Kentucky Motorsports Hall of Fame
Special Awards
Byron Edwards
2010 Appreciation Award
Presented at NHRR in Bowling Green
Like a lot of us as a young kid Byron discovered Hot Rod magazines. He then started hanging out at a garage in his neighborhood where some hot rodders gathered. He said they were "degenerates" but they were car guys so that made it okay. Later at the age of 12 while on a trip to his aunt's in Clarksville,TN he met one of her neighbors.....Pappy Greenfield. As a youngster he would ride the bus from Paducah to Clarksville for the weekend and go racing with the Greenfields. At the dragstrip one of his duties for the Greenfields was to put down the rosin so they could burn across the line. A few years later his first job at a dragstrip came in 1971 at Paducah. He wound up being a one man operation doing everything from flipping burgers to teching cars to running the staging lanes and the starting line....every weekend. He worked local tracks up through the early 80's. In the mid 80's he answered a small ad in Hemmings Motor News. A west coast nostalgia association was looking for some techmen. Byron and 3 other guys were hired. However Byron was the only one who had any tech experience. 400 cars showed up for the event and Byron along with his inexperienced helpers somehow got the job done. A couple of NHRA officials were at the meet on Sunday as observers and afterwards read him the riot act for letting such junk go down a dragstrip. Those two NHRA officials were Dave Danish and Jerry Valentine. They were there because NHRA thought that this "new" nostalgia drag racing may be more than just a passing fad. They invited him to work at NHRA tech and his first event was the 1986 US Nationals. Along with NHRA he worked at the VRA from 1989 till 2001. He soon became the NHRA Nostalgia liason and was the link that allowed nostalgia drag racing to prosper while staying within a tight set of rules. Without Byron's leadership over the years, nostalgia drag racing could well have self destructed instead of grown to where it is today.
2010 Appreciation Award
Presented at NHRR in Bowling Green
Like a lot of us as a young kid Byron discovered Hot Rod magazines. He then started hanging out at a garage in his neighborhood where some hot rodders gathered. He said they were "degenerates" but they were car guys so that made it okay. Later at the age of 12 while on a trip to his aunt's in Clarksville,TN he met one of her neighbors.....Pappy Greenfield. As a youngster he would ride the bus from Paducah to Clarksville for the weekend and go racing with the Greenfields. At the dragstrip one of his duties for the Greenfields was to put down the rosin so they could burn across the line. A few years later his first job at a dragstrip came in 1971 at Paducah. He wound up being a one man operation doing everything from flipping burgers to teching cars to running the staging lanes and the starting line....every weekend. He worked local tracks up through the early 80's. In the mid 80's he answered a small ad in Hemmings Motor News. A west coast nostalgia association was looking for some techmen. Byron and 3 other guys were hired. However Byron was the only one who had any tech experience. 400 cars showed up for the event and Byron along with his inexperienced helpers somehow got the job done. A couple of NHRA officials were at the meet on Sunday as observers and afterwards read him the riot act for letting such junk go down a dragstrip. Those two NHRA officials were Dave Danish and Jerry Valentine. They were there because NHRA thought that this "new" nostalgia drag racing may be more than just a passing fad. They invited him to work at NHRA tech and his first event was the 1986 US Nationals. Along with NHRA he worked at the VRA from 1989 till 2001. He soon became the NHRA Nostalgia liason and was the link that allowed nostalgia drag racing to prosper while staying within a tight set of rules. Without Byron's leadership over the years, nostalgia drag racing could well have self destructed instead of grown to where it is today.
Carl Casper
Carl Casper was presented the 2010 Kentucky Motorsports Hall of Fame Appreciation Award for his 47 years hosting his Custom Auto Show in Louisville.
Carl Casper was presented the 2010 Kentucky Motorsports Hall of Fame Appreciation Award for his 47 years hosting his Custom Auto Show in Louisville.
