The Little Cars Raced at Oakley, Kansas for a Year or Two in the Early 1950s

 

 

          Micro-midgets raced a few times on a temporary 1/8 mile racetrack at Sportsman Park at Oakley, Kansas in the early 1950s.  A larger 1/6 mile temporary racetrack was constructed when the competitors graduated to running ¾ midgets.  These small cars only raced at Oakley for a couple of years all together.  Some of those who competed in these races were:

 

Driver:

From:

Andy Castle

 

Wayne Eckhardt

 

Azel Fondoble1

Ogallah, Kansas

Leonard Jamison

Oakley, Kansas

Millard Kyte

Oberlin, Kansas

Tony Malsom

Collyer, Kansas

Cecil “Junior” Maupin

Dodge City, Kansas

Joe Nedbalek3

Collyer, Kansas

Kermit Nelson4

Oberlin, Kansas

P. W. “Bus” Page

 

George Parsons5

Collyer, Kansas

Bill Surprise

WaKeeney, Kansas

Bill Walters

Oberlin, Kansas

 

 

 

 

This white ¾ midget, trimmed in red with red lettering, was owned by Cecil Maupin, Sr. 2 and driven at Oakley in the early 1950s by Cecil “Junior” Maupin.  The Maupins were from Dodge City, Kansas.  The car had been built during the winter of 1948 / 1949 by Chet Wilson6 and Duke Westerhaus7 both of Wichita, Kansas.  It had a Westerhaus-fabricated aluminum body with a Chicago front axle.  It was powered by an Indian Warrior Vertical Twin motorcycle engine bored out to 30.5 cubic inches.  The car weighed a total of 350 pounds and had been driven on the full sized Ford "B" midget series in Kansas and Oklahoma by Don Brown, Jud Larson, Charlie Lutkie, Cotton Musick, and Duke Westerhaus before it was purchased by Maupin.  The photo below shows Cecil “Junior” Maupin seated in this same car but with a later paint job than in the photo above.  Click your mouse on the photo above to see another photograph of this car from the Chet Wilson6 collection showing Wilson seated in the cockpit – Photographs above and below from the Maupin collection

 

 

 

 

 

 

1Azel Brice Fondoble  (1928-1981)

 

2Cecil Maupin, Sr.  (1907-1996)

 

3Joseph J. “Joe” Nedbalek  (1914-1989)

 

4Kermet E. Nelson  (1933-1992)

 

5George Parsons  (1910-1999)

 

6Chester Hugh “Chet” Wilson (1917-1977)

 

7Quentin Lambert “Duke” Westerhaus (1919-2003)

 

 

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