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Cedar Rapids, Iowa 52401
Hawkeye Downs to honor 5 new Wall of Fame inductees Friday
Brad Huff, Ed Janey, Joe Merryfield, Scott Megonigle and Arnie Reif will be honored before the start of racing
CEDAR RAPIDS — Five individuals will be inducted into Hawkeye Downs Speedway’s Wall of Fame on Friday.
Brad Huff, Ed Janey, Joe Merryfield, Scott Megonigle and Arnie Reif will be honored before the start of racing.
Brad Huff
Huff started working at Hawkeye Downs in 1965, helping Doc Huter prep the track each week. Huff began driving race cars in 1981 in the Street Stock division. Over the years, he has worked maintenance at the track, been a race driver, a car fabricator, a crew member and a car owner.
Ed Janey
Janey began racing on the dirt tracks of North Carolina in 1939. He and his family moved to Cedar Rapids in 1945 where they formed Ed Janey Racing, fabricating and owning race cars. Darrel Dake, Chuck Wicher, Doc Nabor and many others drove Ed Janey cars. Janey’s sons — Bob, Irv and Chuck — drove for him with Irv winning the IMCA national championship. Janey died unexpectedly in 1971.
Joe Merryfield
Merryfield started racing in 1967 in the Street Stock division before moving to Late Models. Merryfield traveled from his home in Des Moines to race in the specials at Hawkeye Downs. He won the inaugural El Kahir Shrine race in 1978 and raced in the Hawkeye Downs weekly program in the 1981 season, the last year he raced. Merryfield won the World 100 in 1975, one of five Iowans to have won the prestigious race.
He was inducted into the National Dirt late Model Hall of Fame in 2017 and the Iowa Racing Hall of Fame in 2020.
Scott Megonigle
Megonigle’s first race was at Hawkeye Downs in 1984 in the Street Stock division. Megonigle was a weekly competitor when the track was dirt. He raced in many of the specials in both the Pro Stock and Modified divisions after the track was paved in 1989. The last race Megonigle drove a car he owned was at Hawkeye Downs in 2003. He continued to drive for other car owners after 2003.
Arnie Reif
Reif’s Hawkeye Downs career started in 1993 as a crewman for Keith Siefkens — first for Siefkin’s Modified and later his Late Model. Reif also was the crew chief on Chad Willett’s Modified and was on Scott Kositzky’s crew when Kositzky won the Sport Modified championship in 2007. He got behind the wheel of his own cars in the Super Stock division in 2003 and ’04. He raced Sports Modified in 2007 and ’08. He also was an official and inspected cars in the tech barn in 2013 and ’14.
Shane Carson, from Oklahoma, was an open wheel ace and is the Wall of Fame Grand Marshal on Friday. Carson was inducted into the Wall of Fame in 2014. Friday will be his first time back at Hawkeye Downs since the 1980s.
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