Ben operated a warehouse in Texas and served the area as a purveyor of performance products. In its heyday, his company was one of the largest distributors of dress-up items for vans, including interior furnishings. He was a recipient of the PWA Pioneer Award in 1985.
Don’s work in the automotive aftermarket is legendary. He was CEO of High Performance Distributors in South San Francisco, where he once also operated his own drag strip. Despite a tough business schedule, the former racer served on the SEMA board for 14 years and is still the only person to be elected to it as a write-in candidate. He also served as national director of the Performance Warehouse Association for many years. He has been named SEMA Person of the Year and SEMA WD of the Year, and has received the PWA Pioneer Award and SEMA Businesswomen’s Network Athena Award.
“He was a helping hand, the guy I could turn to for guidance,” said a drag racer speaking of Keith Black, whose racing engines—aluminum blocks fashioned after the Chrysler 392 Hemi—continue to dominate drag racing. Keith Black Racing Engines opened in 1959, and KB blocks held every national record in Top Fuel between 1975 and 1984; his high-performance drag racing engines also showed up in tractor pulling applications. In the mid-1940s, he segued to boat racing, setting a world record at Salton Sea on his second time out. In the mid-1960s Chrysler contracted him to develop a marine racing program.
As founder and CEO of SC Performance, Sheldon was an avid supporter of SEMA and industry causes. His SC Performance outlets were regarded as the first speed shop “chain stores,” operated in the western United States. An interesting note: Sheldon developed the design for the SEMA trophies.
Shelby was familiar as the nameplate on quality performance cars: the Shelby Cobra, the Cobra Mustang and others. What isn’t as commonly known about Carroll was his dedication to a variety of philanthropic causes, among them the Carroll Shelby Children’s Foundation.
Thurston was a true pioneer of products for off-road vehicles, the original designer of four-wheel drive hubs for Jeeps. Warn Industries is best known today for its assortment of heavy-duty winches, while the development of locking hubs earned the company original-equipment contracts with Willys, Kaiser-Jeep and International Harvester in 1960. A year earlier, in 1959, Thurston had expanded his company’s off-road accessory offerings by adapting a logging tool—the electric winch—into a recovery device for recreational four-wheelers. In 1981, Ford announced that the Ranger 4x4 pickup would feature Warn M250 manual locking hubs.
Thrush Mufflers was lucky to have Stan Hiltz on its staff. The maker of Cherry Bombs and other performance mufflers, Thrush was not a favorite among law-enforcement agencies whose mission was to control vehicle noise. Stan was an effective administrator, devoted to his mission, marketing mufflers his customers wanted.
A member of countless committees, an early president of SEMA and a member of its Board of Directors, Els has no equal when it comes to undivided service to SEMA and the industry it seeks to protect. Els founded Eelco, a racing products company; he later owned Ansen Enterprises. He also had an impressive history of racing and setting records on the Bonneville Salt Flats. Els was actively involved in the SEMA Scholarship Fund, was voted SEMA Person of the Year for 1976, and in 1990 was knighted by the order of St. John of Jerusalem Knights.
They called him “Ford’s off-road guy.” It was Bill who prototyped and tested truck components for Ford. He set up trucks for off-road competition and drove them; Bill once supervised a large Ford test lab in Southern California. Aside from making his name in racing and building fast sedans and off-road vehicles, he was also involved in midget racing and racing on the dry lakes. Additionally, he raced in the SCCA (and won a championship in 1952 with a Mercury flathead-powered Kurtis 500S) and crewed for cars at Indy.
Linda is “The First Lady of Auto Racing,” one of the most famous personalities in all of motorsports. She began her career as a beauty queen in 1961; the following year she was named Miss Pontiac, followed by Miss Atlanta Raceway and Hurst Golden Shifter Girl. Linda also held the position of vice president of public relations for Hurst. She is repeatedly recognized for her volunteer service to industry causes. As a founding member of the SEMA SBN Council, she received its Lifetime Achievement Award. In 1988, SEMA honored her achievements with a special citation during the Salute to the American Automotive Performance & Motorsports Industry program in Washington, D.C. She was elected to the Drag Racing Hall of Fame and was named a SEMA Person of the Year. Linda also received her competition driver’s license from the SCCA.
