Midget Car Racing Pins and Buttons

Dirt midget in a action shot siding sidewise sling'n some dirt.

Midget Auto Racing

Retro speedway racer

Dirt Mini sprint design

After the bridge over Fremont was dedicated in 1932, Seattle's Aurora Avenue became the centerline for a wide, long swath of car culture with auto dealers, parts stores, drive-ins for burgers, drive-ins for movies and more than one racetrack. The Seattle Speed Bowl, which opened in 1936 in what is now known as Edmonds, was one such track. For nearly a decade, racers were drawn to this oval track, where racers driving midget-class cars as well as jalopies duked it out for bragging rights and the occasional trophy. Like most racetracks, Seattle Speed Bowl closed as World War II rationing put racing on the back burner nationwide, but unlike many others, the track never opened again.

Westboro Speedway was built by five World War II vets on 35 acres of former farmland in Westborough, Massachusetts. The track started out hosting midget racing, but eventually full size stock car racing became the track's primary focus. In addition to motorsports, Westboro Speedway also hosted countless rock concerts over the years. Like most racetracks, what was once a rural location was eventually surrounded by suburban sprawl that didn't take kindly to the raucous activities that went on there. That, coupled with the land being worth more to developers saw the track close its doors for good in 1985.

USA Lt.Model dirt car

MG Safety Fast Shield

Face mask design of a vintage neon sign showing a classic race car. Great for he racing fan...

During WWII, auto racing shut down as rationing of everything from fuel and rubber to metals made it near impossible, plus, most drivers, crew, and spectators were all taking part in the war effort. As the war wound down and the boys started coming home, Los Angeles racing promoter Bill White approached the city about paving a quarter-mile track in the L.A. Coliseum and hosting midget races. The city loved the idea, and green flagged paving right over the athletic track. The result was a flat track with inside pits. White formed the United Racing Association (URA) for the midget racers, and they got back to racing in 1945. They ran two races the first year, averaging 36,000 people a night, and the next year they ran 15 events.

The Offy is a racing engine design that dominated American open wheel racing for more than 50 years and is still popular among vintage sprint and midget car racers today. The keys to the engine's success and popularity was the rare combination of incredible power and reliability, two things racers usually had to choose between.

MG cars Totally Unauthorized

When the going gets TUFF. A custom COVID Killer Hot Rod

Don Edmunds was an American racecar driver who had his first start at Indianapolis Motor Speedway in 1957. He won the 1957 Indianapolis 500 Rookie of the Year after finishing nineteenth, though Edmunds' Indy career ended with a serious practice accident at the Speedway the following year. In 1963, he founded Autoresearch in Anaheim, California, which specialized in building midget cars and sprint cars. Edmunds created the blueprints and did most of the fabrication work on the original Bill Thomas Cheetah prototype sports car racer. His chassis won several National Midget Championships in the late '60s and early '70s. Additionally, Edmunds was a prolific constructor of Formula Super Vee cars well into the '80s.