NMARHoF member spotlight 

Mitch Miller

Robert Mitchell “Mitch” Miller saw his first midget race at age 10 and it seemed inevitable that he would become a renowned midget racing promoter. Mitch’s career began in 1965 when he assumed the public relations and advertising roles for the Rocky Mountain Midget Racing Association (RMMRA).  One night in Casper Wyoming he filled in for Hall of Famer Bill Hill as the announcer which soon led to Mitch becoming the announcer at Lakeside Speedway in Denver as well as for the RMMRA races.

 In 1970, Miller took the reins as President of the RMMRA an office he held until 1978. While he was the RMMA President Mitch helped to promote a “challenge race” between the RMMRA and St. Louis Auto Racing Association (SLARA) held on the famed Belleville High Banks in Belleville Kansas. In 1978, with the cooperation of North Central Kansas Free Fair Board, Miller presented the first Belleville Midget Nationals in 1978 and he promoted the Nationals through 1995.

From that first event won by RMMRA’s Eddie Jackson, the race on the Belleville High Banks quickly grew and became one of midget auto racing’s crown jewels. After seven terms as RMMRA President, Mitch Miller founded the Southwest Independent Midget Series (SWIMS) Tour in 1981 with five-year run of races throughout the Texas and Arkansas area. In 1983, Miller founded the American Independent Midget Series (AIMS) that promoted races for many years throughout the Midwest and Southwest United States.


In 1987, Miller helped Emmett Hahn and Lanny Edwards organize the first Chili Bowl Nationals midget race and served as the race’s first announcer. Mitch Miller has been honored many times for his lifetime of achievements. He was the second recipient of the Les Ward Memorial plaque which recognized his good sportsmanship in the sport of midget auto racing. 


In 1999 Miller was inducted into the Belleville High Banks Motorsports Hall of Fame and in 2010 the Colorado Motorsports Hall of Fame. We are proud to have Robert “Mitch” Miller as a member of the National Midget Auto Racing Hall of Fame.  

2019 Class of National Midget

 Auto Racing Hall of Fame revealed 

The Board of Director of the the National Midget Auto Racing Hall of Fame has released the names of the class of 2019 inductees:

Nick "Nokie" Fornoro Jr.

Chuck Stevenson

Bill Homeier

Dick Wallen

Mack McClellan 

Greg Wilke

The induction ceremony will be  held in Tulsa Okalhoma January 17 2020. 

Bob Marshman

2018 NMARHoF inductee

George Robert “Bobby” Marshman was born on September 24, 1936 in Pottstown Pennsylvania into a racing family, as the son of George Marshman who reigned as the 1949 American Automobile Association (AAA) East Coast Midget series champion and later became the promoter of Hatfield Speedway.

At age 19 Bobby started his racing career with the United Racing Club in a sprint car and was the club’s 1955 Rookie of the Year then the following season he was eighth in URC points in the Ellis Brothers Dodge.  After he finished second in URC points in 1957 though with no wins, in 1958 Bobby began his midget racing career with the American Race Drivers Club (ARDC). 

At just 23 years of age, Bobby drove for the powerful Harry Hespell 4-car team with multi-time ARDC champions Ed “Dutch” Schaffer and Len Duncan and Wayne Doerstler and wound up third in 1958 points in that very competitive series. Bobby started his record of success at the big Trenton New Jersey one-mile track as he won a 25-mile ARDC feature on August 3, 1958.  Marshman branched out into USAC (United States Auto Club) competition in the 1959 season still with the Hespell team teamed with Duncan, Al Herman, and Don Allison. 

Bobby started his 1960 season with a win in a 35 lap three quarter midget race on the 1/10 track inside the Island Garden on January 3, then at the end of February he scored a stock car win inside the Teaneck New Jersey Armory. Marshman drove for Bruce Homeyer’s ‘Konstant Hot’ team in 1960 and won the 300-mile ARDC midget race held at Trenton on July 24, 1960.  Bobby led the final 109 laps and finished in 3 hours 8 minutes, yet he finished only 25 seconds ahead of Chuck Arnold.

At the 1961 Indianapolis ‘500,’ Marshman was the youngest driver in the field as he started last in Eph Hoover’s ‘Hoover Motor Express Special.’ With just five days of practice, he finished the race in seventh place and shared the Rookie of the Year award with Parnelli Jones.

Bobby’s career record includes eight ARDC feature wins and four USAC feature wins, and he excelled in long-distance midget races, particularly, as he won the 250-mile USAC/ARDC at Trenton on July 2, 1961.  Due to the sweltering heat Bob gave way to relief driver Jimmie Davis after 186 laps but the pair still finished at an average speed of over 93 miles per hour (MPH). 

Marshman’s midget schedule slowed down in 1962 onward as he became a regular on the USAC championship car circuit – in 1962 he was the third fastest qualifier at Indianapolis and finished fifth in championship points. On September 16, 1962 Marshman won the USAC sanctioned 100-mile midget in a record time of one hour and 1.48 seconds. 

As Bob’s fame began to spread he got more opportunities to display his skills – he won the shortened 1962 Bobby Ball Memorial race for dirt championship cars at the Arizona State Fairgrounds in Lindsay Hopkins’ Kuzma Offenhauser,  a victory in USAC Sprint Car competition 1963 at the Terre Haute Action Track for Wally Meskowski,  and in 1964 driving Don White’s Zecol-Lubaid Ford stock car, Bobby won the   Allen Crowe Memorial raceat the Illinois state fairgrounds without a pit stop.

In 1964, his tenth season of racing Bobby qualified second at the Indianapolis ‘500’ and led 33 laps, but sadly one of racing’s brightest stars passed away on December 5. 1964, just a week after a fiery crash during a tire test at the Phoenix International Raceway at just 28 years old.

Mike Streicher

2018 NMARHoF inductee
passed away November 6 2019 

We are sad to report that 2018 NMARHoF inductee Mike Streicher passed away from a heart attack on November 6 2019.


Second generation midget racer Michael “Mike” Streicher experienced success in multiple aspects of our sport. The son of three-time United States Auto Club (USAC) car owner champion Jim Streicher, the Findlay, Ohio native who attended his first midget race at the age of three, grew up to claim USAC midget championships as a driver, car owner, mechanic and a car builder. 

In 1983, Mike captured his first series title with USAC as a car owner and mechanic for driver champion Rich Vogler then in 1988 at Kokomo Speedway in Indiana, he won his first USAC midget feature as a driver. In 1990 Streicher won the Hoosier Dome Invitational, the during the 1990 USAC season, Streicher battled defending champion Russ Gamester and Jeff Gordon and wound up third in the USAC national midget championship while his father claimed the car owners title.  

1991 was Mike Streicher’s year as he raced to the USAC national midget driver title after a season long duel with Stevie Reeves. Enroute to his drivers’ championship and third car owner championship Mike claimed three feature victories during the season in his own Hawk chassis. 

In addition to his six career USAC midget wins, Mike scored countless midget feature wins in many other series -the National Alliance of Midget Auto Racing (NAMAR), ARCA (Automobile Racing Club of America), the Northeast Midget Association (NEMA), the American Race Drivers Club (ARDC), as well as back-to-back UMRA (United Midget Racing Association) three-quarter midget feature wins indoors in Salem Virginia in November 1985. 

Mike Streicher remains active in the sport of auto racing with his Hawk chassis company and his work as a professor at University of Northwestern Ohio (UNOH) College of Applied Technologies High Performance Motorsports program to educate future racers and mechanics. Based upon his lifetime of accomplishments and continuing devotion to our sport we are proud to welcome Mike Streicher into the National Midget Auto Racing Hall of Fame. 

Jay Drake - 2017 Hall of Fame inductee

Jay Drake is not just a three-time midget champion - he is also the son and the father of midget racing champions. Jay’s father, Mike was the National Midget Auto Racing (NMRA) 3/4 (TQ) midget series champion for the 1981 and 1982 seasons and Jay’s son, Nick was the 2010 and 2011 United States Auto Club (USAC) Focus series champion. 
 

Jay started racing quarter midgets at age 8, then started in USAC TQ midgets in 1990 and was a sensation, as he won both Rookie of the Year and the series championship. After he repeated as TQ champion in 1991, Jay moved up to the USAC Western States midget series full-time in 1993 and was the Rookie of the Year. After he captured the 1996 USAC Western States title, Jay moved east to the USAC national series to showcase his talents in midgets, championship, and sprint cars.  

During his National Midget Auto Racing Hall of Fame worthy career Jay drove for such legendary names Keith Kunz, Pete Willoughby, his uncle Kelly Drake at Steve Lewis’ Nine Racing, Ralph Potter, John Lawson, Steve Beneto, Andy Bondio, Dave Ellis, Tony Stewart, and Tony George.


Jay scored midget wins in USAC TQ, National, and Western States races as well as with the NAMARS and Badger series and tied AJ Foyt’s record with nineteen overall USAC wins in a season. Along the way Jay also won the 2000 Indiana Sprint Week championship and the 2004 USAC National Sprint Car Championship. 

Jay won four of the five elite national midget races – the Turkey Night Grand Prix at Bakersfield Speedway in 1998, the Hut Hundred at Lincoln Park Speedway and the Fireman’s Nationals at Angell Park in 2000, the Chili Bowl Nationals at Tulsa Expo in 2001 and came within 8 laps of winning at the Belleville Nationals on the High Banks in 1996.


After a stint in the IRL Infinity Series, Jay retired from regular competition and continued his success out of the cockpit. While he was the team manager at Tony Stewart Racing, Tracy Hines finished as the runner-up for the 2008 USAC National midget title. Today Jay works as team manager for the multiple championship winning  Keith Kunz Motorsports (KKM) midget racing team.   

Billy Garrett

William J. "Billy" Garrett was a second-generation midget racer who debuted alongside his father, Johnny, in United Racing Association (URA) midget competition in 1952.  Billy, born in 1933 in Illinois and a welder by trade had a rough start in midgets during the 1952 season but his driving skills improved quickly and the following year was considered one of the “leading lights of the URA” along with Don Cameron, Johnny Moorhouse and Hal Minyard.

Billy won his first feature at Culver City Speedway on April 10 1954 driving Ben Humke’s Ford V-8 60 powered midget a year after his father’s passing in a “big car” crash at Clovis California.  Garrett won his third feature race of the 1954 season on September 25 at Culver City and clinched his first URA driver’s championship.


Early in the 1955 season Billy trailed Jack Jordan in the URA point chase until the season’s third race, but after Garrett won that 30-lap main at Gardena Stadium he never relinquished his points lead and clinched his second consecutive URA title at Orange Show Speedway in mid-September.

In 1956 Billy headed back east to race with the United States Auto Club (USAC), was the youngest driver in that year’s Indianapolis ‘500’ and appeared in nine 1956 USAC championship races driving the Greenman/Casale entry. The highlight of Billy’s 1957 USAC season came in April when he won the 100-mile midget race at the Arizona State Fairgrounds mile in record time.

Billy drove second generation Oklahoma oil magnate Harry Allen "H.A" Chapman’s year-old dark blue Kurtis-Kraft 500 'G' "laydown" roadster in the Indianapolis 500-mile race.  Chapman an amateur road racer who also owned a home in Tucson Arizona, had first entered AAA championship racing in the 1950 season with NMARHoF member Bill Schindler as  his driver.


Chapman proved to have an eye for talent as through the years, other Chapman drivers included Hall of Famers Tony Bettenhausen and Johnny Thomson and Chapman's chief mechanic was the wily veteran Art Sims.  


in 1958 Though Dick Rathman was entered as the driver of the 'Chapman Special,' he jumped to the new Lee Elkins owned Watson roadster, and after multiple driver changes, Billy wound up in the seat of the 'Chapman Special' and qualified 15th for the 33-car field. On Memorial Day, as a sophomore driver Billy miraculously avoided the first lap  turn three carnage started by Rathman that clamed the life of Pat O'Connor, but the car retired on lap 80 with a broken camshaft gear. 


A week later, after a strong second place qualifying effort, while he was running in fourth place on lap 54 of the 'Rex Mays Classic' at Milwaukee's State Fair Park, the Offenhauser engine in the Chapman Special blew up and Billy's car spun hard backwards into the third turn wall.


Billy suffered severe head and chest injuries, was listed in critical condition for a month and remained unconscious over two months. When he awoke, the 25-year old driver learned that he was permanently partially paralyzed.

Even after he could no longer drive racing cars, Garrett always remained close to the sport he loved and he sold racing safety equipment. Later in life, Billy confined full-time to a wheelchair was one of the beneficiaries of the annual ‘Gilmore Roars Again’ party until his passing in 1999. We are proud that URA 2-time champion Billy Garrett is a member of the National Midget Auto Racing Hall of Fame.  

Kenny Irwin Jr.

2018 NMARHOF Inductee 

Kenny Irwin, Jr. began his racing career in quarter midgets while in the second grade, but his racing career took a detour from 1988 to 1991 as he and his father raced a family-owned Buick Somerset in SCCA Trans-Am and IMSA GT racing series. In 1991 Kenny debuted in midgets with both the All-American Midget Series (AAMS) and the United States Auto Club (USAC).

Kenny claimed the 1992 AAMS championship in a season highlighted by a pair of wins on the high banks at Winchester Speedway and single wins at Salem Speedway and Indianapolis Raceway Park while he also challenged Stevie Reeves for the USAC national midget title. 

Irwin opened his 1993 campaign with a win in the Toronto Sky Dome Grand Prix 100, as he led the final 75 laps around the 1/6-mile oval and held off John Andretti for the win.  At the end of season, Kenny again finished a close second place to the repeat USAC Midget national champion Reeves. 

In 1994, Irwin finished fourth in USAC national midget points, then in August 1995 Kenny won his first and second USAC dirt races on the same day, as he won the Silver Crown and midget races at the Springfield Illinois mile dirt track.  During the 1996 USAC national midget season, Kenny drove for Steve Lewis’ Nine Racing team and scored two wins, at Richmond Virginia and Huset’s Speedway in South Dakota, and claimed the 1996 USAC National Midget Series Championship.

For 1997 Irwin went to the NASCAR Craftsman Truck series full-time, won two races and earned Rookie of the Year honors. In 1998 he moved up to the Winston Cup series and again was named Rookie of the Year.  Kenny lost his life in July 2000 in a practice crash at New Hampshire International Speedway only one month away from his 31st birthday.

In addition to his eight career USAC National Midget Series wins Irwin’s open wheel career record also count six USAC Silver Crown Series wins and seven career USAC National Sprint Car Series wins. The National Auto Racing Hall of Fame is honored to welcome Kenny Irwin Jr. as a 2018 inductee.

Bryan Clauson

2018 NMARHOF Inductee

Third generation racer Bryan "BC" Clauson won a quarter midget national championship and two California state championships before the Clauson family moved to Indiana to further his racing career. At the age of sixteen, Bryan started his first United States Auto Club (USAC) race in June 2005 and finished third. In October 2005, Bryan became the youngest driver ever to capture his first USAC national midget feature victory at Columbus Motor Speedway.

Clauson moved to ARCA and NASCAR stock car racing with Chip Ganassi’s team for several seasons before he returned to USAC open-wheel competition with a vengeance racing out of his adopted hometown of Noblesville Indiana.

Bryan scored wins at all the historic midget racing events – he was the two-time champion of the Turkey Night Grand Prix as won the 2009 and 2010 events held at the ½-mile paved Irwindale Speedway, as well as the 58^th running of the historic ‘Hut Hundred’ in 2010. Clauson captured the Belleville Nationals title three times in 2009, 2010 and 2015, and the USAC Eldora 4-Crown Nationals midget crown in 2014, the same year that he reigned as the champion of the Chili Bowl Nationals in Tulsa Oklahoma. 

Clauson is the sixth driver to score 100 USAC feature wins and his career record of 112 USAC wins is sixth all-time behind Rich Vogler, A.J. Foyt, Ron “Sleepy” Tripp, Mel Kenyon and Dave Darland, and his total of 38 USAC national midget victories places him seventh overall with two USAC national midget titles back-to-back in 2010 and 2011.

Bryan also won three Indiana Midget Week titles, back-to-back USAC national sprint car championships in 2012 and 2013 and was the USAC National Drivers Championship winner three consecutive years in 2010, 2011 and 2012 based on points he accumulated in all three USAC national series.

Bryan set a personal goal of competing in 200 races during the 2016 season, but he lost his life in a crash as he led the 2016 Belleville Nationals. For his racing accomplishments and legacy of organ donation, we are proud to induct Bryan Clauson into the National Midget Auto Racing Hall of Fame.

Mario Andretti

2018 NMARHoF Inductee

In 1961, young Italian immigrant Mario Andretti began his open wheel racing career in a three-quarter midget purchased from Bobby Marshman with the American Three-Quarter Midget Racing Association, then he scored his first of four ATQMRA wins with a 100-lap race win at Teaneck New Jersey in 1962. In 1963, Mario graduated to full-size midgets in his first race at Danbury Connecticut with the American Race Drivers Club (ARDC) with such legendary drivers as Len Duncan, and Ed “Dutch” Schaefer.

On Labor Day 1963, at 23 years of age Andretti accomplished the near-impossible as he won three midgets features in one day in a single car at two different tracks. In the afternoon program at the fast 5/8-mile Flemington Speedway in New Jersey Mario scored a “clean sweep” he set fast time in qualifying, won his heat race and scored the feature win.

The Mataka Brothers team then loaded up and towed west to Pennsylvania’s 1/3-mile Hatfield Speedway for the evening’s twin feature program. In the first race, Mario again scored a “clean sweep,” then won his third feature of the day with a victory in the make-up race from an earlier rain out. In one day, Mario scored three of his five career ARDC feature wins and from that day on, Mario Andretti was bound for superstardom.

Besides a NASCAR midget win and a United States Auto Club (USAC) midget win in Berlin Michigan in 1966 Mario’s record includes Rookie of the Year honors at the 1965 Indianapolis ‘500,’ victory in the 1967 Daytona 500-mile stock car race, the 1969 Indianapolis ‘500,’ and the 1978 Formula One World Driving Championship. 

Mario’s career record also includes three Sebring 12-hour race victories, four IndyCar championships with wins in each of four decades, Driver of the Year honors in three different decades and he was named the Associated Press Driver of the Century in 1999.

As a driver who started his illustrious open-wheel career in midgets, we are proud to welcome Mario Andretti into the National Midget Auto Racing Hall of Fame.

Tommy Astone

2018 NMARHoF Inductee 

Growing up in Fresno, California, Tommy Astone’s father was a race car owner and by the age of ten Tommy knew he wanted to be a race car driver. Astone started racing super modifieds at the age of 18 before he moved in the ranks of midget racing in 1969 with the Bay Cities Racing Association (BCRA).

During his breakout 1970 BCRA season Tommy swept a twin 50-lap program at San Jose Speedway and the 50-lap Western States midget championship race at Tahoe-Carson (T-CAR) Speedway. In August 1970 at West Capitol Raceway, while he challenged for his consecutive straight BCRA feature win, Tommy tangled with another car. His midget flipped eight times and Tommy suffered a broken collarbone and broken ribs and missed five weeks.

 

In the 1970 season’s final BCRA race at Roseville Speedway, Tommy entered with a 12-point lead and only had to finish the feature to be crowned the champion. The youngster was black-flagged during the feature by BCRA officials and Gary Arnold finished in third place and won the championship over Astone by 14 points. 

By December 1970, Tommy now 21 years old he was and able to race with the United States Auto Club (USAC).  

During the 1971 season, Tommy raced with USAC, the BCRA, and the Southern California-based USRC and URA midget clubs. In 1972, Astone made his first full-season foray with USAC, finished seventh in points and was named the rookie of the year.

Astone claimed his inaugural USAC win on June 20, 1973 at the 3/8-mile clay ‘34 Speedway’ in   Burlington Iowa. The 1973 USAC midget championship was settled on the final day of the season at a twin 50-lap program at Phoenix International Raceway, and Larry Rice emerged as the champion over Astone.

In 1974, Astone spent much of the USAC season in second place in points as he won the prestigious ‘Night Before the 500’ race at Indianapolis Raceway Park.  Tommy missed the final two races of the season due to injuries he suffered in a violent crash at Clovis Speedway but had amassed enough points to again finish second in the USAC midget championship.  

In 1976, Astone finished in third place in USAC midget points before he returned to racing on the West Coast primarily with the BCRA.  Tommy’s USAC midget career includes seven USAC national wins and five USAC Western States midget wins. Tommy Astone was inducted into the Bay Cities Racing Association Hall of Fame in 2009, and now we welcome him into the National Midget Auto Racing Hall of Fame.