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CMRA HALL OF FAME INDUCTEES
The CMRA Hall of Fame was established in 2002 to honor those CMRA members that have made significant contributions to the CMRA organization through their time and efforts, or who started their careers with CMRA and have brought positive exposure to the organization through their National and International racing championships.
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2002 :: Colin Edwards and Kevin Schwantz
 Colin Edwards – Motocrosser-turned-roadracer Colin Edwards II raced with the CMRA for two seasons before winning the AMA 250 Grand Prix championship in 1992. The Conroe, Texas resident moved to AMA Superbike and then was off to World Superbike, where he won two World Championships in 2000 and 2002. He now races for Yamaha in MotoGP with teammate Valentino Rossi. |
 Kevin Schwantz – Kevin used his diverse background in trials and dirt track along with blazing speed to impress the AMA road racing crowd after racing with CMRA in 1984 and 1985. He won many prestigious races with Yoshimura Suzuki before moving to 500cc Grand Prix in 1988. Kevin became one of the most competitive and popular Grand Prix riders in the world, winning the 500cc championship in 1993. Since retiring, Kevin has remained loyal to Suzuki and continues to work with the Yoshimura Suzuki team as mentor and coach, while also passing on his knowledge to students at the Kevin Schwantz Suzuki School. Kevin lives in Austin, Texas. |
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2003 :: Lou Linden, Sam McDonald and Freddie Spencer
 Lou Linden – Originally known as the CRRC (Central Road Racing Club), the Club’s founder was University of Texas law student and racer Lou Linden, who incorporated the organization in 1974. Lou’s vision was to organize the casually structured road racing community into the intense road racing scene we have now with the CMRA. |
 Sam McDonald – Born into the McDonald racing family of Sapulpa, Oklahoma, Sam learned from father Norm and brother Phil, racing with CMRA long enough to get his AMA license and win the 1982 AMA 250 Grand Prix championship. Over the following seasons, Sam rode for both the Honda and Yamaha factories helping them develop their Superbikes. He now helps run the family-owned Yamaha dealership, K&N Motorcycles, while tuning and often riding with his son Tyler McDonald in CMRA endurance races. |
 Freddie Spencer - Coming from the dirt track scene in Shreveport, Louisiana, Freddie started road racing in 1972, going pro in 1978 at the age of 18. He won many AMA races before moving to Grand Prix and becoming the youngest 500cc World Champion in history in 1983. In 1985, Freddie became the first rider to win both the 250cc and 500cc World Championships in the same season. Freddie currently operates the Freddie Spencer High Performance Riding School in Las Vegas and at the new Miller Motorsports Park in Tooele, Utah. |
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2004 :: Ronnie Lunsford and Doug Polen
 Ronnie Lunsford - Ronnie started road racing with the CRRC in 1979. He was an involved member from the beginning, doing everything from stuffing newsletters and licking stamps to being the tech inspector. He has served nine times over the years on the Board of Directors. He’s been a sponsor, a mentor and a common-sense voice of the membership throughout his time with CMRA. Ronnie has always raced under the banner of the family-owned Northwest Honda dealership, winning five overall and ten class CMRA endurance championships as well as 24 sprint class championships (as of 2005). |
 Doug Polen - Doug started road racing with the CRRC in 1977. He retired after a race at Aquafest in 1982, where he was injured in a start-line incident. He came out of retirement in 1986 to run the Suzuki GSX-R Cup Series, which re-launched his career. He moved on to win multiple AMA Supersport and Superbike championships, two Japanese national championships and two FIM World Superbike championships, traveling with his wife Dianne, who was one of the CRRC’s first club secretaries. Today, Doug, Dianne and their son Adam live in California and Doug does on-on-one riding instruction as well as promotional work for Ducati. |
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2005 :: Brooks Gremmels and Ben Spies
 Brooks Gremmels – Brooks grew up in Tyler, Texas and has been involved in a wide variety of businesses, including concert promotion, beer distribution, real estate syndication and oil and gas production. Brooks started racing with the CMRA in 1999, winning several sprint championships. He served for five years on the CMRA Board of Directors starting in 2000, bringing a wealth of wisdom and experience to the organization and creating new processes and procedures to bring CMRA into the 21st century. In addition, as co-owner of Shogun Motorsports, Brooks has contributed over $100,000 in purses and prizes to the CMRA, has provided more than $1 million in sponsorship support to CMRA and other riders in the U.S., has been the top contributor to the Roadracing World Air Fence Fund and has been a major contributor to Jason Pridmore’s STAR Motorcycle School. |
 Ben Spies – Ben started riding motorcycles at the age of five and racing with CMRA at the age of eight in 1993. In 1994, he won a YSR championship followed by an 80cc championship the following season. At age 12, he started riding 125 Grand Prix bikes, traveling to WERA races outside of Texas. At age 14, Ben started riding 600s, winning more championships. He signed with Suzuki at 15, riding for Valvoline Suzuki and Attack Suzuki before joining the Yoshimura Suzuki factory team and winning the 2003 AMA Formula Xtreme championship on a GSX-R1000. The Longview, Texas resident continues to ride for the Suzuki team contesting the AMA Superbike championship series. |
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2006 :: Britt Turkington and The Brothers Family (Connie, Charles, Robert, Aimee & Aaron)
 Britt Turkington – Britt started racing with the CRRC in 1981 on a ’79 GS750 he rode from McAllen to Texas World Speedway on, raced, and then rode home on. Over the next few years, he won multiple championships with the CRRC. He moved on to ride for John Ulrich 's Team Suzuki Endurance with the likes of Jamie James, followed by the Yoshimura Suzuki factory team, where he won the 1993 AMA 750 Supersport championship. He retired in 1995 to surf and run his own business in south Texas , but has recently re-joined the sport as an instructor for the Kevin Schwantz Suzuki School. |
 Connie, Charles, Robert, Aimee and Aaron Brothers – The Brothers family were the heart and soul of the CRRC/CMRA for over 20 years, building the organization to the success that it is today. Connie Brothers WAS the CRRC/CMRA for over 20 years. Before the internet, your first contact to start road racing was with Connie on the phone. She was the first person you saw at registration. She was the primary manual scorer, so you saw her every lap of every race. She knew your competition number, your kid's names, what kind of bike you rode and how you did in your last race. Charles was a racer first, and went on to become the newsletter editor and scoring computer programmer among other positions, and finally, the Race Director. Robert, Aimee and Aaron grew up at the CMRA races, and learned to do every task and cover every position that there was, being trained by the best! |
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2007 :: Norm McDonald and Jamie James
 Norm McDonald - Norm grew up in Southern California, doing desert racing, hare scrambles, flat track and TT racing in California and Mexico. Norm started K&N Motorcycles with Ken Johnson in 1957 and K&N Filters in 1964. Malcolm Smith started working for K&N when he was 16, later became the service manager and after making the movie On Any Sunday, he bought the Riverside store and the McDonalds moved to Tulsa, Oklahoma in 1971. Norm and wife Lucy have four kids: Phil, Pat, Sam and daughter Terry. The McDonald boys raced to many championships with K&N sponsorship, as well as their grandson Tyler McDonald. Norm has been an integral part of the CMRA for years, serving eight years on the Board of Directors, three of those as president. He has spearheaded track improvements and maintenance at Hallett and Oak Hill Raceway, as well as handling CMRA trophies and banquet preparation. On receiving his Hall of Fame award, Norm said, "We've stayed in the motorcycle industry for over 50 years because we like the people involved in motorcycling over the other businesses we've had". |
 Jamie James - Born in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Jamie raced local motocross and flat track in Louisiana and Texas for a few years, then got a street bike. In 1983, Jamie's friends convinced him to try road racing, and he worked on tug boats on the Mississippi River long enough to make enough money to purchase a Yamaha RZ350. In 1984 Jamie started racing with CRRC and did well in his first season. Towards the end of 1985, Jamie received a call from Yoshimura for a tryout as Kevin Schwantz's teammate for 1986, but he crashed at Oak Hill, breaking his femur and his collarbone and the tryouts were canceled. Jamie recovered and had three successful seasons running the new Suzuki Cup Series and selected AMA Superbike races. In 1989 he was given a tryout with Yoshimura to be Scott Russell's teammate. He got the ride and won the AMA Superbike Championship and the 600 Supersport Championship, as well as the 600cc & 1100cc Suzuki Cup Championships. From 1991 to 1996 Jamie rode on the Vance & Hines Factory Yamaha team and won lots of races. He lost the AMA Superbike Championship in 1996 by one point to Troy Corser, but won the 600 Supersport Championship. Jamie retired at the end of 1996, but joined the Kevin Schwantz Suzuki School as an instructor in 2000. He has continued to build his second series Jamie James Productions custom Yamaha R1s, and has created the Jamie James Yamaha Champion's Riding School at Barber Motorsports Park. |
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2008 :: Laroy Montgomery
 Laroy Montgomery - Laroy Montgomery had a very long history in the motorcycle industry as well as in motorcycle racing. He was into all kinds of motorcycles, from motocross to race bikes and enjoyed riding and racing them at places across the country. He worked at various motorcycle dealerships, from Hodaka to Suzuki and Honda. After a stint running his own printing business, Laroy wanted to get back into the motorcycle industry and went to work for Michael Martin and Team Valvoline EMGO Suzuki, followed by D&D Exhaust and then started M4 exhaust with the Martins. Laroy serverd as a member of the board of directors for the Central Motorcycle Racing Club and CMRA in 1989 through 1993. In 1993 Laroy was the scretary/treasures for the CMRA and he again served on the board of directors in 1999 as Vice President and in 2000 as the President. Laroy was a fun-loving prankster who loved to laugh. |
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