FANS FINALIZE 2018 HALL OF FAME INDUCTEES;

JASON LEFFLER & THE SHANNON BROTHERS COMPLETE THE INDUCTION LIST

USAC’s recent social media poll to complete the 2018 list of inductees into the USAC Hall of Fame has resulted in inductions for driver Jason Leffler and Ohio car owner brothers Bob and Gene Shannon.

The new inductees received the most votes from a select list of 14 candidates and will join six previously-announced inductees in the ceremony which accompanies the September 5-6 Drive2SaveLives “BC 39” USAC P1 Insurance National Midget race on the brand new dirt track at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

Previously-announced 2018 inductees include (alphabetically) Mike Devin, Tony Elliott, Paul Goldsmith, Bill Lipkey, Troy Ruttman and Jimmy Sills.

Leffler, who raced out of Long Beach, Calif. until his demise in a sprint car crash at Bridgeport, N.J. in 2013, earned a trio of USAC National Midget Championships in 1997-98-99 and capped his USAC career with a 1998 USAC Silver Crown title. He won six Silver Crown races and captured 19 trophies in the National Midget series. A winner of the famed “Copper World Classic” at Phoenix, Ariz. and 2-time winner of the “Turkey Night Grand Prix” at Gardena, Calif., he also won the famed Belleville Midget Nationals in 1997. Leffler also excelled in a variety of disciplines, including scoring victories in the NASCAR Xfinity Series and Camping World Truck Series. In 2000 he competed in the Indianapolis 500. In 2003 he was inducted into the National Midget Auto Racing Hall of Fame.

The Shannon Brothers of Dayton, Ohio earned 45 total USAC National feature victories with a variety of drivers. They also won the 1972 USAC National Midget Car Owner title with driver Larry Rice. Gene Force scored their initial victory at Lansing, Mich. in 1958 and Dane Carter was the final winner at Rossburg, Ohio in 1976. Other winners included Bob McLean, Bob Wente, Sam Sessions, Dave Strickland, Bill Engelhart and Pancho Carter. Sessions won the 1968 “Turkey Night Grand Prix” at Gardena, Calif. in a Shannon entry and Pancho won the 1975 “Hut Hundred” in the Shannon car. The brothers were enshrined in the National Midget Auto Racing Hall of Fame in 1991.