National Corvette Museum Announces Hall of Fame Class of 2016

 

Bob Bondurant, photo by John Prumatico. All photos courtesy National Corvette Museum.

The National Corvette Museum has maintained a Hall of Fame since 1998 to honor individuals who have been influential in Corvette history. Selected individuals are honored in the categories of Racing, GM / Chevrolet and Enthusiast. This year’s honorees are professional race driver Bob Bondurant, former GM executive Ralph Kramer and recreational racer Donna Mae Mims.

Bob Bondurant was a SoCal hot rodder and motorcycle racer in the early 1950s before breaking into the world of professional racing behind the wheel of a 1957 Corvette in 1959. Bondurant drove to victory in 18 of 20 races he entered and finished second in the other two. That performance captured the SCCA B Production Championship for the West Coast and would propel him to a career driving Cobras and Ferraris in the 1960s. After a catastrophic crash in 1967, Bondurant launched a second career as the founder of the Bob Bondurant School of High Performance Racing, which still exists in Phoenix, Arizona.

Ralph Kramer was an early supporter of the National Corvette Museum and helped the NCM gain traction after its founding through General Motors support and promotion. The museum, which was and remains independent from General Motors, owes much of its current success to Kramer both as a GM executive and after his departure from GM in 1995. Since 1995, Kramer has worked for the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and has operated his own public relations firm, TheKramerCo. As a member of the NCM Board of Directors from 1990 to 1998, Kramer was even responsible for the induction of many previous Hall of Fame honorees.

Like Bondurant, Donna Mae Mims got her start as a racer in a solid-axle Corvette. Mims and her husband purchased that ‘Vette new from Don Yenko Chevrolet and she raced it in SCCA B Production in 1961, winning at Cumberland, Maryland. “The Lady in Pink” as she became known, lettered the Corvette with the slogan “Think Pink” and ultimately owned a pink Bugeye Sprite that she raced successfully in H/Production in 1963. Mims also served the Corvette cause as a freelance magazine writer and as Manager of Hi-Performance at Yenko Sports Cars later in the 1960s, even driving a 1969 Stingray L88 as her “company” car. After her retirement, Mims was active as a race supporter and Corvette enthusiast until her passing in 2009 at age 82.

These three Corvette boosters will be inducted during the 19^th Annual Corvette Hall of Fame Ceremony on Friday, September 2, 2016 during the NCM’s 22^nd Anniversary Celebration, September 1-3, 2016. For more information, visit CorvetteMuseum.org.

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