Thu, 16 Mar 2006, 04:01 PM Pontiac Stalwart Arnie Beswick Among '06 Inductees Into International Drag Racing Hall of

Courtesy of Kirk Weeks Courtesy of Dean Fait "Mr. Pontiac" a Fan Favorite For More Than 50 Years

OCALA, Fla. -- Fame

Arnie at Piedmont, NC

Arnie "The Farmer" Beswick is one of 10 impressive 2006 inductees into the International Drag Racing Hall of Fame headquartered at Don Garlits' Museum of Drag Racing in Ocala. Classmates include Shirley Muldowney, Jim Brissette, Gordon Collett, Jim Deist, Jim Dunn, Steve Gibbs, Bruce Larson, Joe Lunati, and Joe Mondello, and he will join 159 of drag racing's greatest drivers, owners, mechanics, and ambassadors of the quarter-mile sport already enshrined here. The 16th annual Drag Racing Hall of Fame Induction Banquet will be held this Thursday, March 16, at the Paramount Plaza Hotel and Suites in Gainesville, Fla., in conjunction with this weekend's NHRA ACDelco Gatornationals at Gainesville Raceway.

"I want to congratulate Arnie on an honor as prestigious as induction into the Drag Racing Hall of Fame," said Fred Simmonds, Pontiac drag racing marketing manager. "For more than fifty years, Arnie has been a great ambassador not only for GM and Pontiac, but for the whole sport of drag racing. Getting inducted into the Hall of Fame is a very special distinction, and he is very deserving to be among such a select group.

Arnie's Tameless at Cordova

"Arnie developed a lot of fans by winning many races over the years, and we're proud that the vast majority of them were in a Pontiac. He's a big part of the GM racing family and richly deserves the title, "Mr. Pontiac."

Although Arnie Beswick came by "The Farmer" moniker honestly as a real farmer from the small farming town of Morrison, Ill., he was probably the best known Pontiac racer the sport has ever known, and he was often affectionately referred to as "Mr. Pontiac." From his 1958 purchase of a new Pontiac Chieftain to his string of "Tameless Tiger" Pontiac Super Stockers, Funny Cars, and nostalgia door-slammers, Beswick became synonymous with both Pontiac and winning, developing a legion of loyal fans from coast to coast. In 1965, he added nitro to his new GTO and competed in the fledgling S/FX classes, the forefathers of today's Funny Cars and their radically altered wheelbases.

With more than 50 years of racing and representing the sport that he loves, Beswick has humbly been inducted into the Super Stock/Drag Illustrated Magazine Hall of Fame as well as the A/FX and Funny Car Halls of Fame. Today "The Farmer" is still doing the sport proud attending race and show car events on almost a weekly basis, and he plans a full schedule for 2006.