Midget car racing

Midget cars, also speedcars in Australia, is a class of racing cars. The cars are very small with a very high power-to-weight ratio and typically use four cylinder engines. They originated in the United States in the 1930s and are raced on most continents. There is a worldwide tour and national midget tours in the United States, Australia, and New Zealand.

This article is about full-size midget race cars. For the smaller version youth racer, see Quarter Midget racing. For the brand name automobile, see King Midget. For the British sports car with its own race series, see MG Midget.
Tony Stewart at the Chili Bowl
A midget car
Midget cars racing at Angell Park Speedway

Cars

Typically, these four cylinder engine cars have 300 horsepower (220 kW) to 400 horsepower (300 kW) and weigh 900 pounds (410 kg).[1][2] The high power and small size of the cars combine to make midget racing quite dangerous; for this reason, modern midget cars are fully equipped with roll cages and other safety features. Some early major midget car manufacturers include Kurtis Kraft (1930s to 1950s) and Solar (1944–46). Midgets are intended to be driven for races of relatively short distances, usually 2.5 to 25 miles (4 to 40 km). Some events are staged inside arenas, like the Chili Bowl held in early January at the Tulsa Expo Center in Tulsa, Oklahoma. There are midget races in dirt track racing and in asphalt (paved tracks).

History

Midget car racing was officially born on August 10, 1933 at the Loyola High School Stadium in Los Angeles as a regular weekly program under the control of the first official governing body, the Midget Auto Racing Association (MARA).[3] After spreading across the country, the sport traveled around the world; first to Australia in 1934 at Melbourne's Olympic Park on December 15,[4] and to New Zealand in 1937. Early midget races were held on board tracks previously used for bicycle racing.[5] When the purpose built speedway at Gilmore Stadium was completed, racing ended at the school stadium, and hundreds of tracks began to spring up across the United States. Angell Park Speedway in Sun Prairie, Wisconsin (near Madison) is another major track in the United States operating since the first half of the twentieth century.

Soon after in Australia, speedcar racing became popular with the first Australian Speedcar Championship being contested in Melbourne in 1935, its popularity running through the country's "golden era" of the 1950s and 1960s. Australian promoters such as Adelaide's Kym Bonython who ran the Rowley Park Speedway, and Empire Speedways who ran the Brisbane Exhibition Ground and the famous Sydney Showground Speedway, often imported drivers from the US, sus as the popular Jimmy Davies. Promoters in Australia during this period often staged races billed as either a "world speedcar championship" or "world speedcar derby". During this time speedcars were arguably the most popular category in Australian speedway with crowds of up to 30,000 attending meetings at the Sydney Showground and over 10,000 in Adelaide and Brisbane.

1969 Harry Turner midget

Speedcars continue to race in Australia, with the major events being the Australian Championship, and the Australian Speedcar Grand Prix (first run in 1938). Along with various state championships, there is also the Speedcar Super Series which travels throughout Australia. Speedcar crowds of 10,000 people are common in Australia for these major events.[1]

In December 2013, POWRi Midget Racing began a 16-event Lucas Oil POWRi Midget World Championship that ran until June 2014.[1] Drivers competed in New Zealand and Australia at the beginning of the 2013–14 season and ended in the United States.[1]

Midget car racing also grew in popularity in the Northeast of the United States, in part due to racers like Bill Schindler and events at tracks like that at Hinchcliffe Stadium.

Stepping stone to high profile divisions

Many IndyCar and NASCAR drivers used midget car racing as an intermediate stepping stone on their way to more high-profile divisions, including Tony Stewart, Sarah Fisher, Jeff Gordon, A. J. Foyt, Mario Andretti, Kasey Kahne, Ryan Newman, Kyle Larson and others. The events are sometimes held on weeknights so that popular and famous drivers from other, higher-profiled types of motor racing (who race in those higher-profiled types of racing on the weekends) will be available to compete, and so that it does not conflict with drivers' home tracks.

Notable midget car races

In 1959 Lime Rock Park held a famous Formula Libre race, where Rodger Ward shocked the expensive and exotic sports cars by beating them on the road course in an Offenhauser powered midget car, usually used on oval tracks. Ward used an advantageous power-to-weight ratio and dirt-track cornering abilities to steal the win.

Notable annual midget car racing events

Sanctioning bodies
Australian speedcar racer Matt Smith racing his midget car in the United States

Australia

New Zealand

United Kingdom

United States
National
Regional

See also

References
  1. Eighinger, Steve (June 6, 2014). "U.S. drivers sweep at Bullring". Quincy Herald-Whig. Archived from the original on August 9, 2014. Retrieved July 19, 2014.
  2. Miller, Tim (2008-01-10). "Chili Bowl flavour catches hold, even Down Under". Hamilton Spectator. Archived from the original on July 23, 2012. Retrieved 2008-10-16.
  3. "Racing Midget Autos" Popular Science, May 1934
  4. Speedway Australia. "A brief, chronological history of Speedway Racing in Australia". Speedway Australia. Retrieved 9 August 2011.
  5. Circle Track Magazine, 9/84, p. 77.
  6. WASDA Magic Man 34
  7. Tim Crouch Memorial
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