The Micro Midgets

Ward Ellsworth Swarthout is a stocky little (5 ft. 6 in., 135 Ibs.) motor bug. As a peacetime Army pilot in the '20s, he flew airplanes for a while, but gave them up as "too dangerous." Swarthout found a substitute in something closer to the ground by turning auto racer in big (270 cu. in. cylinder displacement), standard racing cars, then gave them up for earth-hugging midget (up to 145 cu. in.) racing. Last week, at Brawley, Calif., 50-year-old Ward Swarthout, now a grandfather, was happily racing just a couple of inches off the ground in the tiniest of all racers: micro midgets.

The micros are the latest fad in auto racing, an ever-growing sport that drew an estimated 23 million spectators last year to all types of competition. Four years ago, one of the first micros, a Yuma, Ariz, job, caught the eye of old Racer Swarthout, who runs his own auto-repair shop at El Centro, Calif. Swarthout promptly built the first one in the Imperial Valley. Since then, micro-midget racing has spread as far east as Pennsylvania. Reason for the popularity of the micros: they can be built for as little as $300.*

Limits to Leeway. California's Imperial Valley Micro-Midget Association, like others, has imposed stringent limits on size and engine displacement for the racers. The buglike cars must be no longer than 5 ft., no higher than 34 in., must have a wheel spread of no more than 42 in. Valve-in-head engines may have a maximum of 18 cu. in. of total cylinder displacement; overhead valve engines are limited to 13 1/2 cu. in.

With that kind of leeway, micro-midget fans have scrounged engines from a wild assortment of places: lawnmower motors, outboards, motor scooters, units from generating and refrigerator plants, and even bilge-pump engines salvaged from Navy landing craft. Average weight of car and engine: 250 Ibs.

"For the Laughs." At the Brawley races last week, racketing and roaring around the one-eighth-mile track, the little micros hit it up as high as 60 m.p.h. on the straightaways (record for the track: 11.8 sec.). Remarked one micro-midgeter: "When you're that close to the ground, 60 miles an hour is a hell of a lot faster than 120 in a standard-size car." Ward Swarthout's micro had a field day, beginning with two seconds and two firsts in the day's early events.

In the 30-lap, twelve-car main event, two micros smashed up on a turn, three others spun out, another broke a steering-column pin, climbed a bank and hit a fence; but as usual no one was hurt--in fact, in four years of micro racing, the most serious injury any driver has suffered is a broken elbow. Swarthout, who races "strictly for the laughs," since there is no prize money for micro addicts, buzzed home first in the main race. Afterward, the hat was passed, and the drivers collected $276.72 for the March of Dimes. Grinned Top-Winner Swarthout: "It was a real nice afternoon--for a grandfather."

* Price for an Offenhauser-powered midget: $5,500-$7,000; for a road-racing Ferrari: $12,000 to $14,000.

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