Can-Am Midgets are ready for Year No. 56
Since 1965, those Three-Quarter Midgets have raced and entertained without a break, even in 2020
Due to COVID-19, the Can-Am Midgets didn’t race a full season last year, but when the teams got to Flamboro Speedway for their first event in July 2020, Can-Am official Al Banyard went to John Casale and thanked the track owner.
“Why are you thanking me?” Casale asked Banyard.
“Because, now we have been able to race every year since we started the club in 1965,” replied Banyard.
Hopefully, this year the Three Quarter Midgets (as they are officially known) will take to the ovals of southern Ontario more often. The Can-Am 18-race schedule has been released and starts at Flamboro April 17 for the first of five shows at the Millgrove oval. After trips to Sunset, Sauble, and other tracks, the Midgets finish back at Flamboro Sept. 25.
The Midgets have come a long way since the club’s first efforts 56 years ago when drivers from Ontario and New York state would compete on Banyard’s property on a homebuilt track near Mount Hope.
“That didn’t work out so well,” said Banyard who raced in the beginning and has been a part of Can-Am since then.
“So, we started racing in Beamsville at Johnny’s Park, but our American drivers had problems getting across the border. We then went to a race in Rochester and hooked up with Harry Macy.”
Macy was a New Yorker who not only raced the small cars but secured races at Lancaster (near Buffalo) and the indoor events at the Niagara Falls Convention Center. He became a mainstay with the Midgets and was involved until his death in 2013.
Banyard mentioned that Cayuga Speedway owner Bob Slack gave the Midgets a place to race when he built a small oval inside the regular 5/8ths mile track in 1968.
“It evolved from there,” he said. “And we’ve been at it since then.”
Midget racing was very popular after the Second World War, and the Buffalo area was a hotbed for the speedy cars which were a little larger and more powerful than the TQ Midgets. They could race just about anywhere, including indoor arenas such as Hamilton’s Forum. Their popularity died off somewhat with the stock car movement in the mid and late 1950s.
During its half-century plus of racing, the Can-Am Midgets have raced at more than 30 venues including tracks as far away as Quebec, PEI, Indiana, and Florida from their southern Ontario-western New York roots. The small car engines (think Hillman, Morris, Crosley) in the early cars have given way to 750-cc Kawasaki and Suzuki motorcycle engines for power plants and with a maximum weight of about 900 pounds and a wheelbase of 66 inches, today’s TQ Midget has a terrific power-to-weight ratio.
For this season, it is expected 15 to 20 teams will compete. Earlier this week, the Can-Am Midgets acquired series sponsorship from Quick Wick, an Ontario-based fire starter firm.