Ward to Enter Hall of Fame

Still winning races at 45, Jeff Ward of Newport Beach will cap one of motorcycling’s greatest careers Thursday night, when he is inducted into the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America in Detroit.

Ward, a seven-time motocross-supercross champion from 1984 to 1990 and the winner of an X Games supermoto two weeks ago at the Home Depot Center, will be one of seven racing greats enshrined.

When he was 4, Ward’s family moved from his native Scotland to Orange County, where he began his long motorcycle racing career.

He also had a shorter career in four-wheeled vehicles. He drove in six Indianapolis 500s, finishing second in 1999 after having been named rookie of the year in 1997.

Other inductees include longtime Winston West driver Hershel McGriff, winner of the first Mexican Road Race in 1950 and, in 1989 at 61, the oldest driver to win a NASCAR feature; Englishman Nigel Mansell, the only driver to hold both the Formula One and Champ Car titles at the same time; Elliott Forbes-Robinson, who left La Crescenta to become one of the world’s finest sports car drivers; Chris Karamesines, a pioneer drag racing champion known as the Golden Greek; Tom Carnegie, the track announcer of the Indianapolis 500 since 1946, and the late Curtis Turner, a colorful character from NASCAR’s earliest days who was a big winner in the convertible division.

McGriff, who was 74 when he retired from driving, said, “This is fantastic, getting in the Hall of Fame, but, hey, I might not be through yet. When I turn 80 [in two years], I just might go out to a short track and show the young guys that I can still do it.”

McGriff won a track-record 14 NASCAR stock car races at the now-defunct Riverside International Raceway.

The inductees will join 153 previous honorees during a ceremony at the State Theatre in downtown Detroit.