Journalists respected him. Motorsports executives appreciated him.
To those in both worlds, he was known simply as “T.E.”
T.E. McHale, a late sportswriter and Honda executive, was a longtime fixture of the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach. His legacy at the race is unquestioned. But to his brother, he was just Tom, a Ohio-raised guitar player.
“T.E. was an alter ego of my brother,” said Terry McHale.
McHale was posthumously honored with the Allen Wolfe Spirit of the Grand Prix Award on Saturday, April 9, the second day of Long Beach’s three-day racing weekend.
McHale, a Torrance resident who worked as a longtime Honda executive, was a fixture at the Grand Prix for years. Terry McHale, his younger brother, accepted the award on his behalf.
The elder McHale died from colon cancer in December. He was 68.
“It’s a privilege for me to accept this award for Tom,” said Terry McHale, choking through tears.
McHale was honored with the award in the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach’s media room on Saturday morning, the room in which journalists write about — or edit photos of — the event’s various races and other goings-on.
The award is named after Allen Wolfe, a late sportswriter for the Press-Telegram and known as the Grand Master of the Grand Prix. It honors a person who made a significant contribution to the Grand Prix.
Wolfe covered the Grand Prix every year from 1975 until his death from a heart attack in 1999. He was 51.
The P-T newsroom used to call April “Allen Wolfe time.”
“I’m sure he would’ve been totally pleased with the recipient, T.E.,” said Rich Archbold, the P-T’s public editor and columnist, as well as its former managing editor.
In presenting the award, Grand Prix Association of Long Beach CEO and President Jim Michaelian called McHale a “great gentleman.”
“We felt it was appropriate,” Michaelian said, that “we provide him and his family with an honor that reflected how much he meant and how much we thought of him.”
Before working at Honda in Southern California, McHale was a veteran sportswriter for the Mansfield (Ohio) News Journal from 1978 to 1996. Eventually, he pivoted into motorsports and was a racing executive with Championship Auto Racing Teams and the Trans-Am Series.
Then, in 2003, he joined Honda as manager of motorsports communications. In 2019, McHale helped complete the title sponsorship agreement between Acura and the Grand Prix Association. Acura is Honda’s luxury brand.
McHale retired in 2019.
In accepting the award on behalf of his brother, Terry McHale reflected that he didn’t call his brother T.E. To the younger brother, T.E. was Tom, the name Terry McHale grew up calling him.
It was a privilege to accept the award on behalf of his brother, Terry McHale said, especially one bestowed by journalists his sibling respected deeply.
And as a final send off to the journalists in the media room, Terry McHale had a reminder for the writers who would go back to covering the race after the awards ceremony.
““When you go back,” he said, “T.E. goes with you.”
Source: Orange County Register
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