Derue to join Northwest Montana Stock Car Racing Association Hall of Fame Fa,Famefame

Some individuals are inducted into the Northwest Montana Stock Car Racing Association Hall Of Fame for their driving skills.

Some are in because of organization and production talents while others are honored for their efforts and dedication to the sport of auto racing.

Rarely does an individual like John Derue come along who embodies all of these qualities. And it’s for all those reasons why he was voted by his peers this summer for induction into the NWMSCRA Hall Of Fame for 2017.

Derue is the 36th inductee, and only one, to join the Hall of Fame, which began in 1996, this year. Four individuals were honored in 2016.

Derue ran Big Sky Speedway in the late 1970s and was president of NWMSCRA twice. He spent many years as its secretary/treasurer.

The Derue family racing bug was passed on to John’s son Dave and nephew Chris, both who were involved in the sport.

Derue’s brother Ed, who raced on the old dirt racetrack in the early 1960s by the old Dixie Inn off U.S. 93 south of Kalispell, helped him get started in auto racing. Derue later worked with HOF member Gary Thacker in the pits.

After Thacker let Derue drive his car in 1957, he put together and raced a 1950 Buick with a straight 8-cylinder motor for two years. He later competed in a 1955 Ford for two years and a 1956 Ford for five. His partner in all this was his close friend and HOF member Jim Kruse.

Derue also drove the modifieds of HOF members Wilbur Rohrbach and John Boyce.

“Joe Luce and his valve grinding machine in the living room of his house,” Derue said of his fondest memory.

“We would congregate there in the evenings and do some ‘old school’ millwork on our engines, have a beer and talk about our racing. That’s how it was back then. We had camaraderie and fun!”

Hall of Fame inductees have their picture, biography and year of induction on the Hall of Fame website at www.nwmscra.com.