After a delay of over a year due to the pandemic, the latest inductees into the Georgia Racing Hall of Fame will finally be recognized this weekend.
Mike Rich, a crew member for Melling Racing who lost his life almost 31 years ago at Atlanta Motor Speedway in a pit road accident, car owner Gene White, car builder and mechanic Ray Stonkus, champion motorcycle racer Scott Russell and dirt Late Model racer Wade Knowles will all be honored on Saturday, April 7 at the event in Dawsonville, Georgia.
The event had been planned for last year, but the COVID-19 shutdown led officials to postpone the induction to this year.
Rich, of Blairsville, Georgia, was the right rear tire changer on the No. 9 Melling Racing Ford driven by Bill Elliott, who is also a member of the GRHOF. Rich joined the team in 1988 after trying out at the team’s shops for an opening on the pit crew. The team would go on to win six races and the NASCAR Cup Series championship in 1988, winning an additional race in 1990 and the NASCAR Pit Crew Challenge at Rockingham Speedway in North Carolina.
Rich was in the middle of a pit stop in the 1990 season finale at Atlanta Motor Speedway when he was gravely injured in an accident on pit road. He would pass away hours later at Georgia Baptist Medical Center on November 18, 1990 at the age of 32.
Rich’s death triggered sweeping changes to pit road procedures in motorsports circles around the world, which continue to this day.
To read more about Mike Rich, go here.
Ray Stonkus, from Flowery Branch, Georgia, was a transplant from New England. His start in racing came with working with fellow GRHOF inductee Pete Hamilton as a car builder and owner, with the two winning the 1967 NASCAR National Sportsman title. That led to a move to Atlanta for Stonkus in 1969, where he and Hamilton scored 10 wins and the series title on the NACAR Grand American circuit for Gene White. Stonkus would also work for Sam Posey’s Trans-Am team in 1970 and 1971, and then returned to NASCAR to work with Hamilton again in 1972 and 1973.
He was a key part of Hamilton’s team, as they worked to build innovative short track cars. Those cars included winning mounts in the famed Snowball Derby for drivers such as Hamilton, Ronnie Sanders, Gary Balough and Mickey Gibbs. Their cars also won events all over the south and Midwest.
Stonkus would go on to work as a winning NASCAR Truck Series crew chief, including a victory at Daytona in 2003. He also worked as a part of the JTG Dougherty NASCAR Cup Series team.
Stonkus passed away on March 19, 2020.
Gene White of Marietta, Georgia started his career as a racer, but transitioned into a renowned car owner. He started his career driving at Atlanta’s Peach Bowl, and recorded an 18th place finish in the inaugural Daytona 500 in 1959
White became a Firestone racing tire dealer, one of four in the country that sold tires for motorsports of all kinds.
White was also a safety innovator. After his friend Fireball Roberts as badly burned in a NASCAR Cup Series race at Charlotte Motor Speedway in 1964, White worked diligently to help develop the racing fuel cell, a safety innovation that has saved countless drivers from injury and death.
White would also compete as a car owner in the USAC Champ Car Series, with wins at Phoenix Raceway, the Milwaukee Mile and Trenton, New Jersey. He also recorded top 10 finishes with Lloyd Ruby, Sam Sessions and Cale Yarborough driving.
White passed on April 15, 1986.
Scott Russell of Conyers, Georgia earned the nickname “Mr. Daytona” by recording five motorcycle victories in the Daytona 200 (1992, 1994, 1995, 1997 and 1998). Russell won the AMA Superbike Championship in 1992, and was named AMA Pro Athlete of the Year that same season.
Russell won the World Superbike Championship in 1993, becoming only the third American to do so. He would finish as the runner-up the following year.
In 1995, Russell overcame a first lap crash to best Carl Fogarty for the win at Daytona, marking his fourth career win in the event.
Russell was inducted into the AMA Hall of Fame in 2005 with 14 World Superbike Series wins, 14 AMA Superbike victories and 23 AMS 750 Supersport wins. He also went undefeated in 1991 in AMA 750 Supersport, scoring three championships in the process.
Second generation racer Wade Knowles of Tyrone, Georgia began his career at Woodstock, Georgia’s Dixie Speedway 1981, pocketing five Hobby division victories that year.
Knowles would record an estimated 200 career wins, with 59 of those coming at Dixie Speedway - 40 of those in Super Late Model competition. Among his series wins are victories in the Southern All Stars Series and the Hav-A-Tampa series. He was the winner in the lat 200-lap feature on the original dirt layout at Braselton, Georgia’s Lanier Motorplex.
Knowles retired from driving in 2006.
For more information on the Georgia Racing Hall of Fame induction banquet, visit http://georgiaracinghof.com.
