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

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.

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.  

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

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.   

Tommy Astone

1950- 2020

2018 inductee

Growing up in Fresno, California, Tommy Astone’s father, Tom Senior, 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 17 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 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 and able to race with the United States Auto Club (USAC) made a clean sweep at the ½-mile Irwindale Speedway, as he set fast time, won his 20-lap preliminary race and then captured the 100-mile feature. 

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, he was welcomed him into the National Midget Auto Racing Hall of Fame as member of the class of 2018.

Tommy Astone Junior passed away April 14 2020 RIP