Joe and his brother Tom were drag racers in the early 1960s (back-to-back NHRA champions in 1961 and 1962), who got the idea that they could win more races if they could improve the seal between the headers and their engines. Joe hit on a durable gasket recipe and tested it successfully on his own cars. Earliest prototypes were built in his home basement. As it happens in the racing world, word got around to other drivers, and soon Joe was literally “Mr. Gasket,” selling the popular sealers, at first under the Speed Specialties name, then as Mr. Gasket Co. Joe was a SEMA Memorial Scholarship subfund sponsor.

Jack was a pioneer of what is known today as a sales representative or sales agent—a rep in today’s automotive industry jargon. He was an innovative planner and marketer, one whose successful career was founded on honesty, integrity and trustworthiness.

Considered an innovator, Kenny was the founder of Harman Collins, a producer of high-performance distributors and related ignition components for the Ford flathead V8. The Harman Collins units were used extensively in early-days circle track competition and drag racing, and can be found today on the engines of nostalgia race cars. He also had a shop that focused on motorcycle camshafts, called K-H Cams. Kenny’s background included racing Muroc and Rosamond dry lakes.

Appropriately lauded as the patriarch of the entire performance industry, Wally was the first editor of Hot Rod magazine and the founder and CEO of the NHRA, which he founded in 1951, and for which he also served on its Board of Directors. The beginning of hot rodding and drag racing spurred the start of an industry to serve a growing population of passionate, hands-on enthusiasts, the industry today guided by SEMA. As a proponent of safety in drag racing, he also helped organize the Safety Safaris. Speaking volumes to his contributions, the NHRA named its museum The Wally Parks NHRA Motorsports Museum, and he was inducted into the International Motorsports Hall of Fame 1992 and the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America in 1993.

Jack was said to have drag racing in his soul. He drove a variety of cars in quarter-mile competition, and was a pioneer in the drag-racing world, racing innovative cars of their time. He eventually went to work at the NHRA; he was with the organization for more than two decades, including as executive vice president. Jack was one of drag racing’s most respected administrators. Soon after the formation of SEMA, it began addressing an important issue: product specifications. With Jack’s encouragement and help, a SEMA specs program was made official in 1967. Manufacturers in the program were permitted to advertise that their product “Meets SEMA Specs.”

He was a true hot rodder, an innovator responsible for the design of motor-mount kits for engine conversions in hot rods, as well as the popular Hurst shifters. George was also a key player in drag racing in the 1950s. And a fact not known by many: George invented the Jaws of Life cutting device used by fire departments and rescue crews throughout the world to remove victims of crashes from damaged vehicles.

When he was a young man racing his own cars, Ed Iskenderian—or as he was later nicknamed, “Camfather”—had trouble buying racing-grind camshafts. He didn’t like to wait for them. So, he said to himself, “I can make those….” And that was the start of Iskenderian Racing Cams, popularly known as “Isky Cams,” one of the largest specialty cam grinders in America. The company developed the first high-density, chilled-iron lifters for Top Fuel dragsters, and was also responsible for the first anti-cam-walk kit for Chevy V8s and the first offset cam keys and bushings for adjusting cam timing. Ed was part of the small group that created SEMA, and was its first president. Additionally, he is a member of Chevrolet’s Legends of Performance.

Mallory Ignition products were the result of a young racer’s imagination. Boots set out to improve the performance of Ford flathead V8s by modifying the ignition, and thus was born the likes of dual-point breaker assemblies, high-output coils and a host of ignition products that carried the Mallory name. Boots was also a driving force in early sponsorship of auto racing—the first Mallory ignition won at the Pikes Peak Hill Climb in 1926—including drag racing and NASCAR. Many NHRA-winning Funny Cars and Top Fuel dragsters have sported Mallory Super-Mag ignition systems.

Lou got his start by building and modifying engines for midgets and other forms of oval-track racing, and he started a mail-order business in 1945. He has always been regarded as the “racer’s racer,” known for his inventive spirit and overall love of cars. He was the founder of Ansen Automotive and, later, the Senter Wheel Company. In 1963, Lou, along with other manufacturers, formed SEMA. He was named to the Hot Rod magazine Hall of Fame, received a Western Racing Association Award in 1997 for his significant and dedicated contributions to racing, and was named to the Dry Lakes Hall of Fame in 1999

Harry took pride in helping a fledgling industry get its start on the dry lake beds of California, where time trials preceded the sport known as drag racing. He experimented with cams to improve the performance of Ford flathead V8s and inline sixes, producing the reground race versions of cams to the eager hot rodders of the era. Weber Speed Equipment grew from cams to include parts such as clutches and flywheels. He is noted as one of the original supporters of the idea of forming an organization called SEMA.