Six Virginia natives who have made outstanding achievements in motorsports during their respective careers will be inducted into the Virginia Motorsports Hall of Fame this fall.
The inductees include former NASCAR Cup Series driver Ricky Rudd who held the NASCAR Cup Series record for consecutive starts for a decade and is known as one of the few successful driver/owners in NASCAR’s modern era, and Cathy Rice, only the second woman to become a general manager at a NASCAR-sanctioned speedway. She will be the first woman to be inducted into the Virginia Motorsports Hall of Fame.
Four major personalities in motorsports from the Commonwealth of Virginia will be inducted posthumously. They include Robert “Red” Byron, who won NASCAR’s first-ever race and went on to win NASCAR’s first-ever season championship, Joe Weatherly, who won the NASCAR Cup Series championship in 1962 and 1963, noted dirt-track racer Tommy Bare who won several major dirt-track races and won multiple track championships at seven different tracks throughout the region, and Emanuel T. Zervakis, who, as a driver, raced in three different NASCAR racing divisions, was an innovative car builder and owner, and a track promoter.