Galles & Pruett Enter Walk of Fame
Long Beach Mayor Bob Foster (left) and Scott Pruett. (Dan Jack photo)
LONG BEACH, Calif. — The Motorsports Walk of Fame added two new members Thursday — Galles Racing and Scott Pruett.
Pruett, who told how he risked every cent he had—“and then some”—to buy a ride in the Long Beach Grand Prix in 1995, in the hope of getting his name out to owners and land a ride. He finished second in the 1995 event, and it did lead to bigger and better things for Pruett. He has a long history at Long Beach, winning in karts back in 1984, g
Grand-Am in 2006, Trans-Am in 1987, and the 2001 Toyota Pro/Celebrity race, as well.
Rick Galles was the winning owner at CART races at Long Beach for five years in a row, from 1988-1992, with driver Al Unser Jr., winning four, with Danny Sullivan taking the final win in the skein, albeit with a contretemps between the teammates, denying Little Al of his fifth consecutive win.
Following the race, there were some hard feelings, but Galles said the main thing was the team won. The team was known as Galles Racing the first two years, and Galles Kraco Racing the final three.
Galles mentioned how he wished Maurice Kranes was around to share in the honor, and said that Kranes loved Long Beach…in fact, the whole team did, and he posited that they might have won all those races because they were so loose and enjoyed themselves so much. He also mentioned how proud he was of his son Jamie’s Trans-Am win at Long Beach.
This was the eighth class of honorees, and Pruett and Galles join such legends as Phil Hill, Dan Gurney, Parnelli Jones, Newman/Haas Racing, Target Chip Ganassi Racing, and Brian Redman, who was in attendance for the activities.
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Posted by Dan Jack
on Apr 12 2012 Filed under IndyCar, IZOD IndyCar Series, Latest Headlines, Other Road Racing, Road Racing, Top Stories.
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