John Simmons got into the performance parts business out of necessity—the necessity to go fast. After graduating from high school in Birmingham, Alabama, Simmons went to work for his father’s electrical small appliance repair business. He started a repair parts mail-order business and called it SECO.

Frustrated by the fact that he couldn't get the performance parts he wanted to fulfill his need for speed, Simmons started his own warehouse distribution business for performance parts in 1962. He began selling parts from a trailer that he hauled to racetracks on weekends. By 1969, the electrical business was closed so he could focus all his efforts on the performance side of things. His business savvy and tireless effort allowed him to grow SECO into the thriving wholesale and retail business it is today.

In addition to his performance-parts business, Simmons found other ways to satisfy his need to go fast. In the early ‘60s, John owned and operated Helena Dragstrip, a place where local racers and enthusiasts could go to race. The track was closed in 1967 due to noise. Undaunted, he and his partners acquired Lassiter Mountain Speedway, which they ran for 10 years. He also had a car that he and a partner raced at tracks around the Southeast.

Simmons joined SEMA in 1969. It was the beginning of a long and fruitful relationship. Simmons served three terms on the SEMA Board of Directors from 1978 to 1982, he chaired the SEMA Finance Committee in 1981. He served on the Awards Judging Committee from 1984 to 1986, chaired the Person of The Year award in 1987 and also served as membership Committee Chairman.

In 1977, Simmons received an award for recruiting more new SEMA members than any other individual. Throughout that time—and up to today—whether he was at racing events or out making business calls, Simmons always encouraged people to join SEMA, urging them to get involved, and he was never shy about explaining how SEMA could benefit them and their businesses.

In 1980, Simmons was named SEMA Person of the Year. All along the way, Simmons made it a point to help others grow and succeed in their businesses. In addition to his SEMA efforts, he was elected and served as a Performance Warehouse Association (PWA) Area Director from 1974 to 1991, served two terms as PWA Treasurer and two terms as National Director of PWA. He received the PWA Pioneer Award in 1993 and was one of the founding members of the AAM/Parts Pro group. In his many years of service, Simmons says he never missed a PWA or SEMA Board meeting.

Today, Simmons handles all of the advertising for SECO and enjoys spending considerable time at his second home in Panama City, Florida. The company he founded remains in the family, with his daughter, Anne Thomas, serving as owner and operator. Thomas is serving a second term on the SEMA Board of Directors and is the Treasurer of PWA.

During a recent visit to SEMA headquarters, Burke LeSage paused in the middle of the hallway. The myriad of past Hall of Fame portraits that hang on the wall had stopped him in his tracks. "This is truly amazing," he said in a voice that was barely audible, as if spoken only for himself to hear.

"Yep. There's Wally [Parks]. I think I first met Wally when I was 14 years old." He went on to tell the story of how he first met Parks at a friend's house which also served as the SCTA office. On that day, even though he was just a kid packing the wheel bearings on a race trailer, Parks treated him with a level of respect and dignity not often experienced by a youngster. "I've always had a great deal of respect for Wally and his ability to relate with people," LeSage said.

Phil Weiand, Sandy Belond and John Bartlett-LeSage had a story for just about every one of the nearly 100 drawings that populate the walls. The fact that LeSage was about to be welcomed into the same illustrious club that includes so many of his friends and heroes visibly moved him.

Anyone who knows LeSage or is familiar with his role in the industry wouldn't be surprised by the level of emotion his return to SEMA elicited. LeSage has a vested interest and a unique vantage point from which to judge the association's growth and success. LeSage was the first paid employee of SEMA.

LeSage said that he went to work for SEMA around 1965 as the Assistant to the President. He worked with Els Lohn, Willie Garner and Roy Richter and continued with the association until the mid-'70s, when he decided to move on within the industry.

LeSage grew up in East Los Angeles. One street over from his childhood home was a man who had a race car in his backyard. One day on his way home from school, LeSage stopped in to talk about the car. The neighbor, Jim Lindsley, asked if LeSage would like to go to the Dry Lakes with him to run his Lakester.

According to LeSage, the Southern California Timing Association broadened its classes to include coupes and sedans in 1951. Lindsley asked if LeSage would be interested in putting the engine from his Lakester into the '34 coupe that had belonged to LeSage's brother.

"So we went up to the first Lakes meet that year, and since it was a brand new class, we were in today's terms 'cherry picking' the class," LeSage said. "It didn't have any established records, so we set records for three or four meets in a row and got enough points to end up being the season's number one."

LeSage was 15 years old at the time. He received his California driver's license in July of 1951 and, at the last Lakes meet of the year in September, Lindsley asked LeSage if he wanted to drive the coupe. "I said, 'sure' and took off, and on my first pass I ran 107 mph," he said. "And that was just 90 days after I had received my driver's license."

LeSage was asked to drive what he refers to as "a machine with an ill-handling manner" at the September Lakes meet in 1954. The machine ended up going over. "It went seriously over," LeSage said. "In those days, these were stock-bodied machines, and they didn't require roll bars. I had an old cotton war-surplus seatbelt, and it disintegrated my first time over and I was thrown from the car. They estimated I was running somewhere around 130 mph."

LeSage was in a coma for 10 days. Despite what he refers to as "the accident that has affected my memory a bit," he was back at the races a month later. His passion for racing remained for more than 35 years and resulted in an unrivaled series of accomplishments, including securing a place in the prestigious Grant 200 MPH Club in 1963.

"In 1988 I was running down the Salt Flats at 185 mph and I thought to myself, 'this isn't fun anymore,'" LeSage said. "It wasn't that the ride was scary; it had just lost its luster. When I got out of the car, instead of folding up my fire suit like I usually did, I just rolled it up and threw it in the support car. I was done."

LeSage found his way to Santa Barbara, where he spent some time as a bookstore owner. He currently resides in Twenty-Nine Palms, California, where he says his good health has allowed him to be of service to some of those around him. As the need arises, he drives a local minister who is losing his eyesight to various functions. As LeSage noted, he started his wonderful adventure driving, and it's only fitting that the latest chapter continues that tradition.

Rick Rollins swore that he would never be a white-collar guy. He distinctly recalls working as a mechanic with his head under a car's hood and telling a friend: "Man, you'll never get me in a white shirt behind a desk. This is all I want to do."  The route from the garage where he made that statement to his office at Superchips, where he is the vice president of sales and marketing (in 2006), has also taken him to race tracks, retail jobber stores, distribution businesses and even a stop at the sheriff's office.

Even before he graduated from high school in Louisiana, Missouri, in 1970, Rollins was a race fan. Working part time in a garage and then at an auto-parts store, he read about his racing heroes in Hot Rod and Car & Driver and watched what coverage there was on television sports programs.  It was in the parts store that Rollins was first introduced to Ray Motes, whom he had just seen interviewed by Jim McKay on ABC's "Wide World of Sports" the week before. Motes was the reigning NHRA Top Gas world champion, and the two hit it off immediately; so much so, in fact, that Motes invited Rollins to join his team on the Motes & Williams dragster. For the remainder of his senior year and for several years afterward, Rollins spent his weekends traveling around the country with Motes and the team.

After the racing season and graduation, Rollins worked as a jobber counterman for a year before being invited to join Motes at Automotive Distributors Incorporated in Kansas City, where Motes ran the performance division. ADI was one of the first companies to actually warehouse parts and accessories, and Motes hired Rollins to be the head buyer for performance parts. Through his associations there, Rollins met industry veterans such as Bob Airheart, Joe Hrudka and Herb Golstein as well as racing legends Bill Simpson, Mickey Thompson and Parnelli Jones.

Rollins stayed with ADI until 1973, then took his only break from the automotive specialty-equipment field. He worked as a deputy sheriff for a year and did a little part-time work at a shoe store, but soon Motes brought him back into the fold. The drag racer owned a sand-buggy shop in Kansas City, and he sold it to Rollins in 1975. Rollins ran American Bugg, which was a Volkswagen performance, racing off-road parts and service center, until the middle of 1980, when he took a job as regional sales manager for Hasting Manufacturing Company. He supervised sales in seven states for the Hastings product line of pistons rings and filters but also began his own racing venture, campaigning SCCA Formula Ford and F2000 cars. Then Motes again made him a job offer, this time as national sales manager at Taylor Cable Products Inc., and he was later promoted to vice president of sales and marketing. Rollins remained with the manufacturer of automotive wire, wiring harnesses and ignition wires and accessories for the next 12 1/2 years.

During his tenure with Taylor Cable, Rollins became active in SEMA as well as the Performance Warehouse Association (PWA). Despite considering himself a relative unknown within the industry, he ran for and was elected to the SEMA Board of Directors in 1991 and served three two-year terms, which is the association limit for consecutive elections. In 1993, he received the PWA's Person of the Year award, which is voted on by the customers who are served by PWA-member companies.

In 1999, Rollins became the national sales and marketing manager for Superchips Inc., the well-known manufacturer of electronic tuning products for late-model cars and light trucks. He again won election to the SEMA Board of Directors in 2000 and is currently serving his third term (as of 2006) in his second string. His enthusiasm for racing remained unabated at Superchips, and he was instrumental in the company's sponsorship of a NASCAR truck, which has also led other specialty-equipment companies to follow suit. His successes with Superchips, including his efforts to bring profitability back to distribution for both warehouses and jobbers, led to a number of honors for Rollins, such as his second PWA Person of the Year award in 2004, and he was appointed to his current position as vice president in 2005.

Over the years, Rollins has also contributed his time and effort to a wide array of SEMA committees and task forces. He served on the Executive Committee for two years, the Long Range Planning Committee for two years, the Motorsports Parts Manufacturers Council Select Committee for six years, and he also sat on the SEMA Show Committee and the Nominating Committee as well as the EDI and Technology task forces. With typical modesty, he credits many of his friends and mentors with giving him guidance and help along the way, such as SEMA Hall of Famer Bob Airheart, now retired; Ron Funfar, president of Hedman Hedders; Hall member Jim McFarland; John Simmons retired president of Seco Performance; H.G. Smith now retired; and Ray Motes vice president and general manager of Taylor Cable.

"My passion has always been to help the guys who are working behind the counter or under the hood." he said. "I pushed for the SEMA Scholarship Fund to give some of the scholarships to students at Vocational-Technical schools. I took Vo-Tech for two years. That's how I learned the technical side of working on a car, and I said "these are the guys who are the guts of our industry, and we need to support them.""

As with so many others who have been inducted into the SEMA Hall of Fame, Rollins will undoubtedly continue to make contributions to his company, the industry and the association for years to come, and he will continue, as he always has, to treat people honestly and fairly.

"I don't care if you're selling pencils, pantyhose or sparkplug wires, it's two people doing business." he explained. "Your product is important, and so is how you sell it. But it's integrity. If you give your word, you've got to back it up. You can't tell people one thing when you plan on doing something else. I think that's helped me in going from one company to another. People have said that they never worried about what I was selling because they knew I would support what I said I would do."

The father of two sons, Richard, 26, and Joe, 18, Rollins has tried to instill his values in them as well as in the younger people he has advised about how to conduct business. But he also counsels them that making mistakes is part of the territory.

"Good judgment comes from experience, but experience comes from bad judgment." he said. "If we were right all the time, we'd never learn anything. You've got to be wrong; you've got to screw up; you've got to make some mistakes or you're never going to learn anything"

He has been married to his wife, Penny, for only a few years after a long courtship, but a note of tenderness enters his voice when he speaks of her. It's a side that competitors don't often see.

"There's always somebody on the other side of the desk or the other lane of the race." he said. "I'll do my damnedest to beat 'em if I can, but I'm not going to do it dishonorably or immorally."

That attitude has taken Rick Rollins a long, long way.

Few people foresee the path they will eventually follow, but Dick Maxwell recognized automotive engineering as his road very early on. His father, Carl, worked on and helped redesign diesel engines during a 42-year career with the Caterpillar heavy-equipment company, and he shared his love of cars with his son. After graduating from high school in his home town of Washington, Illinois, and taking a Bachelor of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Illinois, the younger Maxwell went to work as a student engineer with Chrysler Corporation in 1959, enrolling in the company's Chrysler Institute of Engineering and eventually earning a Master of Automotive Engineering degree in 1961.

Even before earning the MAE, however, Maxwell had joined the Ramchargers drag racing team, which included Tom Hoover, The Godfather of the HEMI, as well as other Dodge engineers. That group became one of the dominant forces in 60s and 70s drag racing, particularly because the engineers worked on the race cars as part of their jobs.

The factory drag racing programs really started at Dodge and Chrysler in 1961, when the Ramchargers developed an engine to run in Frank Wileys new car, Maxwell said several years ago in an interview with David Harris for Drag Racing Online.  The thing that really pushed corporate involvement, though, was the emphasis that was being put on [drag racing] by the competition, primarily Pontiac. So we did the first package cars in late 1961 and 1962. From the factory standpoint, we had a lot of people out there racing for us.

His work with the Ramchargers helped solidify Maxwell's reputation not only for understanding how things should work but also for his willingness to get his hands dirty.  The Ramcharger group was like any other volunteer organization, said Hoover.  Theres always a hard core that gets 75% to 85% of the work done, and then there are hangers-on and peripheral talkers. Dick was one of the hard core.

By 1969, Maxwell was the manager of performance activities for Chrysler and had recognized that factory racing programs and the performance parts aftermarket should work together. Chrysler at first tried to market, price and sell its performance parts with the methods it used for replacement parts, but Maxwell and others realized that there was a better way. He pushed for a performance parts program that utilized warehouse distributors and dealers, with pricing and discounts similar to those used for other specialty-equipment products, a program that eventually morphed into the Direct Connection program and later Mopar Performance that still exists today.

Maxwell also influenced Chrysler Corporation's image within the street-rod community. While Ford products were and remain the dominant body sources for most rods, and Chevrolet provided the vast majority of the engines, Maxwell pushed for Chrysler brand recognition by instituting the Mopar Country concept at National Street Rod Association gatherings. He had an area set aside at the shows where Mopar-bodied or -powered products could be displayed, and while the other marques remained in the majority, Chrysler made definite inroads.

As Maxwell progressed up the management ladder, impressing coworkers and supervisors along the way, he became more and more convinced that the automakers needed to cooperate with and support specialty-equipment companies in order to reap benefits for both. To that end, he worked within Chrysler to open the company's race activities to the aftermarket and to solidify its relationship with SEMA. As a direct result of his efforts, Chrysler became the first original-equipment manufacturer to join the association and, in 1974, the first to exhibit at the SEMA Show. Maxwell further reinforced his commitment to the association when he later became the first employee of an OEM to serve on SEMA's Board of Directors.

In 1975, Maxwell succeeded one of his retiring Chrysler mentors, Bob Cahill (a 1997 inductee into the SEMA Hall of Fame), and was named vehicle performance racing manager, with responsibility for all of Chrysler's corporate racing programs. His legacy includes the introduction of now-commonplace racing concepts such as team uniforms and component specialists (team members responsible for specific tasks) as well as the first OEM front-wheel-drive race and parts programs, presaging the modern-day tuner phenomenon.

Maxwell was also an off-road aficionado of the first order. He loved to ride dirt bikes, and he became an accomplished rally driver late in his career. In the 1980s, he guided an off-road Dodge truck racing program that included support for two of the sport's most famous stars: Rod Hall and Walker Evans. In fact, co-driving with Evans in the Baja and other off-road events became a favorite activity for Maxwell. The fact that Dodge trucks grew in stature because of their off-road race wins was part of the Maxwell strategy.

Dick was always looking for areas and opportunities to sell new vehicles, because the long and short of it is that we were in business to sell new cars, said Warren Tiahrt, one of Maxwell's oldest friends from the Chrysler days.

Maxwell retired from Chrysler Corporation in 1991 as manager of special vehicle programs for Dodge. From 1991 to 1993, he served as the American Motorcycle Association's vice president of sports marketing, where he managed professional motorcycle competition. A racer, street rodder and motorcyclist, his lifetime of work earned him induction into the National Drag Racing Hall of Fame, election to the Hot Rod Hall of Fame as a member of the Ramchargers, and selection as one of the 10 Most Important Men in Drag Racing.

Tragically, Dick Maxwell succumbed to injuries he received in a highway motorcycle accident in 2002. He is survived by his wife of 18 years, Sandy Maxwell, as well as four daughters and one son, Pat, Lynn, Susan, Amy and Eric.

He was very strong-minded, you could say he was stubborn and you really had to have your stuff together if you were going to sway the way he felt, said Tiahrt.  He was a strong guy, and I miss him a lot.

Not many members of the SEMA Hall of Fame made an early career contact in a city jail while waiting to be exonerated, but that’s how Nate Shelton met Bill Casler of Casler Tire Service, who was not only a friend but also instrumental in Shelton’s future. As a young football player at Chaffey Junior College in 1969, Shelton used to make a little side money by selling reconditioned appliances for his dad at the Ontario swap meet in California. One weekend, he also helped out a couple of buddies by transporting some tires to the swap meet. Shortly after the sale began, however, the Ontario police arrived, cuffed them all and hauled them off to jail. One of his buddies ultimately confessed that the tires had been stolen from an area of tire stores but also cleared Shelton of any wrongdoing. Casler arrived as Shelton was checking out with the desk sergeant. Casler Tire Service pioneered the use of recapped cheater slicks, and some of the tires had been stolen from the shop.

When told the full story, Casler admonished Shelton to stay out of trouble but made the other two sweep out his retread shop every day after school to pay back what they had stolen and sold. The pair got to work around old Junior Stockers run by people such as Ed Holman, Gary Hooker and Wiley Cossey, and Shelton visited the site to check out the cars, also developing a good relationship with Casler. When Shelton was discharged from the SeaBees in 1972, he answered an ad for a “locator rep” at Hooker Headers, and Bill Casler once again walked in at a fortuitous moment. Casler, who owned a large portion of Hooker, recommended Shelton to the human-resources folks, and one of the most illustrious careers in automotive specialty-equipment history began.

“Hooker was quite a good training ground for me and quite a few other people in the industry,” Shelton said. “I went from being a locator rep, which is basically the guy who followed a vehicle to the design shop, to writing the instruction sheets to running the technical department and then sales manager.”

During the succeeding years, Shelton held jobs at such diverse companies as Cam Dynamics, Koni Shocks and VDO, returning to Hooker as director of sales and national sales manager in the mid-’80s. In 1987, he made another life-changing move when he joined K&N Engineering in Riverside, California.

“It was a pretty small air-filter company in 1987,” he said. “We did about $4 million that first year. They were big in motorcycles and wanted me to take them into the automotive business. We put together an automotive program and built the company into a $100-million-a-year corporation in about 14 years. I was eventually offered an opportunity to acquire part of it and become more involved.”

He led K&N Engineering to four PWA Manufacturer of the Year awards, working hard to create operational systems and build the business.

“It’s probably been repeated so much that people don’t like to hear it, but we always said that the customer is king,” he said. “We did everything we could to make our distributors as profitable as we possibly could. We kept in mind that we were in business for the core performance customer rather than for the mass merchandisers or the volume retailers. The core PWA warehouse distributors were the guys who built our business. We were the first company to win four Manufacturer of the Year awards. That said a lot about where we had come from and what we had accomplished.”

While at K&N, Shelton was instrumental in the development of high-flow air filters and cold-air intakes, and he is “the father of the fuel-injection intake kit” and the inventor of the X-Stream Filter Lid. Many of those innovations are among the first and most popular modifications made in the automotive performance arena today. In addition, he and the other K&N principals were responsible for creating some of the manufacturing processes and machines that are unique to the air-filter industry. “We had to build them ourselves,” he said, “because they didn’t exist anywhere else.”

Shelton sold his interest in K&N in 2002 and thought he was going to retire, but then he started a rep business, S&S Marketing. By June of 2005, he had hooked up with Dubin Clark & Company, a private equity group, and they put together a deal with Brian Appelgate to buy B&M Racing and Performance. They subsequently purchased McLeod and Hurst and are still looking for other opportunities. Shelton now serves as chairman of the B&M Automotive Group that is headquartered in Chatsworth, California.

His resume of participation in SEMA’s organizational structure is also phenomenal. Shelton served 12 consecutive years on the association’s Board of Directors; was chairman of the board for two years; served on the SEMA Business Committee, Manufacturers’ Rep Council (MRC), Hall of Fame Committee, Warehouse Distributor of the Year Committee and Scholarship Committee; and chaired the Unfair Business Practices Task Force. He was one of the founders and was the first chairman of the Motorsports Parts Manufacturers Council (MPMC). He was the PWA Person of the Year in 1994, the SEMA Person of the Year in 1998 and received Northwood University’s Automotive Aftermarket Management Education Award in 2001.

In addition to Casler, Shelton credits Neil Gates and Tom Cates as instrumental in the development of his career. He said that Gates, who ran the design shop when Shelton first started at Hooker, gave him his love for the business, and he said that Cates, who was the general manager at K&N, taught him about the higher levels of business.

“Both of them were guys who were in the business just because they loved it,” he said. “They cared about what they were doing and wanted to be involved, and I have a great deal of respect for them.”

Shelton works to maintain that respect, but also to retain his perspective about the joys of work and family.

“It’s easy to get full of yourself when you’re successful,” Shelton said. “I think the most important thing you can learn about business is being yourself. Don’t be something you’re not. Sometimes you can get so busy playing a part that you’re not doing what you should be doing. People can see right through that.”

In 2007, Shelton celebrated his 38th year of marriage to his wife Jeannie, exchanging vows with her on July 20, the same day that men first walked on the moon. He takes great pride in his 36-year-old daughter Kimberly and 35-year-old son John, who add to this extremely enjoyable phase of his life.

“I’ve got a wonderful wife and a wonderful family,” he said. “I’ve had a great career, and I can take a little different approach and look at things a little differently now. I enjoy what I’m doing, and I love the industry. This award is the greatest thing that could ever happen to me, because it assures me that I can continue to go to the SEMA Show, see my buddies and be there for that Hall of Fame luncheon. This industry is all I’ve ever done, and I just hope I can continue to be a part of it.”

Obviously, the industry shares in that desire.

As president and COO for Hedman Manufacturing in Whittier, California, Ron Funfar embodies the kind of success story that parents tell their children when seeking to provide positive motivation. He attended Catholic grammar and high schools and took a couple of college classes, but the bulk of his education and his accomplishments in the specialty-equipment industry came through his own hard work and willingness to devote himself to a sometimes strenuous but always worthwhile career. Funfar has been with Hedman for 33 years (as of 2007) and has been a major part of the company’s growth and accomplishments.

Funfar was introduced to the Hedman Hedders company in 1968 while serving in the California Army National Guard with Ken Hedman, whose father Bob owned the company. In 1974, Hedman had a position open for a warehouse manager, and Funfar landed the job. Funfar knew virtually nothing about the exhaust business, since he had been working in the beverage industry after the service, but he had been a self-described car nut since his early years, so he was at least familiar with what the company manufactured and sold.

Funfar gradually worked his way through the ranks, developing his operations and organizational skills, learning the sales side of the business and understanding how the distribution network functioned. When Bob Vandergriff purchased Hedman Manufacturing in 1978, he encouraged the company’s employees to become active in industry organizations as well as within Hedman itself. Over the next few decades, the company acquired other businesses, including J.R. Headers, Trans-Dapt Performance and, most recently, Hamburger’s Performance Products, and Funfar followed Vandergriff’s advice to become active in all facets of the business and the industry.

“The experience I gained working with PWA and its membership helped me tremendously,” Funfar said. “We also spent a lot of time at the SEMA offices in the early days when I chaired the Technical Committee. The people I was surrounded with were tremendous. Jim McFarland, Russ Deane, Bob Burch and Bob Keller worked so hard with the California Air Resources Board (CARB) and its section 27156, which eventually allowed exhaust manufacturers to receive California emissions exemptions without having to go through the rigorous Federal Test Procedure. There I was, surrounded by these industry giants with so much knowledge and passion. I couldn’t soak it up fast enough.”

In addition to his work on a variety of SEMA committees—often as chairman— Funfar was elected to the SEMA Board of Directors in 1987 and served three consecutive two-year terms until 1992. He also served as SEMA’s secretary/treasurer and was a focus group leader for the National Management Conferences, which (as of 2007) was revived and revised as the National Education Conference. His work with Bob Keller of Turbonetics Inc. in researching the possibility of SEMA having its own emissions facility fostered a relationship with the American Automobile Association (AAA), and he worked with Rick Rollins to found the World Motorsports Society, which eventually opened the door to the foundation of today’s Motorsports Parts Manufacturers Council.

Additionally, Funfar was a major supporter of segmenting the SEMA Show—grouping similar or related exhibits and companies into centralized locations to allow buyers better and quicker access to pertinent businesses, and he made Hedman one of the first manufacturers to field dual displays in Racer’s Row, as well as in the traditional Racing & Performance section of the Show. On another front, he was instrumental in reformatting the association’s early print publication into the in-house trade magazine now titled SEMA News.

On the personal side, (in 2007) Funfar commemorated his 10th wedding anniversary with wife Laura, who is the executive secretary and office manager at Hedman and will soon celebrate 20 years with the company. His daughter Nicole, 32, who will be married in July, and his 28-year-old son Erik, a U.S. Marine Corps veteran, are both college graduates who are well settled into their own careers. But Funfar’s extended family at Hedman also claims a strong hold on his heart.

“Fortunately for me, most all of my mentors are also good friends,” he said. “Jim McFarland, Dick Van Cleve and the late George Bozanic gave me tremendous guidance through the years. More recently, Rick Rollins has been a tremendous asset in helping me with some of the challenges our company has faced. Rick and I served on the SEMA Board together and were each other’s wingman for many years. There are so many others, such as Bob McJannett, Van Woodell, Bob Keller, Jeep Worthan, Bob Cook, Don Smith and Mike Rao. I could go on and on.

“Working for both the Hedman family and Bob Vandergriff gave me tremendous confidence because both allowed me to do my job with few restrictions. The fact that I have been allowed to run these companies for so many years has taught me that hard work, good business ethics, uncompromised scruples and integrity and doing the right thing definitely have their rewards. Because of Bob Vandergriff’s belief in this industry and his willingness to allow us to be so active within it, we have received several personal-achievement honors. We have tried so many things over the years that have been revolutionary to the industry, and we have been rewarded time and again with numerous new-product awards and two PWA Manufacturer of the Year awards. When we receive these awards, we sometimes forget that we wouldn’t be able to help our industry if it weren’t for the hard-working people back at the shop. They are all a big part of these honors.

“I’ve had 33 years in this industry with a great company. I have a terrific wife who is always 100% behind me. I have great children who are well on their way to successful careers, and I have the best friends a person could have.

Honesty and integrity. When those words are repeatedly applied to one man by respected contemporaries, they develop deep significance. To those who know him best, Bob Cook is the essence of honesty and integrity.

Cook grew up in west Georgia and moved to Atlanta when he was eight years old. His parents had already parted company by that time, and his mother was raising four children on her own. Cook was fortunate to find a mentor and surrogate father in his older brother, who shared his fondness for cars and racing.

“I’d always liked cars,” Cook recalled, “and when my brother got out of the Navy, he came home with a primered ’51 Mercury that we took to the drag races. Of course, a Flathead Ford engine with a two-barrel carburetor was not very fast, but it got us started. My job at the time was to take the street tires off and put the slicks on. I was the pit crew.”

His brother also provided some discipline, such as the time Cook wanted to quit school when he was 16 in order to get a job and buy his own car. His brother threatened physical mayhem, and Cook kept at the books.

After graduating from high school, Cook studied to become an attorney at John Marshall Law School in Atlanta. He attended classes at night, working during the day.

“I had some excellent professors who were practicing attorneys in the city of Atlanta,” he said, “and I learned an awful lot from them about legal, political and business perspectives. I got out of law school 41 years ago and have used what I learned ever since in legal issues, such as payments and contracts. But during the course of the five years that I was in school, I figured out a lot about the real world. I went to law school with the intention of getting into politics at some point, but I’m now glad that I missed that opportunity.”

Instead, Cook parlayed his day jobs and his passion for cars into one of the most honored careers in the automotive specialty-equipment industry. He began as a delivery boy for a NAPA store called Redman Auto Parts—the only independent NAPA store in Atlanta. He moved from deliveries to stock clerking and eventually to the counter. When two of his fellow countermen left Redman to open their own parts store down the street, they lured him away. From there, he went to work at a warehouse that dealt primarily with small-engine ignitions and carburetion. The carburetion link was further strengthened when he went to work for Holley Carburetor. The Holley factory team also represented the Edelbrock line, and Cook joined several of the crew in breaking away to form a national rep firm called Performance Marketers Inc. in 1974.

With a few years of the rep experience under his belt, Cook started his own agency in June of 1979—which, it turned out, was not the most auspicious time to be going into a field based on automobiles without much money.

“Gas prices had gone over $1 a gallon that month,” he said. “We just hit the equivalent of that in April of this year, which gives you a feeling of how tough it was then. The economy was very sour and didn’t really start coming back until the mid-’80s.”

In those first years, Bob Cook Sales struggled to stay afloat, paying its bills but unable to afford much else. A few key people provided Cook with opportunities that helped his fledgling company survive. Vic Edelbrock and Bob Vandergriff were Cook’s first two clients.

“They were an excellent base to start with,” Cook said. “I was one guy, on my own, with no money. Bob Vandergriff was especially helpful with a creative commission structure that provided a tiny bit of income to help me pay the expenses of being on the road.”

The perseverance eventually paid off. As his company grew from just himself to a two-man and finally a 14-rep business, Cook began to give back by helping to foster the industry. When he wasn’t on the road or working at his own company, he devoted himself to SEMA projects. His résumé of services includes three consecutive terms on the SEMA Board of Directors, as well as the chairmanships of the WD of the Year Committee, Rep Committee and Dues Review Committee. He also served on the Long Range Planning Committee, the New Products Judging Committee and the Person of the Year Committee. Bob Cook Sales has been honored five times with the SEMA Rep of the Year award in three different decades, and Cook has himself been a finalist for the PWA Person of the Year award nine times. He has also continuously and unselfishly given of his time and his company’s sponsorships to SEMA and PWA events and functions over the years.

Among his finer accomplishments, Bob Cook is the father of two sons, Robby, 33, and Jeffrey, 13 (as of 2008).
 

Joseph “Corky” Coker delights in seeing people happy. He is passionate about his family, friends and businesses. He is energetic and ambitious, compassionate and caring. And he was born to be in the automotive specialty-equipment industry.

His father Harold opened the Coker Tire Company in 1958, and Coker remembers sweeping floors and cleaning wide whitewalls as his earliest jobs. But even though he was nicknamed after a character in the old “Gasoline Alley” comic strip, he was not enthralled about working at a tire company. In addition to the time spent at his father’s business, Coker grew up among livestock on the family farm. He liked the animals more than the rubber and planned to become a veterinarian until a too-carefree attitude at Middle Tennessee State University and the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga put an end to that plan. As he recalled it: “I made all Bs in college—banjos, beer and babes—so I was not quite the student it took to become a vet.”

Instead, he discovered that he actually enjoyed working at the tire store when he retuned there and split his time between the business and school in Chattanooga. When he ultimately went full-time, his father directed him to take on the small antique-tire niche, which was then less than 5% of the company.

“I suddenly realized that selling hot-rod and Model A tires to these guys made them very happy,” he said. “They smiled when they did business with me because they got to play with their toys. I really got my head into it and started developing some ideas and goals of my own.”

Over the years, Coker put those ideas into practice and began to add to the goals. The antique-tire segment of the business now encompasses 95% of Coker Tire’s earnings, and the company ships tires throughout the United States and to 32 other countries. Coker acquired vintage molds from around the world to build stock, contracting with both domestic and foreign manufacturers to produce the company’s inventory. He negotiated licensing agreements and distributorship deals for vintage tires with producers, such as BFGoodrich, Firestone, Michelin and U.S. Royal, and he developed a separate division to sell accessories and automobile collectibles and memorabilia.

Coker’s personal auto collection includes more than 50 cars and 50 antique motorcycles, and he takes part annually in The Great Race, which is an antique touring event that runs from coast to coast. In 1998, Coker acquired Honest Charley, one of America’s first speed shops, which was started in 1948 by Honest Charley Card, himself a SEMA Hall of Fame member. Honest Charley celebrates its 60th anniversary this year.

As he worked to grow his businesses, Coker also devoted time to building the whole industry through his efforts with SEMA. He was one of the founders of the Automotive Restoration Market Organization, which named Coker Tire its Manufacturer of the Year in 1997 and inducted Coker into its Hall of Fame the following year. He served numerous terms on the SEMA Board of Directors and became the association’s chairman in 2003.

During the course of his involvement with the association, Coker helped establish the SEMA Political Action Committee, guided the group toward an investment strategy that improved SEMA’s financial resources to ensure future security and also encouraged the development of better relationships with auto dealers that led to the development of the ProPledge warranty program.

Though faith and charity are hallmarks of his character, Coker’s humanitarian and community involvements are less well-known. He is a recipient of the Silver Beaver award from the Boy Scouts of America, that organization’s highest volunteer honor, and he has continually been active in his local Chamber of Commerce. In addition, he was selected as Tennessee’s Person of the Year by the Small Business Administration in 1996. He has made charitable visits to the Caribbean Christian Center for the Deaf in Granville, Jamaica, and he serves on the board of directors for Chosen Children Ministries, a Christ-centered ministry to orphanages, with a focus on Nicaragua.

“Doing right means something,” he said. “I became a Christian in my early 20s, and the Lord has guided me. Having a grandmother who prayed for me every day has been part of the reason for my success. She passed away a few years ago, and somebody asked me, ‘What are you going to do now that your grandmother isn’t praying for you any more?’ I said, ‘That’s not the case. She’s whispering in His ear now.’”

Family has always been at the core of Coker’s life, both personally and in business. He points to his father and his grandfather as the major figures who guided him. He has been married to Theresa Coker for 30 years (as of 2008). His daughter Casey joined the family business two years ago, and his son Cameron graduated from college and went to work for Apple Computers a year ago. His brother spent a number of years in the business and then started his own company, Newstalgia Wheel, and his sister is involved in education in Franklin, Tennessee.

Coker’s passion for his family and the industry is obvious, but he also holds an abiding love for his country.

“When we have the opportunity to be out in a convertible or a hot rod and see America, they always give us a thumbs-up and say that they love what we do,” he said. “Why wouldn’t I cherish that? It’s absolutely the best part of what I do.”

Since its inception, SEMA has sought to help its members understand and work within the legislative and political arenas, both locally and in Washington, D.C. There has been no greater supporter in those efforts than Senator Ben Nighthorse Campbell. An enthusiast himself, Campbell represented the state of Colorado in the United States House of Representatives from 1987–1993 and in the U.S. Senate from 1993–2005. During those terms, he not only raised the automotive specialty-equipment industry’s visibility and worked to protect its businesses and employees, but also helped found the Congressional Automotive Performance and Motorsports Caucus, serving as its first chairman.

Campbell grew up in Northern-Central California, where his love of cars and motorcycles began. He was raised in the foothills of Auburn above Sacramento in the days when George Barris and his brother were just starting to design custom cars.

“We had a hot-rod club called the Foothill Roadsters when I was in high school,” Campbell said. “My first car was a ’36 Ford—a little sedan that I put drop shackles on and did some tinkering with. I’ve been around cars and bikes my whole life. I often joke that a ’50s California kid can never have enough power or chrome. That goes with growing up out there.”

Campbell served with the U.S. Air Force in Korea from 1951–1954. At the conclusion of his military service, he attended California State University at San Jose, receiving a B.A. and performing graduate work in education. He also attended Meiji University in Tokyo and was a highly accomplished athlete, captaining the U.S. judo team at the 1964 Olympic games in Japan.

The multifaceted former senator said that he always had at least a couple of careers going throughout his life. He is a jewelry designer, rancher and trainer of champion quarter horses. He taught college courses for several years while at the same time working nights as a policeman. After retiring from elected office in 2004, he joined the Washington, D.C. law office of Holland & Knight as an adviser on Indian issues, and he remains one of 44 chiefs of the Northern Cheyenne Tribe. While in Congress, Campbell held the position of Deputy Majority Whip and served on a wide variety of Senate committees, including Appropriations; Energy and Natural Resources; Veterans’ Affairs; Environment and Public Works; and Agriculture. He chaired the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs—the first American Indian in history to do so—and was the only American Indian serving in the Senate when he left public office.

Campbell said that his entry into politics was almost accidental. He hadn’t planned to run for anything until some party officials talked him into vying for a seat in the state legislature. He served two terms there and was then convinced to run for Congress. When Colorado’s senior senator retired, Campbell won that seat and served two terms. Finally, after 22 years in government, he decided that he wanted to spend time with his family.

But it is his work on issues of vital importance to the automotive world in general and the specialty-equipment industry in particular that have earned Campbell a place in the SEMA Hall of Fame.

“Senator Ben Nighthorse Campbell was the highest elected official who steadfastly supported the specialty-equipment industry and remained ready, willing and able to help SEMA whenever and wherever he could,” said Mitch Williams, former chairman of the SEMA Board of Directors.

“In just one of his most visible efforts, Senator Campbell’s amendment to eliminate funding for scrappage programs from the Energy Policy Act of 2002 was passed by unanimous consent. Had this gone the other way, it could have severely impacted the collector-car industry.”

Campbell said that killing what was called the “salvage bill” was one of his most satisfying accomplishments.

“A senator introduced a bill that would’ve given a cash rebate to anybody who junked their older cars,” Campbell recalled. “It was done under the guise of fuel conservation, but it meant that you could be paid to junk an old VW that got 35 miles to the gallon and buy a new Cadillac that got 10. How in the world could that be fuel conservation? It also would have been the death knell for collectors, restorers and hot-rod people. An awful lot of older cars would’ve been melted down, and those old cars aren’t coming back.”

Campbell often advised SEMA on critical issues and helped create more effective strategies and arguments that supported the association’s issues.

“We knew that we had a good friend in the Senate who understood and cared about our industry and whom we could always count on,” said Williams. “It is an important statement about how far we have come as an industry to honor such a highly accomplished former United States senator. But, more importantly, it is a very appropriate thank you to Senator Campbell for a lifetime of support for our industry.”

Senator Campbell has been married to his wife Linda for 41 years. His son Colin embraced his father’s love of cars, recently buying a new Aston Martin, and his daughter Shanan followed her father’s lead into the art world, owning an art gallery and art consulting service. The whole family remains in Colorado.

Not many of us can say that we’ve received a life-changing job offer in midair, but Van Woodell can. But let’s back up a bit. Born and raised in Durham, North Carolina, Woodell tinkered with cars before discovering that four-wheeling in the mountains was his real thrill. He bought a ’71 Toyota Land Cruiser and joined a four-wheel-drive club in Durham. To pay for his hobby, he worked in the service department of a local Jeep dealership. “By now, I had been bit,” he recalled, and he went to work in 1974 for a start-up called Tar Heel 4WD Center, where he really became involved in learning parts, selling parts and developing expertise in off-roading.

Unfortunately, the difficult economy of the time caused Tar Heel 4WD Center to close its doors in 1979, leaving Woodell to take odd jobs, such as tuning cars, brake jobs and “…anything I could do to earn some money,” he said. “I had a baby on the way, so I was in a panic.” As it turned out, several of the reps who called on Woodell at Tar Heel 4WD Center also called on his future employer, Dudley Weathers, who was based in Tupelo, Mississippi, where the original Weathers Auto Supply was located.

Weathers flew Woodell to Petersburg, Virginia, for a talk and on the flight back to Durham, made a job offer to open a store in Petersburg. Since Woodell’s wife, Carol, was due to give birth, she stayed behind in Durham while he set-up shop—and living quarters—in the new Weathers warehouse.

Weathers gave Woodell an opportunity to buy 10% of the Virginia store, and the two then opened another warehouse in Charlotte, North Carolina. Over the next couple of years, Woodell bought another 10%, then another 10%. By 1989, he bought the balance of the Petersburg store.

Sam Compton of Rep South Productions had called on Woodell as a customer and recalled looking for a buyer who was “…not reckless, but one that had vision, understanding of the customer and the courage to be a pioneer.”
      “Van met all of these attributes,” he said. “You left Virginia feeling good and inspired to follow his image.”

Steve Starr of PSKB, who met Woodell early in his career as a manufacturer’s rep, recalled his affinity for others. “I feel he loves the industry mainly because of the people he has contact with and his passion for the automotive aftermarket,” Starr said. “He is definitely a people person.”

Woodell had attended SEMA Shows as a member with Tar Heel 4WD Center, but when he joined the association with Weathers, he had a new perspective.

“I figured, if I’m going to be in something or involved in something, I want to learn about it,” he said. “But at that point, I had no earthly idea how to become involved with SEMA.”

Enter Bob Cook of Bob Cook Sales, who told Woodell: “I’ll get you involved.” Cook was an independent rep during Woodell’s Tar Heel 4WD Center days and explained that Woodell and he hit it off right away. “He was very open to new-product presentation, friendly and understood the business,” Cook said. So when it came to SEMA involvement, Cook told him, “Don’t complain about issues unless you are willing to work toward changing them.”

That is what Woodell did, serving three consecutive two-year terms on the SEMA Board of Directors from 1997–2003. He was elected to the Board again in 2007 and 2009. He served on the nominating committee for the Board of Directors and has served on a variety of other SEMA committees and task forces. He held a seat on the PWA Board of Directors and is a past president of PWA. He has also been honored with the Vanguard Award by SEMA’s Young Executives Network (YEN) and was selected for the Light Truck Accessory Alliance (LTAA) Hall of Fame.

Compton might just sum up this SEMA Hall of Fame inductee perfectly with, “Everyone should have a Van Woodell in their life.