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Purkey, Stokes, Weeks among '24 Hall of Famers
Ricky Weeks (Brian McLeod/Dirt Scenes)
ROSSBURG, Ohio — A six-time MLRA champion, five-time Carolina Clash champ, the all-time winningest MACS driver, a five-time Indiana track champion and a three-time Mississippi State champ-turned-promoter are set to join the National Dirt Late Model Hall of Fame in the Class of 2024. | Slideshow
The names of Al Purkey of Coffeyville, Kan., Ricky Weeks of Rutherford, N.C., Todd Andrews of Eldred, Pa., the late Ira Bastin of Solsberry, Ind., and Johnny Stokes of Columbus, Miss., were revealed along with three contributors to the sport Saturday at Eldora Speedway at the 43rd annual General Tire Dirt Track World Championship presented by ARP.
Contributors elected by Hall of Fame voters are Rocket Chassis co-owner Steve Baker, racing historian and author Greg Fielden and longtime editor and reporter Todd Turner of DirtonDirt.com.
The Class of 2024, elected by a 75-member committee and set to join more than 200 drivers and contributors enshrined since 2001, will be inducted Aug. 10 during the Sunoco Race Fuels North-South 100 weekend at Florence Speedway in Union, Ky. A closer look at the Class of 2024 (listed alphabetically):
Drivers
Todd Andrews, Eldred, Pa.: The retired 59-year-old’s impressive list of major victories includes 1996’s Hillbilly 100 at Pennsboro (W.Va.) Speedway, 1999’s Pittsburgher at Pittsburgh's Pennsylvania Motor Speedway and 2002’s Winchester 200 at Winchester (Va.) Speedway during a career of more than 25 years that was most productive in the 1990s and 2000s. Andrews was the all-time winningest Mid-Atlantic Championship Series driver (17 victories) and an nine-time winner on the Short Track Auto Racing Stars circuit, where he finished third in points in 1996. He also was a 2004 champion with the Regional Racing Series while winning five of nine races the same season he won track titles at Little Valley (N.Y.) Speedway and McKean County Speedway in East Smethport, Pa. (for $18,000 in total points money). The owner-operator of Andrews Auto Salvage who retired in 2008 also scored five-figure victories at Maryland tracks in 2000’s Conococheague 100 at Hagerstown Speedway and 2001’s Big Kahuna at Cumberland’s Allegany County Speedway.
Ira Bastin, Solsberry, Ind.: One of Brownstown (Ind.) Speedway’s winningest drivers, the hulking racer — his helmeted head frequently was visible atop his vehicle — was a Navy veteran and operated Bastin Excavating while winning more than 200 features during a career that began in jalopy-style race cars at Bloomington Speedway before he ran supermodifieds and then Late Models. Bastin won three Brownstown Late Model titles (1972, '77-78) and collected championships at Haubstadt’s Tri-State Speedway in 1972 and ’80. He also won the Kentucky Dirt Track Championship at Campbellsville’s Taylor County Speedway in 1978. He made four starts in Brownstown's Jackson 100 with a best finish of sixth. His 40 career Late Model feature victories between 1969-89 rank him sixth on Brownstown's all-time list behind Jim Curry, John Gill, Don O’Neal, Steve Barnett and Paul Crockett. The 2005 Brownstown Hall of Fame inductee died in January at the age of 82.
Al Purkey, Coffeyville, Kan.: Among the all-time winningest Late Model racers from Kansas, Purkey made the most of his proximity to multiple series to pile up eight touring championships, six with Missouri-based Lucas Oil Midwest LateModel Racing Association (1998-99, ’01, ’05-06 and ’09) and two with his home state’s National Championship Racing Association (2003-04). The semi-retired 61-year-old ranks second in all-time MLRA victories with 49 and his third on the all-time NCRA list with 26 victories. He also owns nine Topless Outlaw Racing Association victories and four on the MARS circuit. A driver who found much of his success in the American Made house car, among Purkey's biggest victories were $10,000 triumphs in 1997’s NCRA Sunflower Classic at 81 Speedway in Park City, Kan., 2002’s Early Thaw at Central Arizona Raceway in Casa Grande, Ariz., and 2011’s Sunflower State Showdown in Jetmore, Kan. He scored double-figure victory totals from 2002-04 for one of the best stretches of his career. Purkey's most recent Super Late Model victory came in 2022 at Caney Valley Speedway in Caney, Kan.
Johnny Stokes, Columbus, Miss.: A 69-year-old retired racer who began his career in 1970 at his hometown track after convincing his mother to sign an insurance waiver, Stokes went on to become a three-time Mississippi State Champion (1989, ’93-94) and one of the Magnolia State’s best Super Late Model drivers. His success includes five victories on the Alabama-based Southern All Star Dirt Racing Series, a victory during 1988’s inaugural World of Outlaws Late Model Series season at Enid (Okla.) Speedway and a 1991 Hav-A-Tampa Dirt Racing Series triumph at Columbus Speedway. While he continued driving Crate Late Models and street stocks later in his career, Stokes primarily turned his racing focus to track promotions starting in 2006, first at Columbus Speedway then later across town at Magnolia Motor Speedway, a 3/8-mile track he now co-owns and operates in promoting significant Dirt Late Model events.
Ricky Weeks, Rutherfordton, N.C.: The driver who pulled a ’62 Nova out of brush and briars to began a nearly 40-year career piled up multiple track championships at his home track Cherokee Speedway. Branching out, he went on to grab an unprecedented five consecutive titles (2004-08) on the Carolina Clash circuit, where the retired 64-year-old driver ranks second on the all-time list with 35 victories. Before his touring career, he accumulated more than 100 victories at Cherokee, including Hav-A-Tampa Dirt Racing Series triumphs in 1990 and ’93 and the Stick Elliott Memorial in ’98. Other significant victories came at Carolina Speedway in Gastonia, N.C., including 2003’s Shrine Race and 2004’s Skyler Trull Memorial. Weeks scaled back to Limited Late Model racing in the twilight of his career, but continued to find checkered flags while winning 16 Blue Ridge Outlaw races in 2018. He retired in 2020.
Contributors
Steve Baker: Connected to dirt racing throughout this life, the co-owner of Rocket Chassis who has been a cog in one of the sport’s most successful race car manufacturers for more than 30 years joins 2009 inductee and Rocket co-owner Mark Richards in the Hall of Fame. The 65-year-old Morgantown, W.Va., resident, often in the background while Richards operates the Shinnston, W.Va.’s chassis builder’s wide-traveling house car team, began his racing career as a 19-year-old and less than 10 years later launched the business alongside Richards. Along with his work at Rocket, Baker has been a successful Late Model racer, winning the 1996 track championship at Pittsburgh's Pennsylvania Motor Speedway and the track’s 2008 Pittsburgher event among other specials over a driving career that ended eight years ago. Baker, whose racing career included stints with notable car owners Phil Lukon and Bill Bland, also served as promoter of Shinnston’s I-79 Speedway from 1990-2003.
Greg Fielden: The Charlotte, N.C., native, a prolific author and racing historian, is most noted by dirt racing fans for his book titled “The Greatest Show on Dirt, the definitive history of the NDRA 1978-1985.” Fielden’s book covers the Robert Smawley-founded National Dirt Racing Association that helped popularize champions including Larry Moore, Buck Simmons, Mike Duvall and an array of other Hall of Fame drivers. Fielden’s other noteworthy books include “Forty Years of Stock Car Racing” and “NASCAR – A Complete History,” a book that went through 11 printings. In all he’s written 16 books on auto racing. Before a 24-year television career when he worked with virtually every network covering NASCAR and other styles of racing, he was a field editor for the Southern Auto Racing News. The 72-year-old now resides in Surfside Beach, S.C.
Todd Turner: The 57-year-old Louisville, Ky., resident has spent most of his 34-year journalism career covering Dirt Late Model racing for print and online publications, serving as a reporter and photographer at virtually all the sport’s major events and tours. First launching his own DirtNews Digest email report in the mid-1990s as one of the sport’s first online ventures, in 1998 he joined National Dirt Digest as a reporter, then three years later was promoted to managing editor while adding page design duties to his writing and editing roles. After nine years at NDD, Turner became a founding employee of DirtonDirt.com in 2007, helping develop the sport’s most successful online news organization that was later purchased by FloRacing. A graduate of Western Kentucky University’s journalism program, Turner received DIRTcar's Bob Memmer Achievement Award in 2017.
Editor’s note: Additional information provided by Bob Markos.
