The Motorsports Hall of Fame of America (MSHFA) announced that Don Panoz and Jim France will receive the Bob Russo Heritage Award in recognition of their contributions to motorsports throughout their careers and for preserving and expanding sports car racing in North America.
In making its decision the MSHFA board of directors cited the historic 2013 merger of America’s two endurance sports car racing series – the American Le Mans Series (ALMS) and GRAND-AM Road Racing – to create the TUDOR United SportsCar Championship. The merger was announced on Sept. 5, 2013 and the new championship series, sanctioned by the International Motors Sports Association (IMSA), launched with the 2014 Rolex 24 At Daytona.
“To recognize two sports car racing icons with the Bob Russo Heritage Award is a tremendous honor,” said Ron Watson, president of the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America. “Their names are synonymous with sports car racing in North America. Through GRAND-AM and the American Le Mans Series they established a firm foundation and have assured the future with the merger into the TUDOR United SportsCar Championship.”
Panoz and France will be honored as part of the 26th Annual MSHFA Induction Ceremony to be held August 6that The Fillmore Detroit. Joie Chitwood III, president of Daytona International Speedway, will serve as honorary chairman of the event.
The Bob Russo Heritage Award is named in honor of Bob Russo, long-time journalist and historian and the inaugural recipient of the award in 2000. Past recipients include Leo Mehl, Bill Simpson, Linda Vaughn, Bob Tasca, Wendell Scott, Carl Haas, Ford Racing on its 100th anniversary in 2001, and Bob Riley.
Panoz founded the ALMS with the objective of bringing European-style endurance sports car racing to North America. A partnership with the Automobile Club de L’Ouest (ACO) allowed ALMS teams to earn automatic entries in the Le Mans 24 Hours. The announcement was made in 1998 and got its official start with the 1999 season. Panoz also founded the Petit Le Mans race which since its inaugural run in 1998 has become one of the world’s greatest endurance sports car races. France launched the Grand American Road Racing Association as the sanctioning body for various forms of road racing in North America. The announcement was made in 1999 with the first race in 2000. It served as the governing entity for five series including the Rolex Sports Car Series and its premier event, the Rolex 24 At Daytona. Both serve on the IMSA board.
Today Panoz is chairman of DeltaWing Technologies Inc, a Georgia-based automotive technologies company that is bringing the groundbreaking DeltaWing® architecture – a highly aerodynamic and lightweight design currently competing in IMSA sports car road races in the form of the DeltaWing race car – to market as street-legal passenger cars. Its goal is to partner with automotive manufacturers to develop DeltaWing road cars that are extremely efficient and produce less greenhouse gases and help companies meet the CAFE (Corporate Average Fuel Economy) standard of 54.5 mpg by model year 2025.
DeltaWing Technologies currently has engineering plans for both a four-passenger car and a two-seat sports car that can be styled to an auto manufacturer’s requirements. The platform can accept the new generation of smaller and lighter high efficiency gas or diesel powertrains, engines that operate on alternative fuels like compressed natural gas (CNG), or today’s and tomorrow’s hybrid and all-electric powerplants.