This is the single greatest honor in the motor vehicle industry, intended to honor a career and/or lifetime achievement. To become a "Hall of Famer" the nominee must be either retired or deceased. Recipients must have significantly impacted the development of the automobile or the motor vehicle industry. Typically, four to eight individuals are inducted each year.
One of the first female motor-sports writers and race car drivers in the United States.
Helped found Competition Press, known today as AutoWeek
Born in Eldorado, Kansas, Denise McCluggage started a neighborhood newspaper when she was twelve. Years later, after getting a degree in philosophy, economics and politics from Mills College in California, she began her journalistic career with the San Francisco Chronicle.
McCluggage moved to the New York Herald Tribune and eventually to the sports department. Women sportswriters were rare and she was known for doing what she wrote about, whether racing, skiing or parachuting.
She became a member of several racing and rallying teams in the U.S. and abroad including the North American Racing Team, British Motor Corporation, Ford America, General Motors and Team Volvo. Among her chief successes, first in the GT category driving a Ferrari at Sebring in 1961 and first in class at the 1964 Monte Carlo Rally driving a Ford Falcon.
McCluggage was involved at the birth of the motorsports journal Competition Press, known today as AutoWeek. Her books include, By Brooks Too Broad For Leaping and American Racing.
