Hall of fame honours nearly four-decade career in racing
Alex Nagy has spent most of his life in the racing world.
He was a driver of note on the southern Ontario scene. He spent time as part of Alex Tagliani’s crew with IndyCar racing.
He has been the series director of NASCAR Canada. And, for the past four years, he has been general manager at Jukasa Motor Speedway, formerly Cayuga Speedway.
He is one of the few in the sport who has successfully transitioned from the driver’s seat to management in the industry.
And for these accomplishments, Nagy has been inducted into the Canadian Motorsport Hall of Fame.
“It was quite a surprise, for sure,” the Brantford said. “It was totally unexpected.”
Now 58, Nagy started racing in 1981 on the asphalt in a variety of classes, teamed with Randy Slack and Sam Rounce, working his way up to the Late Model ranks on the local tracks before entering the travelling CASCAR Super Series in the late 1990s where he was often in the top five and won in New Brunswick in 1998.
Before CASCAR, he won the 1991 and 1993 versions of the McKerlie Millen Classic at Cayuga Speedway and was a regular in the popular GATR BigRig events at the big oval.
In 2013, he joined NASCAR Canada as the series’ race director, travelling across Canada to run the tour, and in 2017 was asked to take the helm of the newly rebuilt Jukasa Motor Speedway.
As a guiding force, Nagy has worked at restoring the glory and interest in the track, with big shows and big purses.
While there was limited racing at Jukasa this year, there were three COVID-restricted events, and Nagy said he hoped the cancelled shows this summer will take place in 2021, such as the motorcycle and the monster truck weekend.
“Hopefully, we will have those shows plus be able to build on our stock car program,” he said. “We want to add more diversification.”
The ceremony will take place virtually in February as part of the Canadian International Auto Show.