The United States Auto Club (USAC) is particular about its Hall of Fame inductees. There have been years when USAC has welcomed several members and years, most recently during the pandemic, when none were selected. The 2024 class is a large one, deserving of the honors about to be bestowed upon it.
The 2024 USAC Hall of Fame class is Gene Crucean, the Hoffman family, Rickey Hood, Levi Jones, John Mahoney, Tom Marchese and Judd Phillips. This group is diversified, including media members, car owners, championship drivers, a promoter and a mechanic who also owned race cars of merit.
Gene Crucean’s life in motorsports brought him fame as a photographer. His love of racing began during childhood when he attended races with his family in the Chicago and northern Indiana area. He began collecting racing photos and then started capturing his own, armed with a USAC credential from a non-existent entity. Maybe that could be done in 1965, but doubt Crucean would be successful with that ploy today.
Crucean attended Indiana University and, in 1962 met fellow inductee John Mahoney. Theirs was a lifelong friendship and allowed this duo to form Sprint Car Pictorial magazine in 1968. By 1976, they’d leased the Indianapolis Speedrome to promote a USAC Midget event, won by Bruce Robey. Crucean decided he wanted to be a team owner, and bought a Midget from the late Robin Miller for driver Roy Caruthers. His team did well between 1983 and 1992, finishing fifth in 1990. Their best result? A win for the Crucean/Caruthers duo at the Hoosier Dome Invitational in 1988!
John Mahoney, Crucean’s publishing partner, saw more USAC races through a viewfinder than most any photographer on the myriad tours that USAC sanctions. His proficiency in turning a simple action or candid photograph to art was manifested throughout a long and lustrous career. Born in Indianapolis in 1943, Mahoney arced toward motorsports with a box camera and learned, at an early age to process his film.
While attending Indiana University, Mahoney met Gene Crucean and theirs became a lifelong friendship as well as business enterprise. Their partnership led to the creation of Sprint Car Pictorial, race promotion and team ownership. From 1984-1985, Mahoney was USAC’s assistant director of the USAC News Bureau; at the same time he took on the job of Silver Crown Series coordinator. In 2019, USAC saluted Mahoney as the inaugural recipient of the Dick Jordan Award of Excellence.
Since USAC’s 1956 formation, the Hoffman family of Ohio has won 146 feature events in Sprint Car, Midget and Silver Crown competition. No other team or family has accumulated as many race wins as this group. Founded in 1929 by August “Gus” Hoffman, who found a race car in a field and began entering races with it in the Ohio and Kentucky areas, Hoffman’s teams competed regularly in sprint car races over the next quarter-century.
By 1956, Gus Hoffman’s midget was a winner in USAC’s inaugural season at Ohio’s Dayton Speedway, armed with exceptional racer Eddie Sachs. Gus entered USAC’s Sprint ranks in 1957 with Don Branson behind the wheel at Ohio’s New Bremen Speedway. Branson scored the first of the team’s 135 USAC National Sprint Car wins – to date. Gus’ son, Richard, joined the team as an owner in 1964 and, in time, Richard’s son Rob became the team’s mainstay, marking the Hoffman family as a three generation effort.
After a decade-plus of Indy car racing, the Hoffman team hit its stride. Starting in 1989, the team scored the first of its record 13 USAC national Sprint Car entrant titles. Some of the illustrious racers who have driven for the Hoffman family include Rich Vogler, Steve Butler, Dave Darland, Tracy Hines, Jerry Coons Jr. and Brady Bacon.
Racing skills include being adaptable – the quicker the better – to surroundings and resilience to sudden and unexpected obstacles. Rickey Hood showcased those necessary skills throughout his career and became the quickest racer to become a winner in all three of USAC’s national divisions: Midget, Sprint and Silver Crown. Hood scored victory in his Silver Crown debut and triumphed in his second starts with both Sprint and Midget cars – a total of just five entries!
The son of National Sprint Car Hall of Fame Clarence “Hooker” Hood, Rickey Hood was born, in 1952, in the competitive Memphis racing area. Rickey became an acknowledged USAC star in 1984 when he earned his first career USAC National Sprint Car driving title; a freak accident in the season closer, when a wayward sprint car hit Rickey in the pits broke both of his legs. It didn’t matter – his comeback a year later saw Hood teamed with car owner Damon “Blackie” Fortune; he became the first driver to capture both the USAC National Sprint Car and Silver Crown titles in the same season, earning the Jimmy Caruthers Memorial Award for Spirit and Determination.
Family-run teams are the backbone of USAC racing, and Levi Jones came to the sport courtesy of his family-run racing operation. Born in 1982 in humble circumstances, Olney, Illinois-native Jones started his serious racing career at the age of 16, learning the trials of being an open-wheel racer. After almost seven season of USAC competition, he broke through for a first dirt-track USAC Sprint Car victory in 2004 in Charlotte, North Carolina.
That was just the start for the determined Jones, whose consistency on-track brought him success after success. He earned his first USAC Sprint Car crown in 2005 for 2B Racing, then joined Tony Stewart Racing (TSR), where he earned successive Sprint Car championships from 2007 through 2011. Jones added back-to-back USAC Silver Crown championships in 2010 and 2011 for TSR – for a total of seven USAC National points championships in his focused driving career.
Levi Jones decided to hang up his helmet in 2015 and joined USAC as its national series director; he was named vice president of competition for USAC’s Circle Track Division, a post he held through 2021. Jones was also instrumental in establishing many new events for USAC, most notably the DrivenToSaveLives BC39 National Midget race on the quarter-mile dirt track inside the third turn of Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Jones currently works with INDYCAR as head of its Indy NXT program, the final ladder step before drivers and teams join the NTT INDYCAR SERIES.
What makes a great racing promoter? A love for the sport is always important, as is the ability to work with any number of ego-driven drivers, owners and others in the sport. One of the most successful promoters in both AAA and USAC history, Tom Marchese’s long-standing stewardship of the Milwaukee Mile at Wisconsin State Fair Park in Milwaukee, Wisconsin ranks among the longest and most successful in racing’s American history.
A Sicilian immigrant, Marchese was born in 1899 and came to the US at a young age, settling in Milwaukee. As the automobile industry grew, teenager Marchese began working as a mechanic at the Holmes Motor Company’s Ford dealership and, in succeeding years, he was the mechanic of record for his brother, Carl Marchese, the duo finishing fourth in 1929 at the Indianapolis 500.
Later in 1929, Tom Marchese was asked if he wanted to promote a race at The Milwaukee Mile. He said yes and started a career that turned him into a successful race organizer, annually hosting a group of AAA and, later, USAC events that always drew a packed house, and rewarded racers with good purses.
In total, Tom Marchese promoted 80 USAC events at The Milwaukee Mile between 1956 and 1968, the venue hosting more National Championship and Stock Car races than any other USAC-sanctioned race tack. Marchese was prominent in USAC’s formation and he was among the first appointees to USAC’s board of directors. In 1990, he passed away at the age of 90.
The great mechanics are, of course, magicians. Jud “Christin” Phillips was a master of his craft, securing wins for Champ Cars and Sprint Cars in a career spanning from the 1950s through to the 1980s. A native of Vancouver, Washington, Phillips was born in 1927. He first gained fame for his work on Bob Estes’ race cars and earned the 1956 USAC Midwest Sprint Car title with driver Pat O’Connor. In 1959, crew chief Phillips helped Don Branson to USAC’s Midwest Sprint Car crown. The duo, with Phillips as car owner in 1964, earned the USAC National Sprint Car entrant title.
A chassis constructor as well, Phillips built Bruce Homeyer’s Konstant Hot Specials, earning back-to-back USAC National Sprint titles in 1962 and 1963, with driver Roger McCluskey at the wheel. The same machine earned the series title again in 1966, this time with Clarence “Mutt” Anderson as car owner and McCluskey driving the car.
Phillips was active at the time Indy cars transitioned from front- to rear-engine machines, during the era of wings and ground effects. It didn’t matter the configuration; Phillips found success in all he did. Overall, Phillips was responsible for 18 victories with drivers Branson, Mike Mosley, Billy Vukovich and Tom Sneva. Phillips’ headline win came with Bobby Unser at the 1968 Indianapolis 500. He passed away in January of 1997.
By Anne Proffit
USAC HALL OF FAME INDUCTEES:
2012: J.C. Agajanian, Mario Andretti, Gary Bettenhausen, Tom Binford, Jimmy Bryan, Duane Carter, A.J. Foyt, Tony Hulman, Parnelli Jones, Mel Kenyon, Roger McCluskey & Rich Vogler
2013: Earl Baltes, Henry Banks, Tony Bettenhausen, Tom Bigelow, Pancho Carter, Jack Hewitt, Johnny Rutherford, Al Unser, Bobby Unser, A.J. Watson, Don White & Bob Wilke
2014: Rollie Beale, George Bignotti, Don Branson, Larry Dickson, Gus Hoffman, Jud Larson, Norm Nelson, Eddie Sachs, Don Smith, Bob Stroud, Rodger Ward & Bob Wente
2015: Clint Brawner, Jimmy Caruthers, Butch Hartman, Lindsey Hopkins, Jim Hurtubise, Don Kenyon, Sheldon Kinser, Fred Lorenzen, Roger Penske, Larry Rice, Shorty Templeman & Sleepy Tripp
2016: Steve Butler, Russ Clendenen, Jimmy Davies, Willie Davis, Bob Higman, Tommy Hinnershitz, Dick King, Rick Mears, Pat O’Connor, Kevin Olson, Tony Stewart & Bob Tattersall
2017: Donald Davidson, Frankie DelRoy, Bob East, Chuck Gurney, Gene Hartley, Steve Lewis, Howard Linne, Lloyd Ruby, Ken Schrader, Robbie Stanley, Steve Stapp & Johnny Thomson
2018: Mike Devin, Tony Elliott, Paul Goldsmith, Jason Leffler, Bill Lipkey, Troy Ruttman, Bob/Gene Shannon & Jimmy Sills
2019: Bryan Clauson, Johnny Capels, Dick Jordan & Dave Steele
2020: None
2021: None
2022: Doug Caruthers, Jay Drake, Galen Fox, Jeff Gordon, Dan Gurney, Ray Nichels, Johnny Vance & Joe Shaheen
2023: Bobby East, Ted Halibrand, Tracy Hines, Terry Lingner, Bill Marvel & The Wilke Family
2024: Gene Crucean, The Hoffman Family, Rickey Hood, Levi Jones, John Mahoney, Tom Marchese & Jud Phillips
Leave a Reply