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The Huset’s Speedway Hall of Fame will induct five new members on Sunday, July 16 during intermission of the races that night.

Dale “Shorty” Graf, Dana Gulbranson, Dick Hansen, Bill Hill and Danny Lasoski join the other 121 members who are part of the Hall that began in 1998.

Dale “Shorty” Graf

Dale “Shorty” Graf may have been born small in stature, but his influence grew larger than life in many ways throughout Sioux Falls and the surrounding area. Although his body was frail, he prevailed and overcame many obstacles in his lifetime.

Graf was an avid dirt track racing fan. He learned professional sign painting at an early age and he hand-painted multiple race cars, including each of the Haugan (Gil Haugan, Class of 2000) and (Vern Haugan, Class of 2011) cars between 1956 and the early 1980s. He was instrumental in purchasing the Lee Petty Plymouth in 1962, making the long-distance road trip to North Carolina to purchase the stock car. 

Graf was a co-owner of several race cars in the area throughout his career. He backed several Haugan modified cars, winning several point titles as owner and operator of the popular night club, “Shorty’s Club” in Sioux Falls. His club offered live entertainment, ranging from local talents such as Myron Lee and the Caddies, country music legend Conway Twitty and renowned pioneer of rock and roll rockabilly music, Jerry Lee Lewis, just to name a few.

Graf was a natural-born promoter. He hired many drivers for his modifieds in the mid 1960s including Tiny Lund, Johnny Beauchamp and Roger Larson. He was the “self-proclaimed” recruiter for selecting trophy girls at Huset’s each week.

Graf cruised the streets of Sioux Falls perched on his “milk stool” behind the steering wheel of his flashy Cadillac. 

Dana Gulbranson

In just nine short seasons, Dana Gulbranson made a big impact at Huset’s, collecting 12 feature wins and inserting himself into one of the best rivalries the track has ever seen.

Like many Hall-of-Famers, Gulbranson grew up going to Huset’s with his family. After graduating from Dell Rapids High School, he took his first crack at a Late Model Street Stock when he was 21 years old, following in the footsteps of his older brother, Terry.

He won over fans at Huset’s and became part of a rivalry with fellow Hall-of-Famers Marty Barber (Class of 2009) and David Krueger (Class of 2012), whose battles were that of legend throughout the 1980s and 1990s. So much so that a special “Grudge Race” was held between Barber and Gulbranson where just the two of them were on the track to the delight of the crowd.

Gulbranson also teamed with Barber on the formidable Ben’s Bargain Barn stable for three years.

He raced his own car after that and called it quits at the age of 30 in 1996. Working from sunup to sundown in the road construction industry cut both into his time to work on the car each summer, as well as taking its toll on his body.

Although no longer in a race car, Gulbranson continues working at a hobby that his father introduced him to as a youngster. Gulbranson has 20 classic cars that he’s either purchased or restored over the years.

The 58-year old and his brother Terry still own T & R Contracting -–a road construction business in Sioux Falls.

He is the uncle to current stock car drivers who frequent Huset’s in Cory Yeigh and Dustin Gulbranson. Yeigh’s father, Dave, is an engine builder and built Gulbranson’s power plant in the latter part of his career. 

Dick Hansen

Dick Hansen got his speed fix initially on a drag strip in California.

Born in Sioux City, Hansen and his family moved to Sioux Falls where he graduated in 1948 from Washington High School before entering the United State Air Force. Following the Air Force, Hansen moved to California where he made his early mark in motorsports. Hansen became a front-runner on the drag strips in California and his family still has trophies from Pomona, San Gabriel and San Bernardino between the years of 1955-57.

He moved back to South Dakota and married Marvel in 1958 when he began his racing career at Huset’s as a 28-year old. Over the course of his career at Huset’s, Hansen collected 20 feature victories.

After he completed his motorsports career on an oval, Hansen went back to the dragstrip and held several records in the Sioux Falls region. The pilot of the famed “Hair Bender” dragster, Hansen won races in Marion, S.D., Wichita, Kan., Davenport, Iowa, and many points in between.

There were two versions of the “Hair Bender” – a 1964 Belvedere and 1968 Corvette – and both were named because of car owners Gordan and Randy Stewart, who owned Stewart Hair School in Sioux Falls. Hansen won in both cars.

Hansen worked for Billion Chrysler as their parts and service manager for 22 years in Sioux Falls and could be seen riding dirt bikes with his children – Steve, Stuart, and Heather – at Saddleback Racetrack near Renner.

Hansen died in 1996 at the age of 65.

Bill Hill

Bill Hill had nine career victories in his Huset’s Speedway career, but he’s best known for bringing technological innovations to the track. 

He came to South Dakota in 1964 with Hank Hanestad, a sprint car owner from California. Hanestad was originally from Sioux Falls, and came back in late 1964 with his sprint car to race at several IMCA events in the region.

After befriending fellow Hall-of-Famer Dave Engebretson (Class of 2000) that summer, Hill returned to Watsonville, Calif., after the 1964 season. However, he returned to South Dakota in 1965 with another fellow Hall-of-Famer, Rich Giadone (Class of 2013). The duo built a formidable, and recognizable, purple No. 43 modified for the entire 1965 season at Huset’s.

Traveling back-and-forth from California to South Dakota for several years, Hill’s innovation began to take shape at Huset’s. Hill was the first to put a wing on top of his car at San Jose Speedway in California. With the wing, he won two straight. By the third week, legend has it that every sprint car at San Jose had a wing.

“He changed the way the race cars were built in this area,” said Giadone. “He brought a lot of new ideas from California to South Dakota.” 

In South Dakota, he built modified cars that were lower to the ground with a solid center of gravity. He engineered torsion bars, torsion arms and rear suspensions that had never been seen at Huset’s. 

After spending several years racing at Huset’s, Hill and his wife Loretta moved the family back to San Jose in 1974 where he raced for three years at Clovis Speedway, Fresno Speedway and Altamont Raceway Park in Tracy.  

The family returned to South Dakota in 1977 where Hill raced sparingly for Engebretson before retiring later that season.

Hill passed away in 1996 at the age of 61.

Danny Lasoski

Danny Lasoski is one of the most decorated Sprint Car drivers in history. He credits much of that success to his days racing at Huset’s Speedway.

Lasoski is fifth all-time in feature wins at Huset’s with 42. He also won the 410 Sprint Car championship at Huset’s in 1989, 1990 and 1993 when he teamed with car owner Guy Forbrook. 

The Lasoski/Forbrook duo was a formidable team in the 1980s and 1990s as they won multiple feature events around the country, including their first World of Outlaws feature in Oklahoma City in 1989.

Before winning some of the biggest races in the Sprint Car world, Lasoski began his career near his hometown of Dover, Mo. He raced consistently in Marshall, Odessa, and Sedalia in Mo, along with Lakeside Speedway near Kansas City, Kan.

He then teamed with Forbrook to make his mark. When he first arrived at Huset’s in 1989, he said he liked it “from the get-go.”

“There’s no escape at Huset’s,” Lasoski said. “You can’t get away from the inside berm or the outside wall. You’re in a gymnasium with fighter pilots. When I saw that, I thought this has to be action packed from the time they drop the green until they drop the checkered. That’s exactly how it is.”

Lasoski went on to win the famed Knoxville Nationals four times in 1998, 2001, 2003, 2004.

“I may have learned how to go fast at Knoxville, but I learned how to race when I went to Huset’s because you had to learn how to pass cars and get it done in a hurry,” he said. “If you want to race, you go to Huset’s and learn how to race.”

Lasoski also made his mark nationally by racing 16 International Race of Champions (IROC) races over a four-year span from 2002-05. He won the IROC race at Texas Motor Speedway in 2004 beating the likes of NASCAR stars Kevin Harvick, Jimmy Johnson and Ryan Newman, along with IndyCar stars Scott Sharp, Helio Castroneves and Scott Dixon.

Although he’s never officially retired, Lasoski hasn’t raced a Sprint Car since a third-place finish in 2017 at age 58 in Knoxville. His last race at Huset’s was the Silver Dollar Shootout in 2016 where he finished third.