Faith leader

Reverend Richard Anderson founded California-based Motorsports Ministries in 1984, which provides nondenominational church services at the track to drivers, owners and crewmembers. It began with a conversation between Anderson and inductee Al Holbert, who felt a racing ministry would be an important addition to the motorsports community. Anderson spent the remaining 30 years of his life running the organization, with him and other chaplains for numerous series, including IndyCar, SCCA, IMSA, the American Le Mans Series and Grand-Am, sometimes attending more than 100 events per year. When he passed in 2014, several hundred attended his memorial service. In the years since, Anderson’s family, friends and colleagues have carried on the ministry. “Richard was an icon for years in both the Grand-Am and American Le Mans Series paddocks,” said then-IMSA President Scott Atherton. “On countless race weekends he was, in effect, our ‘church.’ Richard will be sorely missed by all of us.”