Eacker, Gudmundson join racing Hall of Fame

The Daily Inter Lake

Robert Eacker and Gary Gudmundson were inducted into the Northwest Montana Stock Car Racing Association Hall of Fame last Saturday night during ceremonies at Montana Raceway Park.

Eacker and Gudmundson are the sixth and seventh members to join the Hall.

This marked the first time the Hall of Fame has inducted two members in a single year.

Eacker started racing in 1950 with a 1935 Ford that featured a truck radiator, which allowed Eacker to run a whole race without heating up.

He was also known as Mr. Consistent because he drove every lap the same and rarely got into trouble.

Gudmundson is regarded as the foremost historian on stock car racing in the state. He started the Nostalgia Class in the 1980s with Studebaker frames rescued from old cars pulled out of the river.

Gudmundson still letters many of the race cars at the track today and was instrumental in helping others start racing.

Gaylon 'Lum' Owens was the first inductee in 1996. Harold Little was honored in 1997, Bert Seymore in 1998, Clem Wisher in 1999 and Wilbur Rohrback in 2004.

When the NWMSCRA was disbanded in 2000 after 48 years, the Hall of Fame went with it for a four year period. Mike Thoennes, a former NWMSCRA president, and his wife Nancy were instrumental in getting the Hall of Fame restarted in 2004 along with help from Montana Raceway Park owners.

Thoennes said Owens and Little were involved in the Hall of Fame voting along with the Hall of Fame committee.

Hall of Fame inductees will have their picture and year of induction on the Hall of Fame wall at the raceway.