Earl Kouba

Earl Kouba began his career in a midget in 1938 by competing at Merchants Park in Denver. In 1939, he won four features and was crowned champion even though he began racing at Lakeside Speedway in August of the same season. Earl continued to race throughout Colorado...

Frank Peterson

Frank’s involvement in midget auto racing started in 1947. At the age of 12 Frank started helping his uncle, Pete Mahr, on their midget race car. Between taking off body panels, side plates and cam covers, he was allowed to polish the body and clean up the car. But...

Hank and Scot Hersh

The father and son team of Henry “Hank” and Scot Hersh became interested in racing in the early 1970’s, sponsoring local modified and stock car drivers, including Stan and Very Sheilling, Herb Renz and Kenny Clark. In 1976 they ran a sprint car with the Big Car Racing...

Jerry Malloy

Jerry Malloy, a Colorado native, began his career in motorsports in 1955 when he built his first car, the #83. During his career, Jerry raced both open wheel and stock cars at Lakeside Speedway and Englewood Speedway. While Jerry continued racing he soon realized, as...

Jim Beckley

Jim Beckley was born and grew up in Englewood, Colorado. Near his boyhood home, the Malloy’s had a shop where they worked on and built stock cars. While in junior high, Jim started hanging around the garage. Jim drove his first racecar, a modified stock, at Englewood...

Rick Carelli

Rick Carelli started his racing career in 1973 following in the footsteps of his older brother Donnie. He won the season championship in his first full season of racing in 1975 at Lakeside Speedway. The late motorsports commentator Larry Nuber dubbed Carelli as “the...

Vern Shaver

Vern Shaver’s love of racing spanned more than 30 years. His racing career began in 1954 when he and brother, Buck, built their first stock car, which they raced at Pikes Peak Speedway in Colorado Springs. Veteran police officer Wayne Strobridge was their driver. In...

Joe Starr

The board selected veteran motorsports photographer Joe Starr to be the recipient of the 2011 Jerry Van Dyke Memorial Award, recognizing outstanding contribution to motorsports by an individual.Joe Starr was born in San Diego, California and attended his first race at...

Joe Giba

Joe Giba’ s motorsports career spanned more than 33 years, including racing both motorcycles and midgets. During his career, he won two Colorado Midget Racing Association features in Pueblo in 1947. He also won 10 Rocky Mountain Midget Racing Association features in...

Mitch Miller

Mitch Miller first became involved in motorsports in 1965 in public relations and advertising roles with the Rocky Mountain Midget Racing Association. In 1966, he began announcing for the RMMRA and was then elected president of the RMMRA in 1970. He served in that...