Paul Pfanner is the 2026 Russo-Marvel Founders Award recipient. He dedicates it to the late Jim Michaelian — and to the reporters and editors who held the standard in the sport he dedicated his life to .

Paul Pfanner watched Jim Michaelian tend the Long Beach Grand Prix for fifty-one years — and never once make himself the story. When Michaelian died at 83, he had already done the hardest thing a leader can do.