Three new members will join the Northwest Montana Stock Car Racing Association Hall Of Fame tonight during a special ceremony before the featured main event at Montana Raceway Park. 

The inductees are Randy Vickhammer, Jim Hegel and Paul Gerrish.

That will bring the HOF membership to 24.

Making the HOF announcement were Mike Thoennes, a former chairman of the board of the NWMSCRA and a two-time past president, and his wife Nancy, a former secretary and media relations specialist for the NWMSCRA.

The Thoenneses were inducted into the HOF last year.

Racing unofficially began in the Flathead Valley in 1950. There have been five different race sites on dirt and asphalt over the years.

The first full racing season took place in 1952.

Vickhammer holds the unique distinction of being the last person to drive on the track at Big Sky Speedway and the first person to turn a lap at Montana Raceway Park, which he did after hours in his street car after it was built.

Vickhammer’s racing career began in 1972 after serving in the Marine Corp. He and partner Doug Tyree bought a 1954 Ford and transformed it into a race car.

He is probably best remembered for his bright pink bomber that he won the season high point championship with at MRP or the hobby stock he drove with the 8-inch smoke stack protruding out the top. He had that rigged so that when he passed the grandstands he would flip a switch and blow a 3-foot flame out the top.

He served as president of the NWMSCRA as well as terms as vice-president, on the board of directors, pit boss and on the rules committee. He holds the record as flagman for seven-straight years.

As a driver, he piloted cars to a first-place championship, three runner-up finishes in the season points chase and a third-place finish. He held the track record for street stocks in 1992.

One of Vickhammer’s most memorable moments came at Big Sky Speedway when he register a rare clean sweep his first night out in a new street stock. Just before the main event, Verne Corpron told Vickhammer he would buy him the checkered flag if he won. That flag currently hangs on a wall in Vickhammer’s house.

By winning that main event, he ended Dan Morris’ record for consecutive main event victories.

Hegel’s uncles introducted him to stock car racing in Spokane in 1965. They built two cars and he got to drive a 1937 Ford in the C Class while his uncles drove a modified.

When Hegel moved back to Kalispell in 1966, one of the first places he visited was Tri-City Speedway.

Hegel built and drove cars in the C Class, modifieds, super stocks and nostalgia classes. He finished as season high-point champion the last year at Tri-City in 1972 and also the next year in 1973, the first year of Big Sky Speedway.

Hegel recently retired from racing with the Northwest Modifieds, which are based out of Spokane, and have run many times at MRP.

He served as president of the NWMSCRA as well as its secretary/treasurer and was the flagman for several years.

Hegel was very innovative when it came to racing. He put the driver’s seat in the back seat section of his 1954 Ford, and in doing so, greatly improved the weight distribution and handling of the car. In fact, he won so many races with that modification that track officials later outlawed it.

Gerrish is being inducted into the Pioneer Division of the Hall Of Fame.

He started racing a 1935 Plymouth in 1954 and two years later was the runaway high-points champion in his 1933 Dodge.

Gerrish is best known for winning an astonishing six-straight main events during the 1956 season.

He currently resides in Tucson, Ariz.