24 replies to this topic

[zipidachimp]

hi guys, just joined. I've been trying to remember the name of the midget racer that was banned by usac towards the end of the 80's. google hasn't helped. saw one at irp but can't remember name. also, why was it banned?

[racer35k]

was it the badger? almost looked like a flat roadster?

[Mal Parsons]

I think the car you might be thinking of was the Munchkin driven by Mike Fedorcak. Open Wheel had a feature on the car (which is probably in a box in my spare room), but i cant remember the owner/builders name.

[larryoracing]

Was just curious if it was rear engine. I thought I saw an article about a rear engine midget. Don't know if it was banned, but I thought it was.

Larry "O", goin' to the back....LOL

[usac midget]

The Badger midget was a "front" engine car. It sort of resembles a super modified. My buddy owns one of them, and another friend has the original Badger #69. There were a few knock offs of the Badger, but not a one that ran or handled like it.

[racer35k]

was that lockhart's?

[homedepot]

The Badger race car's #69 was owned by Bob and Danny Lockard from Joliet, Illinois. The original driver was Jim McClean in UARA. Then the following great driver's won races in it the late Rich Vogler, Mack McCellan, Johhny Parsons, Jim Gates.
Front engine car with a ChevyII. It was a race car on rails, Bob and Danny had great mechanical skills to keep it winning races.

[Lowlife517]

The "Badger" could be the car you are talking about. My uncle owns the second badger that Lockhard built. It is the one with the pinto engine in it. Between my dad and my uncle, at one time they owned all three of Lockhard's badgers. All three were built by Lockhard with help from Lindblad. The first one had a Chevy II in it. The second a pinto and the wer both built in a "laydown" style. The motor was offset to the left like a super and the driver sat on the right side of the car. The third badger was built in an upright configuration. All three cars started out with independent front suspensions which is one of the other effects that made the car handle so well. Th upright had a solid front axle at one time to try and conform to the new rules the sanctioning bodies were making to try and outlaw them. Finally USAC suceeded when the changed the engine offset rule. It really makes you wonder what one of them could do today against the newer style tricked out pavement cars. Even considering the right rear tire only had about a nine in wide footprint to run on!

[zipidachimp]

not the badger. munchkin maybe, definitely Fedorcak

[moe]

hi guys, just joined. I've been trying to remember the name of the midget racer that was banned by usac towards the end of the 80's. google hasn't helped. saw one at irp but can't remember name. also, why was it banned?

[DocF]

The Original Munchkin was banned by USAC until several mods were done to it. It was built by Mike Fedorcak and was owned by him and Dick Alberts of Grand Rapids, MI. I believe that Tony Stewart currently owns the car.

Dick also had the radically offset car which had the head on the centerline (as required by rules and the bottom of the engine, the in and out and the drive shaft all hanging out the left side of the chassis. My old neighbor from Grand Rapids, George Jansons, was seriously injured in that car at Winchester. It got out of shape and he was bounced around so bad he ended up with major brain injuries.

In addition to his Badger, Lockard also owned the Mazda Rotary powered midget that was banned by the auto club.

Other cars of that vintage that were banned included Jerry Wall's rear engine V-4 Chevy and the Ken Brenn rear engine car which last I knew was in the hands of Johnny Coy, Sr.

Doc

[DocF]

Sorry, duplicate post

Doc

[zerohunger]

The rules makers effectively "banned" anything but the conventional front engine, rear drive car. Rear engine & radically offset cars were involved in midget racing many times over the years going back to the 1930s. I'm fairly certain the car the original poster was talking about was Mike Fedorcek's Munchkin. Tony Stewart ran one in the Rumble Series in recent years.
Rollie Linblad out on the East Coast built the radically offset Badger chassis; Bob Lockhart's Chevy II powered car is best remembered here in the Midwest but there were others that dominated out East.
My favorite midget of all time remains Bob Dretzkas #8 rear engine outboard that was very successful in Badger from 1971 thru 1978(?) Rumor has it Bob has reacquired the car; I hope to see [and hear] it run again. The sound from that megaphone was incredible! Muffler rules didn't help that motor.
Gregg Kishline has the rear engine VW powered car he ran at Joliet Stadium AND a radically offset monocoque tub "roadster" which never made it to the track before the rules were changed.

What a great history this sport has!

Chuck Schultz
Winfield, Illinois

PS: The very early [1980] Edmunds-VW coil car I am restoring raced against the Linblad Badger according to the previous owner [Harry Weed II].

[DocF]

I remember Richie Vogler driving Lockard's Badger at Hartford, MI years ago. They had a major tangle on the first lap of the feature. The front end was ripped out from under the Badger. This was a serious problem with independent suspended midgets, not just the Badgers. Richie, the Lockards and Don and Eleanor Vogler all descended on the car. They replaced the whole front end, steering rods, aligned the car and got it back out for the restart in less than 15 minutes.

I was impressed, but not surprised. Those folks all never panicked, never wasted any motion, and worked like a well-oiled team.

Eleanor once told me that she learned to really work on race cars when Don blew an engine and spun and wrecked the car in his own oil. While Don ironed out the chassis, Eleanor sat there with a Motor's Manual and rebuilt his engine. They were get it done people, for sure.

Doc

[moe]

hi guys, just joined. I've been trying to remember the name of the midget racer that was banned by usac towards the end of the 80's. google hasn't helped. saw one at irp but can't remember name. also, why was it banned?