Motorsports Hall of Fame of America Announces 2027 Induction Class
RRDC Members Lyn St. James, Herb Fishel and Rob Dyson are Among the Inductees
The Motorsports Hall of Fame of America (MSHFA) announced its 2027 Induction Class at the 51st running of the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach. The 39th MSHFA Induction Celebration presented by Toyota Gazoo Racing, which will formally bring the Class of 2027 into the MSHFA, will be held in the Hall’s home of Daytona Beach next March.
Among the inductees were three members of the RRDC.
Lyn St. James: The first woman to win Indianapolis 500 Rookie of the Year.
INDYCAR President J. Douglas Boles, IMSA resent John Doonan and MSHFA president Daren Lucas (left to right) join Lynn St. James at the MSHFA press conference.
Lyn St. James (At Large): The first woman to win Indianapolis 500 Rookie of the Year (1992), St. James built on the work of inductees Janet Guthrie, Denise McCluggage and others to open doors for women at the highest levels of American racing. St. James won numerous sports car events, including IMSA GTO victories at Sebring in 1990 and the Rolex 24 At Daytona in1987 and 1990. Her best GTP finish was third at Watkins Glen in 1984 with Howdy Holmes. She also competed at the 24 Hours of Le Mans. St. James made 16 Indy car starts (1992 – 2000), with a career-best eighth at Walt Disney World in 1996. She qualified sixth for the 1994 Indy 500 (224.154 mph) and was the first woman to lap an oval at over 200 mph in 1985, later upping her women’s closed course speed record to 227.32 mph. One of the foremost female drivers of her era and an inspiration to others, St. James was named one of the Sports Illustrated Top 100 Women Athletes of the Century. St. James joins Angelle Sampey (Motorcycles) as the first women inductees since the late sports car driver and journalist Denise McCluggage (At Large) was enshrined in 2022. In 2021, an all-time class high three women were inducted, an illustrious list that includes Judy Stropus (Sports Cars), Fran Muncey (Power Boats) and, the first woman to race in the Indianapolis 500, Janet Guthrie (Open Wheel).
Lynn St. James at Phoenix International Raceway in 1993.
Herb Fishel: The executive who led GM’s racing operations to unprecedented results.
Herb Fishel behind the wheel of the “Fuel Injection Special,” at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway (IMS) Museum. This legendary Kurtis-Kraft roadster won the Indy 500 in 1953 and 1954 driven by Bill Vukovich.
Herb Fishel (Business): When the Winston-Salem native graduated from nearby North Carolina State University with a mechanical engineering degree, he wanted to work for a NASCAR team. Instead, he was hired by General Motors, where he rose to run a racing operation that achieved unprecedented results. During Fishel’s tenure, GM won 25 NASCAR manufacturers’ championships – 11 consecutive (1981-91) – 12 Indy 500s and numerous drag, off-road and sports car racing titles. He was also a pivotal figure in the Corvette programs that scored overall and class wins at Daytona and Le Mans and made “America’s sports car” a world-class winner. Much of the success achieved by inductees, including Dale Earnhardt, Tommy Kendall, Junior Johnson and Darrell Waltrip is directly attributable to him. In the early 1990s, Fishel led the effort to install black boxes in race cars, dramatically improving driver safety. He was inducted into the SEMA Hall of Fame in 2005, the Corvette Hall of Fame in 2015 and the Drag Racing Hall of Fame in 2006.
Rob Dyson (Sports Cars): Founder of the successful Dyson Racing and a winning Rolex 24 At Daytona driver.
Rob Dyson (left) with Skip Barber.
Rob Dyson (Sports Cars): Robert Dyson is founder and principal of Dyson Racing, one of the most successful in sports car racing history to date and the winner of 19 championships, 70 races, 69 pole positions and 215 podiums, including championships in ALMS, IMSA, USRRC, and Grand-Am. Dyson started driving a Datsun 510 in club racing in 1974, winning the 1981 SCCA GT2 national championship. Turning professional in 1983, Dyson won four races overall as a driver during the height of the IMSA GTP era, including the 1997 24 Hours of Daytona. Dyson Racing Team drivers won the Porsche Cup North America four years consecutively (1985-88). Championships include The IMSA Drivers and Team Championship (1997-98); USRRC Drivers and Team Championship (1998-99); ALMS LMP900 championship (1999) and Grand-Am Drivers and Team championships (2000-01). Dyson retired from driving in 2007 but remains the organization’s leader, supported by son Chris Dyson, who has won multiple championships for the team.
About the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America:
The MSHFA is the only hall that honors all major American motorsports: cars, motorcycles, airplanes, off road and powerboats. Its mission is to celebrate and instill the American motorsports values of leadership, creativity, originality, teamwork and spirit of competition. Founded by Larry G. Ciancio and led by first President Ronald A. Watson, it held its first induction in 1989. Watson spent the next 30 years tirelessly building it into the nation’s premier such hall until his passing in 2019. Originally based in Novi, Mich., it relocated to Daytona Beach, Fla., in 2016 and greets more than 150,000 guests a year in its museum. MSHFA is operated by the nonprofit Motorsports Museum and Hall of Fame of America Foundation, Inc.
