Tommy Hunt

The Justice Brothers

The Justice Brothers

The Justice Brothers were born in the tiny eastern Kansas town of Paola, into a family of six children. Lawrence Milton, known as “Zeke,” was born on March 12 1920 and youngest brother, Edward Ray, arrived fifteen months later on June 12 1921. Growing up, the boys and their older brother Gus, born in 1916, were obsessed with automobiles and speed. First the brothers stripped down an old Whippet before they built their own midget racer. The brothers terrorized the local residents and probably themselves with their high speed exploits in their home-built machines.

It seemed inevitable that the Justice Brothers would have to head to California to pursue their speed dreams. First Ed drove west on Route 66 in his Ford sedan and soon found work in the flight test department of Douglas Aircraft in Santa Monica. Before long, Ed sent word home to Kansas that he had found Zeke a job working in millionaire playboy Joel Thorne’s Burbank race car shop.  Unfortunately, Gus had suffered crippling injuries in a 1936 automobile accident and remained in Paola.

When World War Two came, Ed enlisted as an aircraft mechanic with the Eighth Army Air Force stationed in England, while Zeke worked during the war at Thorne Engineering building precision aircraft parts. The foreman of the Thorne Engineering shop was none other than Frank Kurtis, who later hired Zeke as his first employee when he struck out on his own to build race cars. 

Ed later also joined Kurtis-Kraft Inc. and the brothers helped construct many of the nearly 500 midget race cars K-K built during the post-war midget racing boom.  Some of which were sold as kits, and Frank Kurtis was too busy to take on repair jobs, so the enterprising pair opened Justice Brothers Race Car Repair and Fabrication in Glendale California to assemble Kurtis-Kraft midget kits and repair damaged Kurtis-Kraft race cars in their off hours.  

Once while Frank Kurtis was out of town on business, Ed convinced Zeke to help him incorporate standard aircraft fasteners for the first time on a midget race car being built by Kurtis for NMARHOF member “Bullet” Joe Garson. The pair attached the body panels using Dzus spring-loaded quarter -turn fasteners, and while Frank Kurtis was reportedly unhappy at first, the Justices sold him on their innovation which became the standard in race car fabrication.  

The brothers somehow found the time to build their own midget race car, and after just one outing at the famed Gilmore Stadium, sold the car for a $2,500 profit, which they used to invest in a Florida-based oil business.  Justice Brothers Inc. went on to sponsor the Kurtis-built 1950 Indianapolis 500 winner driven by Johnnie Parsons, Red Byron, the first NASCAR champion in 1949, and were the first sponsors of drag racing legend “Big Daddy” Don Garlits. 

Although we lost Gus in 1983, Zeke in 2001 and Ed in 2008, the Justice Brothers Inc. automotive chemicals company continues to grow under the leadership of Ed’s son, Ed Justice Junior, who is also a noted motorsports photographer, historian, broadcaster and publisher.

George Bignotti 

A smiling George Bignotti in 1962 

Photo courtesy of the

IUPUI University Library Center for Digital Scholarship

 Indianapolis Motor Speedway Collection

Today we pay tribute to National Midget Auto Racing Hall of Fame inductee George Bignotti, another example of a great racer who started their storied career in the sport of auto racing in midget racing.  

George born in San Mateo California in 1916 was the youngest of three brothers all of whom were auto racing mechanics.  In 1946, in partnership with his brother Al, George fielded a car powered by a Ford V8-60 engine in the Bay Cities Racing Association (BCRA) for Ed Normi.

The following season, the brothers bought a second midget and added 1946 BCRA champion Fred Agabashian to their team. Agabashian had a ride in the 1947 Indianapolis 500-mile race and thus missed many races, and was listed in 22^nd place in the 1947 BCRA points when he returned in June.

Through a series of consistent finishes Agabashian with George and Al turning the wrenches on the #108 midget won the 1947 BCRA drivers’ championship by 92 points. When Agabashian returned to the Bay Area after the 1948 Indianapolis 500-mile race, George Bignotti had the new Kurtis-Kraft Ford V-8 60 powered “Burgermeister Special” #154 ready for Fred.

Late in the season, Agabashian’s leading competitor, Jerry Piper broke his arm in a crash and at the end of the season the team of Bignotti and Agabashian were champions - Agabashian with his third consecutive title and Bignotti his second.

For 1949, Piper and Agabashian started the BCRA season as teammates for George Bignotti. Agabashian set quick time on three occasions during the 8-race series and eventually lowered the track record to an amazing 8.22 seconds. Fred won the penultimate feature race, but Hayward’s Bob Sweikert won the inaugural BCRA indoor championship. 

During the 1949 season George became a top driver in the BCRA’s hardtop division, and in 1951 he won the BCRA midget title for a third time with Johnny Boyd.   

For the 1954 Indianapolis ‘500’ Fred Agabashian was set to drive the ‘Merz Engineering Special’ a brand new Kurtis Kraft 500C roadster with 270-cubic inches of Offenhauser power tilted 36 degrees. The car arrived late, and Fred called to ask his friend and former car owner Bignotti to come to Indianapolis and help out the short-handed Merz crew.

That visit marked the beginning of Bignotti’s magical 29-year career at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.  

In 1956 George teamed with Bob Bowes of the Bowes Seal Fast Company to field an entry for Johnny Boyd and in 1957 Agabashian teamed with Johnny Boyd in a pair of new Kurtis-Kraft 500G models. At the end of the 1958 season, George won his USAC first USAC championship race at Sacramento with driver Jud Larson.

In 1960, Bignotti teamed with a young Texan named A J Foyt and together they won four USAC races and the USAC championship, the first of their four USAC championships. In 1961 George the won the first of a pair of Indianapolis 500-mile race wins with Foyt.

Before he retired at the end of the 1983 racing season, Bignotti won seven USAC national championships and won the Indianapolis 500-mile race seven times. Bignotti passed away at age 97 in 2013. The National Midget Auto Racing Hall of Fame is proud to count George Bignotti as one our inductees.    

IUPUI University Library Center for Digital Scholarship Indianapolis Motor Speedway Collection

Don Meacham

2012 inductee

photo courtesy of M&M Racing Photos

Charles “Don” Meacham began his long racing career at age 22 in a hardtop on the quarter-mile paved oval Kearney Bowl in his hometown of Fresno California shortly after Don finished his service in the United States Air Force. After he finished third in the 1959 season points at Kearney Bowl, he was offered an opportunity to drive Fred Hatfield’s midget with the Bay Cities Racing Association (BCRA) in Northern California.

By 1961 Meacham was racing with the elite drivers of the United States Auto Club (USAC) in selected events such as JC Agajanian’s promotion of a 50-lap race at Orange Show Speedway in a program that featured Indianapolis 500-mile race winner AJ Foyt, Danny Jones and Johnny Moorhouse.

In 1962 Don finished in the top ten in midget points at Bakersfield Speedway behind such names as Lowell Sachs and Lloyd Nygren. Don made his first start in the prestigious Turkey Night Grand Prix in November 1962 and completed the 150-lap race around the half-mile Ascot Park Speedway in seventh place.

For 1964, Mel Kenyon invited Don to travel with him on the USAC national midget circuit and as the season progressed, Meacham began to land better quality rides. Don scored his first USAC main event win at Springfield Illinois on July 13 as he drove the Saemann Grabow Offenhauser then followed that up with his second win a month later at Peoria Speedway in Illinois. Even though he raced only a partial season, Don wound up tenth in the 1964 USAC national midget standings.  

In the winter of 1965 and 1966 Meacham participated in the 14-race BCRA Pacific Coast Indoor Auto Racing Championship series held on the 1/10-mile oval inside the Oakland Exposition Building and finished in the top five in points. During the 1966 racing season as a member of the Myron Caves midget racing team Don along with teammate Mike McGreevy battled Mel Kenyon for the USAC national midget championship.

Don led all drivers as he captured nine 1966 USAC main event midgets wins but wound up third in points behind the eventual champion McGreevy and Kenyon. Don scored wins in Muncie Speedway in Indiana, Santa Fe Speedway and Bob-Jo Speedway Illinois as well as back to back wins on successive nights at Fairbury American Legion Park in Illinois. Meacham also won at the Allentown Pennsylvania fairgrounds and scored his ninth win of the 1966 season at his home track the Kearney Bowl

Don finished second in the 1966-67 BCRA Pacific Coast Indoor championship behind Billy Vukovich with 481 points to Billy’s 539 points. In May 1967, Don made the challenging jump from midgets to a rear engine car at Indianapolis teamed with a rookie car owner, Jim Hayhoe in an effort with a three-year Vollstedt chassis powered by supercharged Offenhauser engine.

The Cleaver-Brooks sponsored team fought hard and steadily improved but just couldn’t find the speed needed to make the starting field.  Offsetting his Indianapolis disappointment, Don finished fifth in the 1967 USAC National midget championship with the Myron Caves Buick Offenhauser powered midget and scored one feature win at Flat Rock Speedway in Michigan.  

In 1968 Don was invited to race “down under” in New Zealand and Australia and achieved much success with 14 wins in seventeen starts and Meacham became a great fan favorite and he returned to visit vintage events in Australia several times. Don cut back on his USAC schedule in 1968 and scored his final USAC feature victory on July 21, 1968 at Kokomo Speedway.

Later in his career, after he had retired from full-time driving and entered the orthopedic device industry, Don drove the Mason Cook Sesco-powered midget in BCRA competition against the rising tide of Volkswagen powered midgets, then he later decide that he would rather switch than fight and drove Len Gozel’s Volkswagen powered machine.  

Don Meacham in action in the Myron Caves midget in Australia

photo from the author's collection

Don’s career total of thirteen USAC national midgets wins places him in a tie with Steve Knepper, Ryan Newman and Stevie Reeves. The most remarkable aspect of his win total is that oftentimes Don raced the Caves Don Edmunds built midget without the help of a crewman.  Through his long career, Don drove for some truly legendary car owners that included his most frequent ride, the Myron Caves Offenhauser, as well as Jack London, Harry Stryker and Bob Rosen.

In addition to his membership in the National Midget Auto Racing Hall of Fame, Don Meacham is also a member of the Central California Racing Hall of Fame and was recently inducted into the Bay Cities Racing Association Hall of Fame.

Dick Atkins

2017 NMARHoF  

Richard F. "Dick" Atkins was born into a large family with eight brothers and sisters in 1936 in Oakland California, and graduated from Castlemont High School in 1954 after standout career in varsity athletes particularly in football.  Dick who worked as a building contractor in Hayward California began racing in 1960 as a hobby, and by 1963 he was a force in Bay Cities Racing Association (BCRA) competition driving Sim Clark’s Chevy II powered midget with a signature win in a 50-lap feature at Capitol Speedway on May 30 and he set a track record in June at Stockton 99 Speedway.

1964 was Atkins’ breakout season in 2017 Sim Clark’s Chevy II that included a July 4 weekend sweep of the BCRA races at Chico on the dirt at Silver Dollar Speedway and the tight paved oval at Lakeport California. During July 1964 Dick Atkins captured three consecutive wins and he was crowned the 1964 BCRA outdoor champion following in his third place finish in the October 17 1964 25-lap feature at Vallejo Speedway.

For the 1965 season, Atkins joined the multi-car team of John Pestana and Bob Lang that fielded a pair of Offenhauser-powered midgets for BCRA competition as well the former Fike Plumbing sprint car in Northern Auto Racing Club (NARC) races. Atkins won races in both divisions, notably 100-lap features at Santa Maria on Memorial Day and in July at Vallejo Speedway and claimed his second consecutive BCRA driving title.

On Thanksgiving night 1965 on Ascot Park Speedway, Atkins qualified the Pestana #3X in fifth place then watched as AJ Foyt and Parnelli Jones dueled for the early lead until Jones flipped on lap 70. Foyt continued to lead with pressure from Atkins until Foyt pitted on lap 118 and Atkins led the remaining 32 laps to claim the 25th annual Turkey Night Grand Prix victory and nationwide notoriety.

1966 was Atkins’ breakout year which began as he claimed the BCRA Pacific Coast Indoor Auto Racing Champion’s crown as joined JC Agajanian’s REV 500 racing team on the USAC (United States Auto Club) championship circuit at Indianapolis. In his first attempt to qualify for the ‘500,’ Dick passed his rookie test and qualified for the field at 158.158 miles per hour, only to be bumped out of the field the following day  by Larry Dickson and wound up the first alternate.

Days after the ‘500,’ a mechanic’s torch set off an explosion that damaged the Shrike that Atkins had driven at Indianapolis, and for the rest of the USAC season, Dick became the driver of the famed Agajanian #98 entry. Dick also found time to race sprint cars and set quick time and won the final USAC sprint car race held at the Allentown Pennsylvania fairgrounds in August. Dick finished sixth in his first appearance at the high-banked Winchester Speedway in a sprint car after he started 14th and trailed Al Smith, Bobby Unser, Mario Andretti, Roger McCluskey and Arnie Knepper to the finish line.  

Midway during the USAC championship car season, Dick began to pile up steady top ten and top five finish, and in the penultimate race of 1966 at the State Fairgrounds dirt mile in Sacramento, he qualified second. Atkins tracked leader Mario Andretti all race long then swept past to claim victory when Andretti car suffered rear end failure with six laps to go. In one year, Atkins had claimed wins in the three elite USAC classes- champ car, sprint car and midgets.

On the cusp of stardom, with a full-time ride with JC Agajanian set for 1967, Dick Atkins just thirty years old was struck down three weeks after his Golden State victory following a USAC sprint car crash at Ascot Park that also claimed the life of Don Branson. On the fifth lap of the 30-lap feature Branson in what was scheduled to be his final race became incapacitated and his car crashed hard into the outside wall.

Branson’s flipping car landed on top of Dick’s Wally Meskoswitz owned sprint car which exploded into flames. Though rescuers pulled him from the car Atkins had suffered severe burns and a basal skull fracture and he passed away in the Gardena Memorial Hospital at noon the next day. Dick just thirty years old and on the cusp of superstardom was struck down just three weeks after his ‘Golden State 100’ victory.  The tragic Branson/Atkins double fatality led USAC to mandate the use of fuel cells in both sprint cars and midgets.  

Taken from us too soon, we were honored to welcome Dick Atkins truly a phenomenal driver into the National Midget Auto Racing Hall of Fame as a member of the class of 2017 at ceremonies in Tulsa Oklahoma on January 12 2018.