DirtonDirt exclusive
Babb, Pearson among Hall of Famers for '26
By Todd Turner
DirtonDirt managing editor
Earl Pearson Jr. will be among 2026 inductees. (DirtonDirt)
ROSSBURG, Ohio — A World 100 winner and four-time Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series champion and a two-time Dirt Track World Championship victor who’s also the all-time winningest DIRTcar Summer Nationals racer are set to join the National Dirt Late Model Hall of Fame in the Class of 2026 along with regional standouts from Iowa, North Carolina and Tennessee. | Slideshow
Earl Pearson Jr. of Jacksonville, Fla., and Shannon Babb of Moweaqua, Ill., plus Gary Crawford of Independence, Iowa, the late Jimmy Edwards Jr. of Hope Mills, N.C., and Crossville, Tenn., racer-turned-analyst Randy Weaver were revealed Saturday as inductees along with three contributors at Eldora Speedway during the 45th annual Tire Dirt Track World Championship presented by ARP.
Contributors set to be enshrined are late Oklahoma engine builder Russell Baker and two directors of Late Model tours, DIRTcar’s Sam Driggers of the Summer Nationals and Rick Schwallie, the current director of the Lucas Oil Series.
The Hall of Fame will also in 2026 present the Baltes-Memmer Award posthumously to Southern All Star Racing Series founder B.J. Parker. Lifetime Achievement Awards will go to Bill and Debbie Reed of Dirt Racing Outreach and longtime team owner and sponsor Brownie Brown, who fielded Ray Cook's national touring entry for many seasons.
The Class of 2026, elected by a 75-member committee and set to join more than 200 drivers and contributors enshrined since 2001, will be inducted next August during the Sunoco Race Fuels North-South 100 weekend at Florence Speedway in Union, Ky. A closer look at the Class of 2026 (listed alphabetically):
Drivers
Shannon Babb, Moweaqua, Ill.: A throttle-stomping star whose skills were a perfect fit for the home-state bullrings of the Summer Nationals, the still active 51-year-old has piled up 102 series victories, one more than his mentor and former teammate Billy Moyer. An upstart with hints of brilliance in subpar equipment in the mid-1990s, Babb caught fire and came into his own with major victories at Kentucky Lake Motor Speedway and Brownstown (Ind.) Speedway, then hit his prime, securing Summer Nationals titles in 2005-06 with 28 victories over two seasons. Driving for Bill Moyer Sr. and Ed Petroff much of his career, he became a national star with 25 national touring victories, captured DTWCs at two tracks and won two Dixie Shootouts and two Topless 100s. Overall he won four Summer Nationals crowns (also 2011 and ’14) and the 2004 title on the National Auto Racing Association that evolved into the Lucas Oil circuit.
Gary Crawford, Independence, Iowa: A winner of more than 300 races and owner of 15 track championships, he dazzled in the prime of his career with an amazing 120 feature victories from 1978-80, including some of the region’s biggest races. The 76-year-old’s career began driving for champion racer Ed Sanger in 1972 as Rookie of the Year at his hometown Independence oval, where he won 46 races over his career. The Cornhusker-Hawkeye Challenge Cup champion in 1978 and NASCAR regional champion in 1979, among Crawford's biggest victories were Minot’s North Dakota Late Model Championship (’79), Sundrop Late Model All-star Invitational in Fairmont, Minn. (’79), and the 1980 Spring Invitation at Sunset Speedway in Omaha, Neb. The driver of the No. 10 car, who in 1977 won the first NASCAR championship at Hawkeye Downs Speedway in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, was inducted into the Iowa Racing Hall of Fame in 2022.
Jimmy Edwards Jr., Hope Mills, N.C.: A winner of 400 races and 20 track titles, the driver of the No. 48 known as “Porky” was a standout in the Carolinas over a career of more than 30 seasons starting in 1975. He ran dirt and asphalt early in his career — sometimes with the same Late Model — and outran NASCAR stars including Bobby Allison, David Pearson and Dale Earnhardt in short-track competition. The prime of his career was the late 1970s and early ‘80s as he posted a 40-victory season in 1979 and in 1983 won 24 times in 35 starts. The Southeastern Nationals at Volusia County Speedway in Barberville, Fla. (’78) and the Purolator 101 in Fayetteville (’78-79) were among major victories in that stretch. He dabbled in NASCAR competition, making a single Busch Series start at Darlington, S.C. One of his younger brothers, Hank, was among his toughest career rivals and between them they captured 10 consecutive Late Model titles at Fayetteville. Edwards, whose last victory came at Fayetteville in 2007, died in 2011 at the age of 57.
Earl Pearson Jr., Jacksonville, Fla.: One of the Sunshine State’s winningest Late Model racers, Pearson captured one of the most thrilling World 100s at Eldora Speedway in 2006 amid a four-year stretch of consecutive Lucas Oil titles that ended in 2008. Other lucrative victories included the 2009 Colossal 100 at the Dirt Track at Charlotte in Concord, N.C., 2010’s Dirt Track World Championship at West Virginia Motor Speedway in Mineral Wells, W.Va., and 2018’s Dirt Million at Mansfield (Ohio) Motor Speedway, where he rallied after multiple pit stops for a career-high $202,940 payday. Sponsored by Lucas Oil and his close friend Forrest Lucas most of his career, Pearson found success with Dunn Benson Motorsports, Bobby Labonte Motorsports and Ronnie Stuckey’s Black Diamond house car among other teams. The 53-year-old was also the first Longhorn Chassis driver and captured 2004’s Xtreme DirtCar Series title. He entered every Lucas Oil Series event from 2005 through the spring of 2021, when he missed a race upon his father’s death.
Randy Weaver, Crossville, Tenn.: The terror of the Cumberland Plateau, the two-time Southern All Star Series champion captured some of the biggest races in the Southeast during a standout career in his No. 116 entry. Major victories included the 2005 Blue-Gray 100 at Cherokee Speedway in Gaffney, S.C., the 2012 Governor’s Cup at Magnolia Motor Speedway in Columbus, Miss., the 2014 Alabama State Championship at East Alabama Motor Speedway in Phenix City, and the 2015 King of the Commonwealth at Virginia Motor Speedway in Jamaica, Va. That 2015 season marked the hottest stretch of his career as he started the season with nine straight victories, going unbeaten until May and four times topping DirtonDirt’s Top 25 power rankings. A grinding, barrel-rolling crash at EAMS in 2016 curtailed his racing with post-concussion syndrome, but he’s found late career success primarily in Crate Late Models, still competing occasionally. In recent seasons, the 55-year-old has become a popular behind-the-mic analyst during FloRacing’s coverage at Eldora Speedway’s major events, taking fans into the pits and behind the scenes with racer-focused perspectives about what viewers are seeing at the sport’s biggest events.
Contributors
Russell Baker: A Dirt Late Model engine builder whose motors were renowned for their power and durability, the Miami, Okla., resident was an innovator in developing powerful, smaller motors during the golden era of the Hav-A-Tampa Dirt Racing Series in the late 1990s, powering standout drivers Wendell Wallace, Billy Moyer, Bill Frye, Dale McDowell, Steve Francis and others to victories in some of the sport's richest events over 25 seasons. Drivers and team owners lauded Baker for his powerful engines, reliable machine work, fastidious attention to detail, straightforward honesty and folksy customer service that turned clients into friends. A self-taught machinist who first began building engines when he was 18, switched exclusively to racing engines in the early 1970s and became a force in Dirt Late Model circles by the 1980s. Baker died in 2012 at the age of 66 after a brief battle with leukemia.
Sam Driggers: The face of United Midwestern Promoters and then DIRTcar over more than 30 seasons with the organization, the 67-year-old Driggers has been to more Summer Nationals events than anyone in series history after succeeding tour founder Bob Memmer. The St. Augustine, Fla., native’s father helped build the Jacksonville dirt track and his mother's florist shop sponsored race cars, so by age 14 Driggers was in a race tower scoring races. Eventually Memmer plucked him from Florida’s Volusia Speedway Park in the early 1990s to become his right-hand man at UMP with Driggers taking the helm when his mentor’s health failed. Rarely seen without a clipboard, a pen to sign dozens of paychecks and a cigarette, the leather-faced Driggers is mostly unflappable as a series director, letting drivers blow off steam while patiently listening to nightly complaints. Not above a well-placed expletive at a drivers’ meeting — particularly when drivers let tempers boil over in the pits — Driggers has navigated an evolving Summer Nationals circuit that has ebbed and flowed, surviving Covid’s split-season, facing the annual challenge of night-after-night scheduling and instituting a weekly points system to bolster the tour.
Rick Schwallie: With his original perspective of racing primarily coming through the camera lens, the 47-year-old Ohio resident has risen to the highest officiating levels of Dirt Late Model racing during his lengthy career. The teenaged photographer developed into a respected touring photographer in various capacities, joining the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series 20 years ago. He stepped up from photographer to official, then assistant series director and in 2016 was promoted to series director, replacing mentor Ritchie Lewis. During 10 years directing the national tour, Schwallie has navigated the tour’s playoff era with the Big River Steel Chase for the Championship, adjusted to the loss of longtime series track East Bay Raceway Park in Gibsonton, Fla., as well as the continuing evolution of a new-look Georgia-Florida Speedweeks. Schwallie’s wife Ashley has been at his side throughout his Lucas Oil years, serving as administrative manager for the circuit.
Editor's note: Additional information provided by Bob Markos of the National Dirt Late Model Hall of Fame and contributor Thomas Pope.
