Allmendinger, Gurney, Hamilton, Jefferson, Marks, Said, Ware slated for Las Vegas induction
BAKERSFIELD, California (December 9, 2024) – Seven individuals whose motorsports careers touch a myriad of disciplines have been named to the West Coast Stock Car/Motorsports Hall of Fame’s Class of 2025.
The Hall’s newest inductees are:
- AJ Allmendinger, Los Gatos, Calif., CART rookie of the year and NASCAR Cup Series and Xfinity Series veteran
- Chuck Gurney, Oakland, Calif., United States Auto Club Silver Crown and supermodified champion
- Davey Hamilton, Nampa, Idaho, Canadian-American Modified Association champion, Indianapolis 500 veteran and race promoter
- Jeff Jefferson, Naches, Wash., three-time NASCAR Northwest Series driver champion, current NASCAR ARCA Menards Series West owner, winning driver and championship crew chief counting 34 victories
- Justin Marks, Menlo Park, Calif., founder and team owner of Trackhouse Entertainment Group and Trackhouse Racing competing in the NASCAR Cup Series and the international MotoGP
- Boris Said, Carlsbad, Calif., Sports Car Club of America Trans-Am and GRAND-AM GT champion
- Rick Ware, Los Angeles, Calif., owner of teams competing in NASCAR Cup Series, the Top Fuel class of the NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series, the NTT INDYCAR Series, Whelen Mazda MX-5 Cup, and FIM World Supercross and AMA American Flat Track motorcycles
The organization in 2025 also will induct its eighth Heritage class of individuals whose careers largely began prior to 1970. The five Heritage inductees will be named in January 2025. The West Coast Stock Car/Motorsports Hall of Fame will also reveal its next 10 Pioneers of Speed – most of whom began their careers prior to World War II.
“We could not be more pleased with the diversity of the seven inductees,” said Ken Clapp, Chairman and CEO of the West Coast Stock Car/Motorsports Hall of Fame. “We opted not to have a run-off of the tie votes and are choosing to induct all seven.”
The 2025 induction ceremonies, presented by World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway, will be held Thursday, March 13 as kick-off of the March 14-16 NASCAR Cup Series, NASCAR Xfinity Series and NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. The gala will be held at the South Point Hotel and Casino and will feature the naming of the 5th Annual Knockin Doorz Down Philanthropist of the Year presented by 51FIFTY.
Inductee biographies are attached
The West Coast Stock Car/Motorsports Hall of Fame annually nominates for induction worthy individuals who competed in traditional stock car racing as well as other racing vehicles primarily on road courses under international and national sanction by the FIA, IndyCar, International Motor Sports Association (IMSA), GRAND-AM and the Sports Car Club of America. The Hall is also open to winners and champions of other forms of racing, as determined by the Hall’s nominating committee.
To obtain media credentials for coverage of the 24th West Coast Stock Car Hall of Fame dinner and awards, please contact Owen A. Kearns at 661-342-2983. To obtain details about table sponsorship for the 2025 awards dinner, please contact Ken Clapp at ckcdeee@gmail.com.
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 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.
West Coast Stock Car/Motorsports Hall of Fame Class of 2025
AJ Almendinger. AJ Almendinger, Los Gatos, Calif., continues to enjoy a nearly three-decade career racing karts, open-wheel championship cars and NASCAR stock cars. He is a two-time World Karting Federation Grand National champion and – at age 22 – was named Championship Auto Racing Teams (CART) Rookie of the year. Almendinger won five CART races driving for Gerry Forsythe Racing during the 2006 season when he finished third in the points standings. In 2024, Almendinger completed his 17thseason as a NASCAR Cup Series competitor, winning three times – at Watkins Glen International for JTG Racing and on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course and the Charlotte Roval for his current team, Kaulig Racing. Almendinger has 18 NASCAR Xfinity Series victories – two for Penske Racing and the remainder for Kaulig. His best points finish, third, came this year. In 2003, Almendinger was the second-youngest driver to win the Toyota Atlantic championship behind Michael Andretti. He won the 2012 Rolex 24 at Daytona driving for Michael Shank Racing with co-drivers Justin Wilson, John Pew and Ozz Negri.
Chuck Gurney. The second-generation driver raced quarter midgets as a child, and as youngster, watched his father Gene race for the Bay Cities Racing Association (BCRA). Born in Oakland, Calif., Gurney was a dominant figure in open wheel circles during the 1980s. He claimed 33 Northern Auto Racing Club (NARC) feature wins and one NARC championship, which came in 1983. In 1985 he captured a national championship in the United States Auto Club (USAC) super modifieds. Gurney won the USAC Silver Crown title and counts 14 Silver Crown victories, which places him second on the all-time list. Gurney is a five-time Copper World Classic champion – three in midgets, and twice in sprint cars. He won the 1989 Belleville Midget Nationals and the 1988 and 1989 Turkey Night Grand Prix at the legendary Ascot Park and is a nine-time California Racing Association (CRA) winner. In 2004, Gurney was inducted into the National Sprint Car Hall of Fame in Knoxville, Iowa.
Davey Hamilton. Davey Hamilton is a second-generation super modified star and Indianapolis 500 veteran. A native of Nampa, Idaho, the son of open-wheel pavement legend Ken Hamilton began his racing career in the six-cylinder class at Boise’s Firebird Raceway. He won championship and rookie of the year titles in 1979 and made his super modified debut a year later with the Canadian American Racing Association (CAMRA). He won three consecutive titles, 1987-89 and from 1990 through 1994 championships in Western States Super modified Tour, Super Modified Racing Association, Fire and Fury Series and the Madera series. Hamilton competed in 11 Indianapolis 500 races, finishing fourth in 1998. He made 56 Indy Racing League starts, driving for A.J. Foyt, Galles Racing and Dreyer Reinbold Racing teams. Hamilton was runner-up in the championship two times – 1997 for Foyt and 1998 for Nienhouse Motorsports. He scored eight IRL podiums, twice finishing second at Atlanta Motor Speedway and Pikes Peak International Raceway. Hamilton is a broadcaster with SIRIUSXM Radio and NBC Sports.
Jeff Jefferson. Jeff Jefferson is a three-time NASCAR Elite Series Northwest Tour champion and former NASCAR ARCA Menards Series West team owner. Jefferson, a resident of Naches, Wash., is the son of West Coast Stock Car/Motorsports Hall of Fame inductee George Jefferson. He won the 2003-05 Tour titles, posting 13 victories in 80 starts. Jefferson also competed on the NASCAR ARCA Menards Series West, winning once at Portland Speedway in 2000. With West Coast Stock Car/Motorsports Hall of Fame crew chief Jerry Pitts, Jefferson purchased the assets of Gene Price Racing in 2005. Their drivers included Noah Gragson, who won five times and was named the 2015 rookie of the year. The team – JP Racing and Jefferson Racing – scored 13 victories in the NASCAR ARCA Menards Series East and West. Among the winning drivers were NASCAR Cup Series champion Kevin Harvick and Will Rogers. Austin Dillon, Sheldon Creed and William Byron also drove the team’s Fords. Jefferson has won 34 races as a ARCA Menards Series West crew chief.
Justin Marks. Justin Marks is the founder and team owner of Trackhouse Entertainment Group and Trackhouse Racing competing in the NASCAR Cup Series and the international MotoGP. He opened the Trackhouse Motorplex (formerly GoPro Motorplex) go kart racing facility near Charlotte in late 2012. Marks entered race team ownership at lower levels, including a venture with late owner Harry Scott in NASCAR’s lower rungs, as well as a World of Outlaws team. He won the 2022 National Motorsports Press Association’s Myers Brothers Award recognizing individuals and/or groups that have provided outstanding contributions to stock car racing. Along with Dale Earnhardt Jr., Kevin Harvick and Jeff Burton, Marks purchased the Championship Auto Racing Series (CARS) Tour in January 2023. The professional Late Model and Late Model stock car grassroots series competes at local short tracks throughout the Southeast United States. Marks was a driver for nearly 20 years enjoying sports car success, including factory rides with Porsche, Acura and BMW. He won several times in the Trans Am Series in 2023. Marks Joined four co-drivers in winning the 2009 Rolex 24 in the GT division. Marks competed in the NASCAR Cup Series, Xfinity Series and NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series, winning the 2016 Xfinity Series at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course.
Boris Said. Boris Said is best known for his sports car successes while being an acknowledged “road course ringer” in NASCAR. Said, born in New York City but living throughout his career in Carlsbad, Calif., won the 2002 SCCA Trans-Am championship and the 2004 Rolex Grand-Am GT title. Driving a BMW, Said shared back to back GT class victories in the 1997-98 24 Hours of Daytona. Said won 10 times in the Rolex Series. He competed in the LeMans 24 Hour race, won in GT cars in Germany and also raced in Australian Super Cars. Said, whose father Bob was a pioneer post-World War II sports car driver, won poles in all three NASCAR national series. Although recognized for his road racing prowess, Said captured the pole for the 2006 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Coke 400 at Daytona International Speedway and finished fourth. He won a NASCAR XFINITY Series race in Montreal as well as a NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series event at Sonoma Raceway. He frequently is called on to tutor NASCAR’s top stars on the art of road racing. Said’s most recent NASCAR Cup Series start came in 2022 at Circuit of the Americas.
Rick Ware. Rick Ware, Los Angeles, Calif. has been a motorsports mainstay for more than 40 years, beginning at age 6 when the third-generation racer began his driving career and has since spanned four wheels and two wheels on both asphalt and dirt. Competing in the SCCA Trans Am Series and other road-racing divisions led Ware to NASCAR in the early 1980s, where he finished third in his NASCAR debut – the 1983 Warner W. Hodgdon 300 NASCAR Grand American race at Riverside (Calif.) International Raceway. More than a decade later, injuries would force Ware out of the driver seat and into fulltime team ownership. In 1995, Rick Ware Racing was formed, and with wife Lisa by his side, Ware has since built his eponymous organization into an entity that fields two fulltime entries in the NASCAR Cup Series while simultaneously campaigning successful teams in the Top Fuel class of the NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series, the NTT INDYCAR Series, Whelen Mazda MX-5 Cup, and FIM World Supercross and AMA American Flat Track motorcycles. His Top Fuel driver Clay Millican won the prestigious NHRA Nationals at Indianapolis Raceway Park.