Tommy Kendall set for Motorsports Hall of Fame induction

Thursday night, Tommy Kendall made the transition from “racing star” to “Hall of Famer.”

The four-time IMSA champion and current FOX Sports commentator will be inducted into the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America at Detroit’s Fillmore Theater, joined by fellow luminaries Mark Martin, Ricky Carmichael, Lloyd Ruby, Walker Evans and Duke Nalon.“This is awesome, but at the same time it’s hard to process -- it’s hard to believe,” Kendall said. “I’ve kept active driving up until last year, but when I think about it, my real career ended nearly 20 years ago when I stopped racing full time at the end of 1997. “Since then, I’ve been doing some racing for fun. Looking back, I certainly had a record over my 13 years that was unparalleled. To win a championship almost every year I ran was the name of the game, and I’m proud to have been able to do that.” Sports car legend David Hobbs is the Master of Ceremonies. Kendall will be inducted into the Hall’s 27th class by Brian Vickers, giving the former NASCAR XFINITY Series champion the opportunity to return a favor. “I know Brian very well,” Kendall said. “In fact, I was one of the best men at his wedding.”Kendall burst upon the professional sports car racing scene in 1986, when the 19-year-old junior studied economics at UCLA and then made history on the race tracks. IMSA’s then-youngest champion, Kendall also become IMSA’s first double champion, winning the Camel GTU title in a Mazda RX-7 while capturing the Firestone Firehawk (a precursor to what is now known as the Continental Tire SportsCar Challenge) Grand Sport crown in a Nissan 300ZXT.That opened a run of three consecutive IMSA GTU titles, winning two in Clayton Cunningham’s Mazdas before switching to a Chevrolet Beretta prepared by Dan Binks.After winning 15 of 50 IMSA GTU races over a four-year span, he moved to SCCA Trans-Am, where he won four championships in eight years – rounding out his run with three consecutive titles in a Jack Roush Mustang. He ended his full-time career in spectacular fashion. He opened the 1997 Trans-Am season with an 11-race winning streak, giving him 16 wins, 27 poles and 27 podiums in 38 races over that three-year span. He also drove for Chevrolet’s Intrepid IMSA GTP program, competed in 14 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series races, and raced for six seasons in the International Race of Champions (IROC).Adding to his achievements, Kendall also was a two-time GTS winner in the Rolex 24 At Daytona, finishing second overall in 1993 while placing third in 1995 in a Jack Roush Mustang co-driven by Paul Newman.“The Rolex 24 was the first big race I ever attended – to watch – with my dad,” Kendall said. “It was great to win it a couple of times. From a memory standpoint, the win with Newman was a very special time preparing and doing it, along with getting to spend so much time with a very cool cat.”Kendall was joined by fellow Hall of Fame inductee Martin in that victory. “The closest I ever came to winning a [Sprint] Cup race was 1991 at Sonoma, where he and I got together with three laps to go that cost both of us the chance at the win,” Kendall said. “We were not exactly the best of friends, but then we became good friends at Roush. “There’s not a more deserving guy. His record in IROC was unbelievable, and shows his talent. The remarkable thing about Mark is that everyone sees how good he was except him. He thinks he lucked into the whole thing, yet every car he got in, he hauled butt in.”While Ruby is best known for his exploits during a 20-year Indy Car career, he also made his mark in international sports car racing. Ruby and Ken Miles gave the Ford GT40 its first international victory in the 2,000-kilometer Daytona Continental in 1965. A year later, the pair won Daytona’s first 24-hour race and followed it up by winning the 12 Hours of Sebring, both in Ford GT40-based cars.Over the years, 216 motorsports luminaries have been inducted into the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America. The 99-person nominating panel itself reads like a “who’s who” of racing, with stars such as Mario Andretti, Don Garlits, Craig Breedlove and Richard Petty involved in the process.IMSA sends heartfelt congratulations to Tommy Kendall and his fellow inductees on well-deserved honors. Source: IMSA