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Flat Track Champions & Icons Honored at Hot Shoe Hall of Fame on Feb. 1 in Las Vegas
National Champions Coolbeth, Tanner & Rogers plus Two-Wheel Icons Awarded
LAS VEGAS, Nev. (Jan. 14, 2025) – Famed Flat Track motorcycle racing legends and icons including Kenny Coolbeth Jr., Sammy Tanner, Craig A. Rogers, Ray Hensley and Tom White have been announced to be inducted into the “Hot Shoe” Hall of Fame on Saturday, Feb. 1, in the fifth annual “Hot Shoe” Hall of Fame Museum and Motorcycle Industry Celebration at the Las Vegas’ Notoriety Theatre in the famed Las Vegas Fremont Street Experience (450 E. Fremont St., 3rd Floor).
Flat track racing dates back over 120 years with “Board” and “Dirt” competitions and featured the likes Floyd Clymer, Otto Walker, Ray Weishaar and “Pop” Dreyer, and the steel shoe -- known as a “Hot Shoe” -- was later established to assist the racers for maneuvering their machines over the tough terrain at speeds over 100 miles per hour. The “Hot Shoe” is the symbol that recognizes the cream of the crop of motorcycle racing stars who used the very specialized tool.
More than 100 “Hot Shoes,” from many motorcycle legends, are currently on display at the “Hot Shoe” Hall of Fame Museum which is located at the Gene Woods Racing Experience karting track (450 E. Fremont St., First Floor, Las Vegas) in the Fremont St. Experience.
Coolbeth Jr., the AMA “Rookie of the Year’ in 1994, was a three-time AMA Grand National Twins champion (2006, 2007, 2008) riding for Harley-Davidson, as the Connecticut racer collected 37 career AMA Grand Nationals race victories. He currently ranks sixth all-time in AMA career wins and scored 108 podium finishes. Kenny also captured won the 1997 and 1998 AMA 600cc National Hotshoe title.
Tanner, known as the “Flyin’ Flea,” started his prestigious flat track career in 1958 and captured the first Ascot Park AMA Grand National event in 1959. He went on to win three more Ascot AMA Grand National races and scored seven AMA races overall. He gained a new nickname, “King of Ascot,” after breaking an eight-mile record at Ascot by six seconds. The late Tanner, who also won in Speedway Racing, hung up his “Hot Shoe” in 1972 and operated an Arai helmet distributorship in Southern California.
Rogers, a 1980s AMA Class C Expert rider, became the winningest AMA Flat Track team owners in the sport’s history and spent 34 years as the longest “Privateer” team owner in the sport. Teaming with rider Jared Mees, Rogers’ squad captured a record ten AMA Grand Nationals championships as well as 85 national victories to produce the winningest team. Rogers’ team won races with Harley-Davidson and Indian motorcycles including scoring titles in the past four years (2021-2024) with Mees at the controls.
Hensley, who started as a competitor in Scrambles, Flat Track and Drag Racing in Michigan, later moved to California to continue his racing career. Working at Koble Cycles in the early 1960s, Ray joined with Ken Watkins to open Sonicweld Frames. In 1968, Hensley started the famed Trackmaster Racing Frames operation. In the mid-1970s, he worked with Kennedy Wheels to develop the Staracer frame. In the 1990s, he restarted Trackmaster Frames until his passing.
White, an Ascot Expert regular in the 1970s with his twin brother, Dan, was well known for his famous No. 80 flat track motorcycle on the West Coast, as he scored numerous wins and podium finishes. In 1976, Tom established White Brothers Cycle Specialties with Dan and the business would grow to a $40 million-a-year company that employed nearly 200 at its peak. Tom, a motorcycle historian, began a collection of vintage motorcycles to over 170 for the White’s Early Years of Motocross Museum. White was inducted into the AMA Hall of Fame in 2014 and posthumously was awarded the Dick Hammer Lifetime Achievement award by the Trailblazers Motorcycle Club.
“Our Flat Track inductees this year show the complete service of the dirt racing sport with champion riders in Kenny and Sammy, the winningest team owner in Craig, an innovative builder in Ray and a great rider, businessman and historian in Tom,” said Gene Woods, founder and curator of the Las Vegas-based “Hot Shoe” Hall of Fame which features many of the greatest motorcyclists of all time. “Those five honorees have proven to be important elements to Flat Track racing for some 60 years, and we are extremely happy to add them to the impressive list of Hall of Fame participants in our Las Vegas-based two-wheel celebration on Feb. 1 in our fifth edition of the Hall of Fame and Motorcycle Industry event”
Over 50 new inductees will be a part of the 2025 class for the “Hot Shoe” Hall of Fame when this year’s event gets underway on Saturday, Feb. 1, with the popular “meet and greet” celebration and presentations at 6 p.m.
THE EVENT IS FREE to all motorcycle enthusiasts. Please register for the Celebration through the Hall of Fame website at www.hotshoehof.com. For those accepted into the Hall of Fame, the honorees’ “Hot Shoe” is mounted on a Hall of Fame plaque. Recipients also receive their own version 8x10 plaque.
For further information on the “Hot Shoe Hall of Fame” celebration, visit the website at www.hotshoehof.com or on Facebook at Hot Shoe Hall of Fame.
Contact: Tom Blattler, TB Communications, tomblattlercomm@gmail.com, 317.525.5692
