World of Outlaws Leader Reimers, 66-time Winner Dollansky Headline Hall of Fame Class | World of Outlaws

Innovator Gutierrez honored for Outstanding Contribution to the Sport

The National Sprint Car Hall of Fame and Museum announced its Class of 2025 and several other special awards on Friday. Among the eight inductees is one of the most impactful figures in the history of the World of Outlaws, Carlton Reimers, while innovator Eloy Gutierrez was honored for his contributions to the sport.

Reimers will be joined by legendary World of Outlaws racer Craig Dollansky, long-time promoter Steve Sinclair, World of Outlaws winner Todd Shaffer, highly successful crew chief Davey Brown Jr., winning engine builder Don Ott, racer Damion Gardner, and 1969 Knoxville Nationals winner Kenny Gritz.

Gutierrez and his long-time friend B.D. Shaffer are credited with revolutionizing Sprint Car racing by bringing electronic timing and scoring to the sport. Gutierrez, whom Reimers considered to be a brother, was honored with the Thomas J. Schmeh Outstanding Contribution to the Sport Award. Gutierrez passed away in August.

Reimers, a Texas native, has been a guiding force for the World of Outlaws for more than 30 years, serving as its Series Director for nearly 20 years while shaping the future of The Greatest Show on Dirt.

As a police officer before motorsports came calling, Reimers caught the racing bug from watching fellow Wichita Falls native Lloyd Ruby in the Indianapolis 500 and drag racer Eddie Hill. After marrying Lisa Johnson, the daughter of World of Outlaws founder Ted Johnson, Reimers continued in his police work before going to work for the Series in 1992.

Under Ted’s ownership and Carlton’s direction, the World of Outlaws was a family-run business.

“There was Ted and Stacey, his wife, who ran the merchandise side of things, and Lisa worked for the organization, too. In the office there was us four and Richard Day, who did the public relations,” Reimers said. “Out on the road there were five people and that included the merchandise people, so we really only had three officials out on the road. We had no four-wheelers or golf carts, we walked everywhere and everything. It was a lot more physically demanding back then, but it grew quite a bit.”

Grew it did. Reimers and the team acquired high profile sponsorship and placed World of Outlaws events live on national television, creating huge audiences in person and at home and establishing it as one the nation’s premier racing organizations.

“We did some groundbreaking things back then, trying to put those shows on live, which is extremely difficult when you’re trying to do segment racing and everything,” Reimers said. “I think getting shows on live TV was pretty significant at the time.”

After Johnson retired and sold the World of Outlaws to World Racing Group, Reimers was instrumental in working with WRG CEO Brian Carter, promoters and competitors to continue the Series’ legacy and grow it to where today it’s the cornerstone of WRG, with coast-to-coast events from February through November with every race broadcast live on DIRTVision.

“It’s incredible now that all of our shows, a person can buy their DIRTVision package and watch them,” Reimers said. “We get comments all the time, that’s all they want to do is talk about DIRTVision. They love the sport and now they get to participate more in the sport than they ever have.”

Through his years of World of Outlaws stewardship, Reimers has worked with the biggest names in racing, from legends like Steve Kinser and Sammy Swindell to today’s stars like Donny Schatz and David Gravel.

“My management style is absolutely I don’t have all the answers, but I usually know how to go get the answers,” Reimers said. “That’s why you hire good people and have good people around you. You feed off of their experience and their knowledge and come up with the best idea for the existing situation.”

From live broadcasts to an emphasis on track and driver safety to fan experience, Reimers has been the foremost leader of Sprint Car racing for 30 years, quietly assembling a Hall of Fame-worthy career behind the scenes working with competitors, tracks and promoters across the country to continue bringing The Greatest Show on Dirt to fans everywhere.

Dollansky, a 66-time World of Outlaws winner from Elk River, MN. Dollansky topped races from coast-to-coast, including three consecutive Ironman 55 victories at Federated Auto Parts Raceway at I-55 in Pevely, MO (2011-2013).

The first World of Outlaws Feature victory for Dollansky came in 1995 at the iconic Knoxville Raceway driving the Jensen Construction No. 55. He had to wait another four years for his next, but it wasn’t long before his career took off as he began driving for Scott Boyd’s Karavan Motorsports.

Dollansky routinely found Victory Lane throughout the 2000s and nearly came home with the championship in 2006, finishing second only to Donny Schatz.

In 2010, Dollansky made the move to drive for Tod Quiring under the Big Game Motorsports banner. The four-year partnership proved fruitful as Dollansky and Quiring won 28 races together including a personal best mark of nine for Dollansky in both 2011 and 2012. The latter of those years Dollansky again missed out on the championship by just a spot.

In the National Sprint Car Hall of Fame and Museum’s North American 410 Sprint Car Poll, 2024 World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car champions David Gravel and Big Game Motorsports were named the Driver of the Year and Team of the Year. Landon Crawley, who competed with The Greatest Show on Dirt full-time in 2024 at only 16 years of age, took home Rookie of the Year honors.