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Stories on NEMA Racers from
Trackside Magazine
Celebrating its 50th birthday, the
Northeastern Midget Association has never been healthier. |
Celebrating its 50th birthday, the
Northeastern Midget Association has never been healthier. After 49 years of making Midget
history, the club opened the 2002 season with something altogether new - Thompson
Icebreaker winner Ryan Dolan, 16, became the youngest winner in its history.
NEMA ended the 2001 season with 10 winners - the most since 1994 (when there were 11).
Dolan was the eighth new winner in the past four seasons.
Dolan stopped watches at 18.2 at Thompson and a week later eventual winner Peter
Pernesiglio was turning 13.2 laps at Waterford Speedbowl. Not only has NEMA never been
healthier, it has never been faster.
Boasting an impressive mix of youngsters and rookies, NEMA is excited about its future. A
look at the names attached to its annual awards -Johnny Thomson, Wen Kelley, Joe Csiki,
Ray Roberts, Ronnie Evans, Len Thrall - is testimony to the reverence for the past.
NEMA was conceived in the Thompson Speedway clubhouse in the spring of 1953. It was not
exactly a golden age for the Midgets and the founders were trying to hold on more than
make history. Offenhausers, the costly powerplant many blamed for the sport's demise, were
banned.
The club was born on May 30, 1953, sharing the bill with the established ARDC at Seekonk
Speedway. An ARDC regular - Fred Meeker, in the Kernan Ford, won the NEMA feature and then
went back out and trimmed the ARDC Offies as well. The next afternoon, Bill Eldridge was
the winner at the New London-Waterford Speedbowl. Eldridge, the 1953 champion, was NEMA's
first "superstar."
The 1950s were not exactly the best of times for Midgets and officials like presidents
Milt Dentch (1953), Al Pillion (1954) and Lennie Poe (1955-62) and secretary/treasurer Wen
Kelley led NEMA through an era when, according to one history, "purses totaling less
than $300 with $27 paid to the feature winner were quite common."
The Speedbowl, incidentally, is the only track on both the 1953 and the 2002 NEMA
schedules. NEMA has actually outlived most of the tracks it has raced on.
Since that holiday weekend in 1953, there have been over 100 different winners in just
over 800 NEMA features. Four of the top-seven in career wins - No. 1 Drew Fornoro (79),
No. 3 Nokie Fornoro (38), No. 4. Russ Stoehr (37) and No. 7 Bobby Seymour (22) are still
active.
Winning a NEMA feature puts you in some selective company. The list includes No. 2 Dave
Humphrey (72), No. 5 Johnny Mann (28), No. 6 Eldridge (27). Between Chuck Arnold to Butch
Yuris you'll find all the magic names and then some.
A revolutionary group from the beginning, NEMA has been blessed with a series of pace
setters. A three-time driving champion, Joe Csiki's greatest contribution came as a
mechanic and designer. His work with the Falcon put NEMA on the ground floor in the
development of "stock block" racing engines.
In 1963 Csiki, in the Csiki-built, Art Margison-owned #5, won 11 of 17 NEMA shows. It
remains the most dominating performance in NEMA history and pretty much put to bed the
Offenhauser threat.
A three-time owner champion, John McCarthy's work with the Chevy II engine carried the
"stock block" tradition forward. An executive in corporate America, McCarthy's
greatest contribution, however, was convincing everybody the Midgets and Modifieds could
co-exist on the same racing card. NEMA's fourth president, he clearly brought new
visibility to Midget racing.
Under McCarthy's reign, Modified stars Geoff Bodine, Gene Bergin, Ed Flemke and Bugs
Stevens all drove Midgets with varying success. Bergin drove a Scrivani car to victory at
Thompson in '69, the first of his two NEMA wins. Stevens set fast in the Fusco car
Thompson in 1975.
On June 5, 1971 at Stafford Springs, Jerry Wall scored the first-ever feature win for a
rear-engine powered Midget. Wall's #5 "yellowjacket" was an engineering marvel,
powered by a Chevy V8 cut in half. It was the first of eight wins Wall had that year
including a dominating performance in the 100-lapper at Seekonk and the season finale at
Thompson.
Wall, who had five more wins in '72, kicked into motion another change that led to the
Badger, a sleek, lay-down style racer engineered and built by Rollie Lindblad, one of the
premier fabricators in New England racing history. McCarthy, with driver Dave Humphrey,
was one of the first to campaign a Badger.
In the hands of drivers like Humphrey, Johnny Mann and Armond Holley, the Badger was a
thing to behold. There was an added benefit as well - a "new verses old" war
between the Badgers and "uprights" lit up the 1970s and '80s. The war ended with
the outlawing of the Badgers in the late 1980s.
Three-time champ Lee Smith (21 career wins) was the darling of the upright gang. Smith's
second championship came in 1980 against some established stars including Butch Walsh,
Hank Rogers Jr., Bobby White and Dave Humphrey.
Second-generation competitors Butch Yuris and Johnny Evans were finding success.
Young Nokie Fornoro teamed up with car owner Mike Scrivani to record three wins. Finishing
10th in the owner standings was Gene Angelillo.
Starting in early July, the Fornoro/Scrivani combination won 10 of 11 shows en route to a
championship for Nokie. The only break in the streak came at Star Speedway and the winner
was Nokie's brother Drew in his third show for Angelillo. Drew and Angelillo have gone on
to become NEMA's all-time win leaders, doing it with a half dozen different kinds of
motors.
Trusted and experienced hands (Dick Monahan, Chuck Daniel, Butch Walsh, Lee Smith) led
NEMA into the mid 1980s.
The 1980s were a transition period for NEMA - the younger Evans, Mann, Mike Favulli, Mike
and Bobby Seymour, Russ and Greg Stoehr (joining father Paul), Jeff Horn and Howie Bumpus
showed up. All have contributed into the new millennium.
Favulli became president in 1986 and served through 1993. Bobby Seymour and Dick
Bien had single year terms before present leader Angelillo took over in 1996.
Joey Coy, still another second-generation driver, Joey Payne Jr, Babe Shaw, Keith Botelho,
Jim Miller, Mark Buonomo and Randy Cabral became forces in the 1990s.
Cabral wins in a 25-year old car engineer by his dad Glen - proof positive that
NEMA rewards the individual effort.
The great rookie class of 2001 - Dolan, Kyle Carpenter, Adam Cantor, Gary Sherman - along
with present rookies Tim Heath and Ben Seitz, helps send NEMA into the new century. |
Used with permission from
Trackside Magazine
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