Wes Saegesser

Wes Saegesser 

2016 NAMRHoF inductee 

By any measure, with 117 documented wins over twelve seasons, equally divided between the pre-and post- war racing eras, in eleven different states and the province of Ontario Canada, Wesley “Wes” Saegesser had a great midget racing career. 

Wes’ accomplishments become even more remarkable when one learns that all those race wins came while driving with only one arm, since Wes was born with shortened left arm without a hand and he did not use a prosthetic device while racing. 

Born in Grand Island Nebraska in 1908, Wes began racing International Motor Contest (IMCA ‘big cars’ on the dangerous South & Midwest fair circuits in 1932 before his career was temporarily slowed in 1933 when he broke his neck in a racing accident.   

Saegesser scored his first midget win with an Elto outboard powered machine in 1937 in Kansas City Missouri and claimed both the 1937 Southwestern Championship and the Tulsa Championship.

The following year, Wes frequently raced on the Zeiter Speedways circuit and notched fifteen feature wins that included back-to-back wins in an afternoon-evening split July 4th program in Ithaca Michigan and scored three straight feature wins at the ¼-mile Yellow Jacket Speedway near Philadelphia. 

In 1939, Wes won a startling twenty-one feature races, followed by eighteen more wins in 1940. Before racing was halted due to World War Two, Saegesser claimed both the 1942 Texas/Oklahoma Midget series championship and the Houston Speed Bowl championship the latter after six consecutive wins.

When racing resumed after World War Two, during the winters of 1946-47 and 1947-48, Wes dominated the winter series of races held at the Pan-American Speedway in San Antonio Texas.  During the 1949 season Wes notched six more feature wins and accepted a new role as the American Automobile Association (AAA) Southwest zone supervisor. 

Saegesser retired from racing after the 1950 season to open his own garage in St Louis Missouri which he ran until he passed away in August 1957 of a heart attack.  Wes Saegesser the trailblazing one-armed midget champion into the National Midget Auto Racing Hall of Fame.