Midget cars, alsoSpeedcars inAustralia, is a class of racing cars. The cars are very small, with a very highpower-to-weight ratio, and typically usefour-cylinder engines. They originated in theUnited States in the 1930s and are raced on most continents. There is a worldwide tour and national midget tours in the United States, Australia, Argentina andNew Zealand.
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 withroll cages and other safety features. Some early major midget car manufacturers includeKurtis Kraft (1930s to 1950s) andSolar (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 theChili Bowl held in early January at theTulsa Expo Center inTulsa, Oklahoma. There are midget races indirt track racing and in asphalt (paved tracks).
There are three-quarter (TQ) midgets which developed from "midget midget" cars of the late 1940s.[3]Quarter midgets are one-quarter the size of a full midget car.
The first organized Midget car race happened on June 4, 1933.[4] The sports' first regular weekly program began on August 10, 1933 at the Loyola High School Stadium in Los Angeles under the control of the first official governing body, the Midget Auto Racing Association (MARA).[5] After spreading across the country, the sport traveled around the world; first to Australia in 1934 at Melbourne'sOlympic Park on December 15,[6] and toNew Zealand in 1937. By August 1937, midget cars were racing on a dirt track at Hastings Park in Vancouver, BC, Canada, during the Vancouver Exhibition.[7]
Early midget races were held onboard tracks previously used forbicycle racing.[8] 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 inSun Prairie, Wisconsin (nearMadison) is another major track in the United States operating since the first half of the twentieth century.
TheAAA Contest Board soon started sanctioning midget races across the country, facing opposition from independent drivers and racetracks. After the AAA withdrew from sanctioning races in 1955, theUnited States Auto Club took over as the major sanctioning body of midget car racing in the United States.NASCAR had a midget division from 1952 to 1968.
Soon after inAustralia, Speedcar racing became popular with the firstAustralian Speedcar Championship being contested inMelbourne in 1935, its popularity running through the country's "golden era" of the 1950s and 1960s. Australian promoters such asAdelaide'sKym Bonython who ran theRowley Park Speedway, and Empire Speedways who ran theBrisbane Exhibition Ground and the famousSydney Showground Speedway, often imported drivers from the US, such as the popularJimmy 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.
Speedcars continue to race across Australia, with the major events being the annualAustralian Speedcar Championship, state championships (held in QLD, NSW, VIC, TAS, SA, WA, and ACT), and blue ribbon events including theAustralian Speedcar Grand Prix (first held in 1938), the $20k to win Australasian 50 Lap Speedcar Championship (first held in 1946)(SA), the Sydney 50 Lapper (NSW), Ultimate Speedcar Championship (QLD), the John Day Speedcar Classic (WA), the Beasley Family Memorial (VIC) and more.
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 likeBill Schindler and events at tracks like that atHinchcliffe Stadium.
ManyIndyCar andNASCAR drivers use midget car racing as an intermediate stepping stone on their way to more high-profile divisions, includingTony Stewart,Sarah Fisher,Rodger Ward,A. J. Foyt,Mario Andretti,Johnnie Parsons,Ryan Newman,Kyle Larson,Jeff Gordon,Christopher Bell,Bill Vukovich, and others. Events are sometimes held on weeknights so that popular and famous drivers from other, higher-profiled types ofmotor 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.
Australia's TripleFormula One World Drivers' ChampionSir Jack Brabham got his motor racing start in Speedcars on the dirt track ovals in his home town ofSydney. Before going on to become the1959,1960 and1966 World Champion, Brabham was a multipleAustralian national and state title winner from 1948 until he turned full time to road racing in 1953.
In 1959,Lime Rock Park held a famousFormula Libre race, whereRodger Ward shocked the expensive and exoticsports cars by beating them on theroad course in anOffenhauser poweredmidget car, usually used on oval tracks. Ward used an advantageous power-to-weight ratio and dirt-track cornering abilities to steal the win.
