George Zarounian

George Zarounian 

photo by the author 

Arakel ‘George’ Zarounian was born into an Armenian farming family in the central California town of Goshen, California on December 28, 1920, the first of their four children.  George was in love with automobiles from an early age and built his first midget race car while still in high school. Following his service in the United States Army during World War Two, in 1948 Zarounian opened his first car dealership starting with just one car.

George whose trademarks were cigars, black Cadillacs, and cowboy hats opened his Cadillac/Oldsmobile dealership in Visalia in 1954, and while the automobile business remained a constant throughout his life, Zarounian was a prolific entrepreneur with many successful businesses that included tomato packing, restaurants, and real estate investments. 

 

Zarounian Motorsports, which included George’s son Gary, was dominant for two decades on the West Coast with Hall of Fame driver Ron “Sleepy” Tripp. They combined for more than eighty USAC Western States feature victories and seven season championships in ten years - 1983, 1985, 1987, 1998, 1990, 1991, and 1992. In addition the Zarounian team scored eleven feature wins in the United States Auto Club (USAC) National Midget series as well as fifteen USAC Silver Crown victories.

Zarounian cars won the Belleville Midget Nationals three times; twice with Tripp and once with Jack  Hewitt as the drivers while the team used three different engines – VW, Cosworth and Arias - and two different chassis - Beast and Edmunds. 

The “who’s who” list of drivers who drove the Zarounian #67 cars through the years includes Donnie Beechler, who won the 1995 Chili Bowl Nationals for “GZ,”, Tony Hunt,  Ed Carpenter, Kasey Kahne, Steve Knepper, Bud Kaeding, Dave Strickland Junior, Jeff Gordon and the California father and son team of Ken and Chad Nichols. 

George Zarounian died on January 3, 2014 just a few days after he celebrated his 94th birthday. The inscription on this National Midget Auto Racing Hall of Fame member’s grave marker truly sums up how he lived his life “I did it my way.”

Tommy Hunt

2009 NMARHOF inductee 
Jeff Gordon's 
1990 midget race car 

This historic midget race car was on display in the MPD  Racing booth at the 2019 Performance Racing Industry (PRI) trade show. This car, owned then (and now) by Rollie Helmling was driven by a young 19 year old racer named Jeff Gordon.

Gordon dominated the 1990 United States Auto Club (USAC) midget season in this Diet Pepsi-sponsored Beast chassis with Pontiac power. His notable wins included his second consecutive win in the Night Before the 500 race at Indianapolis Raceway park,  the Hut Hundred at the Terre Haute Action Track, and the Belleville Midget Nationals in Kansas, with the season capped off when Gordon won the USAC National Midget driving title and Helmling the car owner title. 

Jeff Gordon was inducted into the National Midget Auto Racing Hall of Fame in 2009 

All photos by the author.   

Boots Archer

Born in 1913 in Oakland California, in 1931 David J. Archer Junior, known as  "Boots" started to work for a Bay Area well drilling company. He worked in the well drilling, pump installing and repairing field for other for ten years until he decided to start his own business in San Francisco in May of 1941 named Pump Repair Service Company. As the business grew, his wife Helen joined the company and managed the office.

In 1955, Boots’ son, David “Dave” Archer III joined the family business. Over the years, Dave learned the business and eventually in 1980 took over ownership of the company when “Boots” retired.  The company is still family owned by Dave Archer and his sons Wayne and Steve.

‘Boots’ first entered the “racing game” as a mechanic and partner in a Ford touring stock car with his friend Lynn Deister in the mid 1930’s. Sadly, Deister died in a midget racing crash at Bayshore Stadium in South San Francisco on Labor Day 1947.

After World War Two, ‘Boots’ served as the Business Manager for the Bay Cities Racing Association (BCRA) from 1945 to 1948, when he was forced to resign due to the growing demands of his pump business. While he was the Business Manager of BCRA, “Boots” made a strong effort to unite the BCRA (Northern California) and United Racing Association (URA) of Southern California but his efforts fell short.  

Less than a year after he resigned, ‘Boots’ returned to the BCRA Business Manager’s role on an interim basis after 1945 BCRA champion Bob Barkheimer who quit his race driving career to take over as BCRA business manager, resigned to take over management of the San Jose Speedway. “Boots” managed the BCRA operation for nearly two months until Ab Allen was hired as a permanent replacement. 

‘Boots’ served throughout the 1950’s and  1960’s as the referee at BCRA racing events, including the legendary winter time Pacific Coast Indoor Auto Racing Championship midget auto racing events held indoors at the Oakland Exposition Building.  For most of those years, ‘Boots’ was assisted by Northern California auto racing legend Jerry Piper, while Mel Fernandez served as the flamboyant starter.

Boots’ racing efforts were not confined just to midget auto racing, as due to knowledge of racing rules he also served as the referee for many major west coast stock car races promoted by Bob Barkheimer, such as the 1953 National 500-lap Stock Car Race held at Oakland Speedway. 

‘Boots’ also served as the chairman of California Auto Racing Fan Club (CARF) and for many years hosted that club’s annual Indianapolis 500-mile breakfast and remote viewing party. In September 1970, ‘Boots’ served as the referee of the inaugural ‘California 500’ USAC (United States Auto Club) championship car race at Ontario Motor Speedway, working alongside stewards Richard King and J. Gordon Betz and starter Shim Malone.

Boots became a member of the BCRA Hall of Fame in 1987 and passed away at age 83 in 1996.

Hall of Fame spotlight 

Johnnny Mantz

John Robert "Johnny" Mantz was born in 1918 in Hebron Indiana but grew up in Southern California and worked on his family’s farm before he started racing motorcycles. In 1940 he switched to racing midgets with the United Midget Association as a teammate to his car owner, Gib Lilly, before he joined the military in April 1942.

With the war over,  Mantz resumed action with the United Racing Association (URA) and posted three feature wins during 1946. In 1947,  Mantz finished second in the standings on the URA ‘Blue’ circuit for Offenhauser powered machines with eleven wins and placed eleventh in the URA ‘Red’ or non-Offenhauser circuit points with nine wins. 

During early June 1947, Johnny won five races in a three-week stretch and in September he won three races over a six-day period. “Joltin’ Johnny’s” 1947 season wins came at tracks in Bakersfield, Culver City, Carpinteria, the Rose Bowl and Balboa Stadiums and the Orange Show Speedway where Mantz won four features and scored six trophy dash wins.

After 1947 Mantz raced a ‘big car’ and championship car for JC Agajanian, won two American Automobile Association (AAA) championship car races, and was crowned the 1949 AAA Pacific Coast ‘big car’ champion. 

While he retired from racing open-wheel cars in early 1950, Mantz continued to race stock cars – he ran four of the five Mexican road races and scored a best finish of second in class in 1952. On Labor Day 1950, Mantz drove a 1950 Plymouth coupe to victory in the first 500-mile ‘Strictly Stock Car” race at Darlington South Carolina and he was crowned the inaugural 1956 USAC stock car champion.

Johnny lost his left arm after a horrific winter 1962 highway accident, and he died on October 25 1972 in another highway crash near his home in Ojai California. 

Mantz was inducted into the West Coast Stock Car Hall of Fame in 2004, and since 2009, the NASCAR ‘Southern 500’ has awarded the Darlington race winner the “Johnny Mantz Trophy.” We are proud to have midget racing pioneer Johnny Mantz as a member of the National Midget Auto Racing Hall of Fame.

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.  

The mission of the

National Midget Auto Racing Hall of Fame

The mission of the National Midget Auto Racing Hall of Fame (NMARHoF) is to preserve, honor and promote the heritage of the sport of midget auto racing and perpetually recognize and remember individuals who have contributed to the sport. 

Another part of our mission to maintain a permanent exhibit to provide a national presence for race fans and participants everywhere to visit and enjoy, saluting those individuals who have been enshrined as Hall of Fame inductees.

Formed in 1984 by official Ed Watson and race organizer John Stiles, the National Midget Auto Racing Hall of Fame annually announces its inductees, who are then formally honored ceremoniously.

To present an individual involved in the sport of Midget Auto racing for consideration by the induction committee for membership in the NMARHoF by contacting the organization’s National office, which in 2018 is accessed at kingdoodlebug@sbcglobal.net which will provide a nomination package.