There is little doubt some stared at the results from two high-profile Memorial Day weekend races and did a doubletake.
The fact Massachusetts teenager Jake Trainor drove a midget to victory at Indianapolis Raceway Park was surprising but not shocking. Then, there was the matter of the prestigious Little 500. Could this kid have truly won the marquee event in only his second sprint car race?
That was a complete stunner. However, when one digs a bit deeper the puzzle pieces that led to the most glorious weekend in Trainor’s budding career were put in place years ago.
Trainor is a first-generation racer although his father Mike, a union pipefitter by trade, is a racing enthusiast. Father and son were at Connecticut’s famed Thompson Speedway when they saw a booth promoting Little T Speedway. When Mike Trainor asked his son if he would like to give quarter midget racing a whirl, the youngster readily agreed. Trainor got his start at age 6.
“My dad is full tilt,” Jake Trainor said with a laugh. “He is wide open all the time.”
For the next five years the Trainors focused on Little T, although they ventured to some national events where Jake competed against the likes of Carson Hocevar and Harrison Burton.
Midget racing was the next logical step and the Trainors made regular visits to consult with Bob and Matt Seymour at Seymour Performance Products. The Seymours’ shop was not far from the Trainor family home in Medway, Mass.
Because the Trainors are innately likable people there was a real effort to point them in the right direction. Everyone knew Jake was too young to race with NEMA, but all agreed it was time for the kid to move on. The elder Trainor purchased a midget through former racer Brad Noffsinger that Bob Seymour recollects as an old Spike chassis that had been campaigned by Tony Stewart.
Because of his age there was only one real option. Father and son headed south to race with the D2 midgets in USAC’s Eastern series. This required long drives to North Carolina, Virginia and beyond. It turns out the benefits accrued during this phase of his career were not restricted to competition.
“We did a lot of testing,” Jake Trainor said. “I really did thousands of laps.”
Bob Seymour added significant detail, “His dad would take him down to Waterford Speedbowl. They would go on a Thursday afternoon and get in 100 laps. Then, when he went to race with USAC they would allow him to run if he started at the back of the pack. His dad would drive down to North Carolina every weekend and rent the track the day before the races. That car had a 31-gallon tank, and he would fill it up and send Jake out. He would say, ‘OK, go out there and run until you are out of fuel.’ Mike didn’t know any better. He didn’t know it would take about 300 laps before it would run dry. He just said if you get tired just slow down but keep going.”
With this apprenticeship served, Trainor moved to NEMA Lites in 2018, and he won the Jim O’Brien Memorial at Waterford Speedbowl in July. One year later, he used three runner-up finishes to reach the third position in the final standings behind Ryan Locke and Randy Cabral. All suffered through a 2020 season with the shutdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but the final race of that difficult year ultimately proved to be the most important date in Trainor’s career.
As part of their overall operation, which includes Seymour Performance Products and Matt Seymour Racing, Wade Brown of Brown and Miller Racing Solutions housed three cars at the Seymour compound. The Seymours could lease the cars and then compensate the owners.
Yet, by the end of the season, one car had yet to turn a wheel and there was some pressure to sell it. On a whim, Bob Seymour put Jake Trainor in the seat and he nearly lapped the field.
This began a new chapter in Trainor’s life. In 2021 and ’22, he teamed with Matt Seymour and waxed the field in NEMA Lites, claiming the championship both years. As fun as it was to dominate, the most important aspect of this phase of Trainor’s career was how it helped him develop as a racer. Since NEMA uses a handicap system, wins and podium finishes were not easy.
“Every week I would start 12th or something like that and I would be passing cars every race,” Trainor explained. “I just had to fight through the field and it made me who I am as a racer.”