LAS VEGAS — Eight persons who have made noteworthy contributions to the Sports Car Club of America and the motorsports world became official members of the SCCA Hall of Fame Saturday evening during the Awards Banquet that closed the 2018 SCCA National Convention at the South Point Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada.
The 2018 Hall of Fame class includes William C. Bradshaw, Peter Cunningham, Janet Guthrie, August Pabst, Dave Stremming and Loren Pearson, Bob Sharp and Dr. Dick Thompson. These current inductees join 75 others in the Hall of Fame as those who have positioned the building blocks that elevated SCCA’s stature in the motorsports world for more than 70 years.
Bradshaw joined the SCCA in 1964. His incredible gifts of time and effort, across multiple programs, benefited generations and will continue to help members for decades to come. As a competitor, he participated in Road Rally, stage rally and road racing, but found his calling helping other Club members, tirelessly working track side, staging rallies, and in board meetings shaping the organization.
Through the years, Bradshaw helped by inspecting tracks, as a pit marshal, directing traffic on grid or as a steward, including time spent as executive steward for the Northeast Division and assistant chief steward for the SCCA Runoffs at Road Atlanta and Road America. His work trackside even took him beyond the SCCA – to multiple Formula One Grand Prix events at Watkins Glen. As a regional board member, Bradshaw served as by-laws chairman, membership chairman, assistant regional executive and regional executive. As testimony to the impact of his character and contributions, when Bradshaw decided to add to his SCCA plate by running for Area 10 director, it was discovered that he did not reside in the Division. But Bradshaw was so beloved that Central Pennsylvania Region ceded the county he was living in to Glen Region and forever redefined the border between two areas.
In 1975, Finger Lakes Region requested Bradshaw’s assistance as they attempted to create a stage rally in northern Pennsylvania. The Susquehannock Trail Pro Rally became a highlight of the SCCA Pro Rally season and Bradshaw continued to support it tirelessly. As a result, Bradshaw is the namesake of the SCCA Pro Rally “Bill Bradshaw Award for Volunteerism.”
Though his hours spent organizing and volunteering were formidable, it is his efforts for safety that Bradshaw may have the most lasting impact. As a steward, he focused on driver safety by gathering statistics on incidents, analyzing that data on incidents and outcomes, and using them to create risk management profiles. These data and analysis methods helped form the current Safety Steward Model still instrumental today.
Bradshaw’s commitment to safety extended beyond incident reporting and analysis and into supporting and promoting the recognition of Emergency Services as a separate, unique specialty, an effort that resulted in the creation of a stand-alone license for Emergency Services.
Bradshaw earned the Carl Haas Award for outstanding service, the Glen Region’s Jacqulyn Holman Race Worker of the Year award, the Glen Region’s Regional Executive award and the Northeast Division’s Floyd Stone award.
The racing bug bit Cunningham after a happenstance meeting with a Porsche driver in an apartment parking lot. The driver told him about autocrossing and that one could do it in their own car. An excited Cunningham entered his first autocross in his SAAB 99, won the event and the groundwork was set for him to go head over heels into the motorsports world. He autocrossed every weekend that year and, as he did, found more competition and more challenges – each pushing him to do more and work harder.
Along the way, Cunningham built the resume of a renaissance driver, with success across series and formats. Cunningham found himself behind the wheel in ice racing, blasting through the woods on stage rally, and had his SCCA National Competition License fast-tracked by winning his first two regional events.
It was ice racing that launched Cunningham into his most visible achievement – his partnership with Honda. After some success, he was able to convince Honda to give him a well-used road racing car for a series. With it he beat the factory team and won the drivers and manufacturers championship. That led to a relationship which has grown to one of the longest partnerships in motorsports – 31 years of RealTime Racing and Honda/Acura.
Cunningham has championships on ice, dirt and asphalt – in stage rally, ice racing, road racing and autocross, winning in both cars, and even trucks as part of the Shellzone Truck Guard Racetruck Championship. He has multiple SCCA Nationals-level road race wins – including the June Sprints. He has won the SCCA Solo National Championship, is a two-time United States Endurance Championship winner, is a Pro Rally champion and is a 10-time SCCA Pro Racing Driver’s Champion. He is the career leader in every major statistical category in World Challenge, including: starts, championships, wins and pole positions. And in 1998, he won the GT3 class at the Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona.
As a motorsports leader, Cunningham’s role with World Challenge Vision helped rejuvenate World Challenge in the late 2000s. As a team owner, his RealTime Racing team is a constant championship contender posting 89 race wins, 24 Championships in iconic products like the Integra Type R and debuting the Acura NSX racing program in the 1990s and again in 2017.
Source : speedsport.com
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