woodys brian musselman inducted into michigan motor sports hall of fame

Brian Musselman was recently inducted into the Michigan Motor Sports Hall of Fame, in honor of his successful ice oval racing career and his dedication to the sport of snowmobiling. Karl Schwartz, Musselman's winning I-500 co-driver, delivered a speech at the induction on November 3.

Musselman began his racing career in 1978. He entered the Soo I-500 that year under the auspices of Team Woody's on an Arctic Cat with his brother Mark as co-driver. At sixteen years old, Brian was the youngest racer to compete in the Soo. Team Woody's continued to compete until 1981, then the Musselman brothers took a brief retirement.

The 1982 I-500 would find Brian Musselman paired with Ski-Doo factory ace Gerard Karpik onboard a prototype 'Doo race machine. The pair took the win that year, returning Ski-Doo to the winner's circle for the first time since 1971.
Musselman had two more wins at the Soo onboard Ski-Doos- in 1984 with Schwartz and again in 1986 with Chris Daly.

Team Woody's officially closed operations after that 1986 season. However, Musselman competed for the Williams/Brenner race team and finally ended his racing career in 1989 on an Arctic Cat.

Following his retirement in '89, Brian went to work in R&D at his family's business, International Engineering and Manufacturing, makers of Woody's traction products.