The New England Auto Racers Hall of Fame announced its 2024 induction class on Monday. Eight new members to Hall of Fame will be inducted into the Hall of Fame’s 26th class on Nov. 3.
The class includes Skip Barber, Pete Daniels, Russ Dowd, Mike Greci, Rick Martin, Paul Newman, Dale Shaw and Bobby Seymour.
Barber went from a successful career as a driver to a legendary career as a racing promoter, series operator and track operator. He founded the globally known Skip Barber Racing School in 1975. He was the longtime owner of Lime Rock Park in Lakeville, Connecticut.
Daniels was a standout at Claremont (N.H.) Speedway where he won Pro Stock titles in 1993, 1994, 1996, 1998 and 1999 and Modified titles in 1999, 2001 and 2002. Daniels was the NASCAR Weekly Racing Series national champion in 2002.
Russ Dowd announced events at a plethora of New England short tracks but is most known as the voice of Thompson Speedway for 35 years. Dowd, who also served as operations manager at Thompson, retired from the track in 2016. He was also an announcer at Stafford Speedway for 13 years.
Greci won a pair of NASCAR Busch North Series titles as a crew chief for Mike Stefanik in 1997 and 1998 before moving on to accomplished and continuing career working at the top levels of NASCAR.
Over a 40-year plus career Martin has raced across New England in all sorts of different cars, but he stands out as one of the greatest ever to race at Seekonk (Mass.) Speedway. He has won seven track championships with four in the Pro Stock division and three in the Truck division, including a Truck division title in 2023. Martin also was known as one of the best fabricators in New England.
World renowned actor and philanthropist Paul Newman, who called Westport, Connecticut home for decades, was also a motorsports enthusiast. After the filming of the racing movie Winning in 1969, Newman became a regular racer for decades. His first professional racing event came in 1972 at Thompson Speedway. He often entered races under the name P.L. Newman so as to not bring attention to himself and blend in with the racing community. He was part of the team that finished second in the 1979 24 Hours of LeMans. He spent decades competing with the Norwalk based Bob Sharp Racing team in Trans Am Series events.
The Seymour family is part of the fabric of the Northeastern Midget Association and Bobby Seymour was a 20-time winner and series champion with the division. He was also a successful fabricator and promoter. Seymour was the winner of the third Boston Louie Memorial, the biggest event annually for NEMA, which is run in honor of his father Louie Seymour.
Dale Shaw was a 19-time winner on the NASCAR Busch North Series. Shaw competed with the series from 1987 to 2005 and was the 1994 series champion. He also made 45 starts with the NASCAR Xfinity Series from 1986 to 1999. He made 83 starts on the American-Canadian Tour from 1985 to 1995 with one win and 35 top-10 finishes. He also had two wins the Pro All-Stars Series over 25 career starts. In addition to his success on the track, he became one of the most respected fabricators in short track racing with Dale Shaw Racecars.
The 26th Annual NEAR Hall of Fame induction dinner will be held for the Class of 2024 on November 3 at the Log Cabin in Holyoke, Massachusetts.
Great Class… Russ Dowd had the best “Voice in the Northeast” .. Great Man .. Rick Martin was awesome to watch, especially at Thompson in a Pro Stock … With over a 100 Wins at Seekonk and still Winning in Trucks and still getting around in a Pro Stock at Seekonk he’s a Legend …. He stated that Thompson was His favorite Track to Drive… If you had the pleasure to watch Radical Rick on the High Banks at Speed it was just Incredible the car control he had coming through the pack ..!!! Great memories….