​Every trophy in racing has a hidden credit line. Somebody bored the cylinders, somebody shipped the torsion bars overnight, somebody answered the phone at 10 p.m. when a team blew its last spare before the feature. The Performance Racing Industry Hall of Fame exists to read those credit lines out loud, and its 2026 class picks two of the best examples the sport has: a California engine builder whose work won in almost every American discipline that burns fuel, and an Ohio speed shop owner who spent decades keeping sprint car racers on track.PRI announced on Oct. 12 that the late engine builder Ed Pink and sprint car parts pioneer Shirley Kear Valentine will be inducted at the Grand Opening Breakfast on Thursday, Dec. 10, at the Indiana Convention Center, opening day of the 2026 PRI Show in Indianapolis (Dec. 10–12). Pink died on April 27, 2025, at 94; his widow, Sylvia Pink, will accept on the family’s behalf.PRI managing director Doug Bresnahan framed the pairing as “two essential parts of the racing industry: technical innovation and an enduring commitment to helping racers compete and succeed.” That is about as neat a summary of the parts business as you will get from an official release.What the PRI Hall of Fame actually honorsPRI launched the Hall of Fame in 2024 to honor what it called the “difference-makers in the motorsports industry.” Note the last word. This is not a drivers’ hall. The published criteria ask for contributions at a national or international level, at least 10 years in motorsports or with PRI (15-plus preferred), outstanding contributions to the technology, professionalism or growth of the industry, and a record of integrity. A PRI-appointed committee votes.The roll so far tells you who that committee thinks built the business. The 2024 inaugural class was camshaft king Ed “Isky” Iskenderian and PRI founder Steve Lewis. The 2025 class added Paul “Scooter” Brothers of COMP Performance Group, longtime PRI editor and executive John Kilroy, and ARP’s Chris Raschke, the Bonneville racer killed in a land speed attempt in August 2025. Pink and Kear Valentine bring the total to seven, and the theme holds: the people who made the parts, sold the parts, or built the marketplace where the parts change hands.Ed Pink: the engine builder who outgrew every categoryPRI’s release says Pink founded Ed Pink Racing Engines in 1958 (the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America dates the shop to 1961; the official sources disagree). He came up through land speed and drag racing, worked on Ford’s 427 SOHC drag racing engine program, and, by PRI’s count, built engines that won more than 100 races and over 10 national championships across Top Fuel, Funny Car, IMSA, Indy car and USAC. PRI’s 2025 obituary notes the business moved to Van Nuys, California, in 1965 and was sold to vintage racer and collector Tom Malloy in 2008.The Motorsports Hall of Fame of America, which inducted him in 2012, fills in the resume. Its biogr