A familiar face is the new leader at Daytona’s Motorsports Hall of Fame of America.
Daren Lucas, who spent the early 2000s with NASCAR and its former International Speedway Corp., was recently named new president for the hall of fame and its wide-ranging museum, which sits in the “Ticket and Tours” building outside Turn 4 at Daytona International Speedway.
“The more I looked into this, the more I liked it,” Lucas says of a hiring process that began last fall and was finalized in December. “There’s a treasure trove here. I think this museum has the opportunity to be the definitive source for motorsports.”
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The high-profile piece of the facility has always been its Hall of Fame, the most diverse in all of the automotive industry. Inductees range from Richard Petty and Mario Andretti to aviation pioneers like Amelia Earhart and historic figures like Henry Ford and Louis Chevrolet.
But it’s the museum piece of the project Lucas is hoping to elevate. He and the Motorsports Hall got a big horsepower jolt late last year by acquiring the mammoth archive of automotive historian Joe Freeman. The collection includes more than a million pieces — rare books and photos, trophies, race-day programs, etc., dating back to the late 19th century.
In Cooperstown, the Baseball Hall of Fame also houses a research library with several million artifacts. Lucas suggests the Motorsports Hall could follow that lead.
“I think it’s going to really change the game historically, where we can be a resource,” he says. “We have a chance to tell stories now that have quite frankly been hidden. It’s gonna be interesting to go through all of this and get our arms around it.
“The more you see of this stuff, the more you realize, we have to tell this story. And tell it in a format that, today, people can consume. And also look at it from a standpoint of how does Gen Z consume this? How do we get the younger generation to delve into what has happened?”
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The Hall’s highest-profile event, the annual induction of a new class, is approaching in early March. This year’s group of seven inductees includes a pair of second-generation racers quite familiar to Daytona — motorcycle champ Kenny Roberts Jr. and NASCAR’s Dale Earnhardt Jr.
In 2016, the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America moved to Daytona Beach from the Detroit area (Novi), where it opened in 1989. The floor of the complex is a wall-to-wall showcase of artifacts and authentic race cars ranging from Sir Malcolm Campbell’s historic Bluebird to “Big Daddy” Don Garlits’ top fuel dragster to an array of NASCAR and Indy-style racers.
Lucas is a North Carolina native and 1987 grad of UNC, where he was a walk-on safety for the football team. He’s just the third president in the Hall’s history.
He’s been involved in various aspects of sports marketing for 35 years. His 2000-06 tenure in Daytona Beach included positions within the worlds of business development, management and revenue generation. His new directive is to “raise the profile of the hall of fame and the museum.”
“Our number one mission here is to honor the past and the excellence of motorsports. Tell the story, but also modernize it. We have to show ourselves as a museum to people within a two-hour radius of Daytona Beach.
“I get to be a promoter again. I’m a promoter at heart.”
The museum and hall are open daily from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., except major holidays. Admission is free for those who take the Speedway Tour, but separate admission is available for those who only want to visit the museum.
When is the Daytona 500? Time, TV channel
Date: Sunday, Feb. 15
Time: 2:30 p.m.
Location: Daytona International Speedway
TV channel: Fox
This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: Motorsports Hall of Fame’s new president, Daren Lucas, has big plans
Reporting by Ken Willis, Daytona Beach News-Journal / The Daytona Beach News-Journal
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
