Who is the greatest midget driver of all time?
As we celebrate midget racing’s 75th birthday on June 4, that’s an interesting question, although it will never be answered. But it’s fun to look back across the long list of great racers who made midget racing one of the most enduring and endearing forms of motorsports.
It’s difficult to place drivers from such a broad span of time on a ranked list, because racers from different eras never competed against each other. Plus, the sport has changed profoundly since the early years, when midget racing was the first automobile competition to reach into blue collar America, forever altering the course of all forms of racing in the United States.

We will never really know who, amid these wonderful, memorable 75 years, is the greatest ever. But we can endlessly debate and analyze, because doing so is an important part of sharing our love for the sport.

If you bring up the question of “the greatest” to any group of fans, you’ll quickly have a spirited conversation peppered with plenty of great names tossed out for consideration. If you reason it out long enough, there are a handful of drivers who would probably rise to the upper tiers of almost everybody’s list:
• Mel Kenyon, a bona fide superstar who won seven USAC national midget titles, across an amazing 21-year span.
• Sleepy Tripp, the California racer who wowed ’em both locally and on a national stage.
• Rich Vogler, the aggressive, talented man who was as exciting as anybody who ever strapped in, winning 95 USAC national events.
• Bob Tattersall, a master on dirt and one of the most entertaining characters in the entire history of motorsports.
• Bob Wente, who in his own low-key style starred throughout one of midget racing’s greatest eras, the 1960s and ’70s.
• Billy Wood, a sensational eight-time Badger midget champion who inspired a whole generation of racers along the way.
• Shorty Templeman, the first three-time national champion.
• Kevin Olson, a seven-time champion whose tremendous career is sometimes overshadowed by his wacky sense of humor.
And there are plenty more, particularly among racers of an earlier era who shined in midgets but quickly moved on to championship cars. Duane Carter, Tony Bettenhausen, Bill Vukovich and Johnnie Parsons come to mind.
Many modern racers might also have had the potential to be the greatest, but they cut short their midget career to pursue a career in stock car racing. Jeff Gordon was perhaps the most dazzling at Belleville; Tony Stewart was a two-time USAC midget champ.
We will never really know who, amid these wonderful, memorable 75 years, is the greatest ever. But we can endlessly debate and analyze, because doing so is an important part of sharing our love for the sport.
For my money, Mel Kenyon would be the man. His statistics outdistance everybody else; 111 USAC national wins is the most by any driver. Plus, the fact that he could win a national title in 1964 and in 1985 is impressive in itself; not many champions can remain competitive across such a great span of time.
But it’s about more than mere statistics. Kenyon devoted his entire career — really, his entire life — to midget racing. Yes, he had some good runs at Indianapolis at the pinnacle of his career, but he always came back to the little cars.
To this day, Kenyon and his brother Don remain completely devoted to the sport, building cars in their Lebanon, Ind., shop and promoting a couple of regional USAC series.
For a generation of racers and fans, Mel was “Mr. Midget.” Along the way, he touched thousands of people with both this faith and his dedication to the sport, and there has probably been no man who has raced against more midget competitors than Kenyon. That’s why, until somebody comes along to unseat him, Mel Kenyon gets my vote for the greatest ever.
Happy birthday to one of the great treasures of our motorsports world — midget racing — and may there be many more.