Inducted 2002 – Competitor – Road Racing
Scott Goodyear is one of Canada’s best-known international racers, with experience in sedans, Indy cars and endurance races. In more than two decades of racing, during which he also operated a racing school, Goodyear is best known for his years driving in CART and the IRL. In his four-year Indy Racing League career, he recorded one top-five and two other top-10 finishes in the season point standings, as well as three wins, 14 other top-five finishes and seven other top-10 finishes. He finished in the top 10 five times driving in the Indianapolis 500, including two second-place efforts, the most memorable of which occurred in 1992 when he chased Al Unser Jr. to the finish line in a brilliant final two-lap charge, finishing second by just .043 of a second, the closest margin in race history. His most controversial Indy 500 race came in 1995 when he was ruled to have passed the pace car while leading late in the race. He was disqualified and the race was won by another Canadian, Jacques Villeneuve. Goodyear’s first Indy Car victory came that year at Michigan in the CART Marlboro 500. Six years after his 1980 auto racing debut, Goodyear seized his first title, the 1986 North American Formula Atlantic Championship, following a season in which he won five of nine races. That same year he was named Driver of the Year by the Canadian Race Drivers Association. Goodyear currently resides in Carmel, Indiana, with his wife Leslie and their three children.