to earn runner-up honors in the NARC championship standings, which he would repeat in 1979 after finishing third in the standings in ‘77 and ‘78.
Jim Hearn, a car owner on the NARC tour whose car was driven by Ron Horton for many years, including the year Horton won the driver’s championship in 1975.
Jim Allen, who began his career with the Northern Auto Racing Club as a publicist in the 1980s. After living and working in Los Angeles, Allen returned to Northern California and resumed his association with NARC where he has filled a wide range of roles for over 20 years, including General Manager, part owner, and Marketing Director, while also posting on a wide range of media.
Clyde LeMar, the second-winningest car owner at Calistoga Speedway, with 13 wins, whose iconic Tri-C Machine sprint car was driven by top-tier drivers like Bobby McMahon, Paul McMahon, Dave Bradway, Jr., Gary Patterson, Jimmy Sills and Tommy Estes, Jr. A self-made businessman in the machining and tire recycling business, LeMar fielded one of the most competitive sprint cars on the West Coast and had his biggest success with driver Jonathan Allard, with whom he won 40 races.
About the West Coast Stock Car/Motorsports Hall of Fame:
The West Coast Stock Car/Motorsports Hall of Fame was conceived in 2001 as a means of recognizing significant contributors and contributions to the sport of stock car/motorsports competition. The mission of the West Coast Stock Car/Motorsports Hall of Fame is founded to preserve history and heritage of the important role west coast stock car and motorsports figures have played in the sport’s development and continuation and to recognize, through annual enshrinement, of outstanding individuals and groups within the sport such as, but not limited to, designers, engineers, mechanics, drivers, race track owners, promoters, publicists and members of the motorsports media.
The Hall is a 501(c)3, soon to be (c)4 charitable organization, dedicated to supporting a variety of organizations and groups from coast to coast. The Hall has raised more than $1 million during the past 6-1/2 years for youth, health and safety, hospitals, animal rescue, military and other charitable causes.
For more information on the West Coast Stock Car/Motorsports Hall of Fame visit: www.WestCoastStockCarHallofFame.com
Media Contact:
Owen A. Kearns
661-342-2983
