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.