There are few things that can provoke a more intense debate than the overall state of midget racing.
Anyone who has followed these dialogues can recite the primary topics that are sure to be covered. As in all such matters one can find a kernel of truth in these monologues, but it is also not unusual to discover that those with the strongest opinions may have selective memory.
However, there was a time when a group of midget racers from across the country assembled in the fall for two weeks of intense racing and non-stop fun, and it seems increasingly doubtful that what unfolded during the five-year run of the Southwest Independent Midget Series can ever be replicated.
To recap this heady time, let’s begin with the basic rule package that governed the competition. With complete transparency official series publications stated, “The SWIMS series features outlaw-style, open-competition racing with a minimum of rules. The competitors are allowed any type of engine with no cubic inch limits, and turbochargers and superchargers are legal. All cars are required to use methanol as fuel, with some teams adding a little nitro or “pop” to seek additional horsepower. While all cars must use 13-inch (maximum) wheels, there are no restrictions on tires. No wings or rear-engine cars are allowed.”
There it was. It was the wild, wild Southwest.
“No one felt a lot of pressure. Nobody was uptight and no egos got in the way,” said Johnny Parsons, the 1982 SWIMS champion. “All the people were great. There were no instigators. We had a lot of fun.”
Denver’s Mitch Miller spearheaded the SWIMS series. He was also the driving force behind the Belleville (Kan.) Midget Nationals and deserves more of the limelight than he generally receives. Miller was born in Denver in 1936 and by the end of World War II he was sneaking into the famed Lakeside Speedway to catch the midgets in action.
By 1965, he was managing public relations for the Rocky Mountain Midget Racing Ass’n. Over the course of his career, he would perform many roles for RMMRA, and eventually he was the club’s president for a decade.
One of Miller’s most trusted friends was Bill Hill, who grew up in Kansas City and had served in myriad roles in motorsports. Putting their agile minds together in 1980, Miller and Hill organized a series of five races in October known as the Texas Fall Nationals. It led to the creation of the SWIMS series.
One driver who made the early trip to Texas was Parsons. It took little prompting for Parsons to reunite with Rusty Kunz, who turned the wrenches on a car he fielded along with Howard Lehmann.
“I had never been to Devil’s Bowl Speedway,” Parsons said. “But I had heard a lot about it. I could see how coming off of turn four guys could get in trouble. I was in this low front bar Edmunds with a Volkswagen engine. It was dialed in. I felt like those guys in the Joie Chitwood Thrill Show who drove on two wheels. I got out front and Kenny Schrader was in second but couldn’t catch me.”
This quick tour, which included stops at Buffalo Park in Carrolton and Houston’s Big H Speedway, convinced Miller and Hill that an expanded tour had a chance to work.
Strategically establishing a slate of races in late September and early October, SWIMS was launched after most clubs had put a bow on the 1981 season. Needing additional help to stage these events, Miller called upon some old friends.
Hill was the announcer and Miller convinced his lifelong friend Gene Pastor to serve as chief starter. Pastor enjoyed a 16-year career as a driver with numerous wins along the way. Anxious to remain involved, Pastor served as a RMMRA official and first began working in the flag stand at the Belleville Midget Nationals.
One additional puzzle piece was Charlie Gottschalck, a former midget racer who worked with RMMRA and the Belleville Nationals. Like all the key officials, his affable nature helped this mini-series thrive.
“We started scheduling as soon as our season was over,” Pastor recalled. “Rocky Mountain was over by early to mid-September so then we could take off and invite everyone to come along with us until the weather ran us off.
“Mitch and I followed what USAC was doing and at one point they didn’t go down to Texas and the Southwest a lot,” Pastor continued. “We decided to see if we could get down there. Because Mitch was a neat guy everybody liked him, so we got some good races. We also charged a flat fee, and we could pay our way, and the promoters liked that. If anything, Mitch was too nice.”
With all the pieces in place, Kansas City-area racer Gene Gennetten kicked things off by winning the opening round in Little Rock, Ark. Then, California driver Jeff Heywood got hot. Heywood began racing quarter midgets at age 4 and progressed to sprint cars and scored midget wins with the United States Racing Club.
“When I went back to Indy, Ralph and Tracy Potter took me in and let me work out of their shop,” he recalled. “I would wad something up and Tracy taught me how to weld. Then Ralph taught me how to build engines.”
Heywood established his own business known as Coast Fabrications, but in his formative years he found work with Bill Stroppe’s off-road program and also with Grant King in Indiana. In 1981, he was working under legendary engineer Phil Remmington at Dan Gurney’s All American Racers.
Heywood began racing an ex-Dempsey Wilson Kurtis chassis powered by a Chevy II engine with a V-8 head in USRC action for Jerry Winnick. Yet, Roy Cook Jr. and owner Bobby White had been the kingpins of the series, so when White offered Heywood a ride it was too good to pass up.
When word of the SWIMS tour reached California, White was interested and Remmington granted Heywood time away to race.
With Don Cumberworth set to assist, Heywood instantly made his mark. He scored three straight wins at Devil’s Bowl, Big H and Speedway 90 in Beaumont, Texas.
“Those were good races and Mitch was a good guy,” Heywood remembered. “You had Denver guys, USAC guys, and guys like Gene Gennetten from Missouri, so there were lots of fast drivers there.”
How tough was it? When Heywood won int Houston, an all-star cast, including Johnny Parsons, Kevin Olson, Stan Fox and Sleepy Tripp, chased him to the stripe.
While work forced Heywood back home, others continued to have fun. Rusty Kunz has nothing but fond memories of the tour.
“Keith (Kunz) and I went hunting in Missouri and then we took Parsons on that tour and went racing for two weeks,” he recalled. “We had a van and an open trailer. I think back now, and that three-week period was just a blast.”
In the end, Gennetten won four times on the way to the SWIMS title with Tulsa winner Gary Koster landing in the runner-up spot.
Given the success of the inaugural effort many were anxious to sign on for the second year of the tour. In some ways the championship was decided following a conversation during NHRA’s U.S. Nationals at Indianapolis Raceway Park.
Parsons spied drag racer Richard Tharp at the famed event and the two struck up a conversation. Tharp remembered Parsons’ performance at Devil’s Bowl the previous year and offered him a ride in a car he would enter with Smiley Sitton. Schrader was set to be his teammate.
When Parsons made it to Texas, he saw two midgets resting in the shop. One was an Edmunds, the other was a new Stanton. While Parsons lobbied for the Stanton, Tharp and Sitton had seen him make an Edmunds sing. It turns out the secret to his future success may have had little to do with the chassis.
“Tharp was a tuner,” Parsons said, “and he had all that experience with fuel management. He had so many valves. We had a high speed, low speed and a mid-range. That was one fast Volkswagen. Nobody I knew had three bypasses on fuel. It just kept going and it just kept feeding fuel when you went down the straightaway. Even though the tracks weren’t that big, that thing was a monster for a VW.”
Parson did his part and secured the title by winning three rounds, including the final dates in Wichita Falls, Texas, and at Heart O’ Texas at Waco. The racing was important, but this series lives in the memory of many for what happened off the track. Take the final night of the 1982 swing.
“We were at Heart O’ Texas and I saw this little magic shop and I got this gum that colored your teeth green,” Parsons said. “We were getting ready for the drivers’ meeting, and I was talking to Mitch, so I opened this pack of gum and offered him a piece. He grabbed it just before the meeting and I told everybody to look at his teeth. Everybody starts grinning and laughing and he finally said, ‘Why is everyone looking at me?’ That’s the kind of fun we had.”
Later that night after Parsons had claimed the championship, a group stopped at a truck stop for a bite to eat and deemed it the SWIMS series banquet.
In 1983, Parsons won the Belleville Nationals in the potent Ron Weeks/Larry Howard Cosworth and carried that momentum into the SWIMS tour. He won three of the first four races, while Rick Bussell went back-to-back at Louisiana’s Boothill Speedway and Cowtown Speedway in Kennedale, Texas.
With the final three dates lost to rain, Arizona’s Billy Shuman used a win in Wichita, Kan., and consistent finishes throughout the tour to carry Tony Passerrelli’s car to the title.
While fun was still the name of the game, apparently the on-track activity in 1983 was a bit too rambunctious for Miller, Pastor and Gottschalck. They decided it was time to lay down the law.
Predictably their resolve was tested at the 1984 opener in Oklahoma City. The combatants were second-generation driver Danny Frye Jr. and Arizona’s Mark Passerrelli. Forty years later both men remember the incident.
Frye followed in the footsteps of his father and captured the 1974 St. Louis Auto Racing Ass’n title. He was one of the stars in the early days of the Chili Bowl Nationals.
Passerrelli had spent plenty of time at fast joints like Manzanita Speedway and topped the Mighty Midgets of Arizona points for the first time in 1982. Two summers later, he garnered even more attention when he won the Belleville Midget Nationals.
The SWIMS series opened in Oklahoma City and fireworks were in the offing. Picking up the tale Frye said, “I took the lead about five or six laps into the race and I motioned my owner Jack Schroeder that we had it won. Then, I went into turn three and Passerrelli drove right over my hood. I was pissed, but Mitch Miller told everyone in the drivers’ meeting that if you start rough driving you are going to get sent back, so they gave me the race. Mitch kept his word.”
Passerrelli doesn’t deny that it got physical.
“Danny Frye and I got into a wheel-banging contest on the half mile,” he said. “I won the race, but Mitch docked me one position and I lost the championship by two points. We were really going at it. We were going to kill each other. Shane Carson came up to me later and said you guys are mental. But we calmed down. Later on, his car owner came over and said, ‘Don’t beat up Danny, let’s have a cold beer.’”
Frye topped the next round in Little Rock, but eventually ran out of vacation time. It was still one of the most enjoyable trips in his career.
“We rained out in Rogers, Ark., and all the guys got together, and we had a big card game. It was fun. I never heard anyone say a bad word about Mitch. I just don’t think today’s racers get together like we did.”
While Gennetten edged Passerrelli in the 1984 championship, Passerrelli shrugged it off. He was the Arizona king again in 1985 and backed it up with the final SWIMS series championship.
To this day he has the trophy and the watch that went with the title. He considers it a signature accomplishment in light of the quality of the competition.
Yet, more than most of his peers, he isn’t afraid to discuss the extracurricular activities that made the tour legendary.
“I can tell you all sorts of stories about the SWIMS series,” he said with a laugh. “I started in the second season and ran to the end. It got better and better. The car count and the caliber of drivers kept going up. We had so much fun with that deal.”
It is at this point that the stories began to flow.
“We were in Waco Texas, and there was a little chaos at the hotel. Maybe we were a little drunk,” Passerrelli said. “The police were called, and two woman officers were there. That’s when Kevin Olson locked himself in the police car. He’s on the PA system telling everyone to calm down and he’s turning on the lights and siren. The cops are trying to get him to open the doors, and they are pissed. It took Mitch and a couple of guys to calm them down. Mitch told them he didn’t mean any harm, and that he was a little touched in the head.”
Then there was the matter of the hotel Olympics. It was a contest that involved fun and a little gambling. The drivers had been treated to a party in a bar in Rogers, Ark., and it spilled over to the hotel.
“We decided to have a little contest,” Passerrelli recalled. “You started outside and you ran into your room and saw how high your footprints could go near the ceiling. Kenny Schrader was leading, but Billy Shuman had played this game when he was back in Indianapolis. He cheated because he put oil on his shoes, and it made his footprint look longer than it really was.
“So, he beat Schrader, and this big guy named Howard who was about 6-foot-7 or 6-foot-8 takes off and his foot goes right through the wall. The lady in the next room is screaming because she doesn’t know what the hell is going on, and then the owners come in with their hair all messed up and start yelling at us about ruining their hotel. There were footprints all over the wall.”
For those who were there, the tales are endless. When you review the cast of characters on hand you understand that what happened at the track was only a fraction of the story. It was a product of a different time.
Parsons cracked the starting grid at Indianapolis but for most who joined the SWIMS tour, midget and sprint car racing was a destination, not a way station. Most worked for a living and never gave much thought to making racing their full-time career.
It is far too easy to turn such reminiscences into a tiring story about the good old days. That said, there was a certain innocence to it all that still has a strong appeal.
Summing it up, Passerrelli noted, “That was when midget racing was great. Everybody ran hard, and we partied hard, but the main thing was the camaraderie. We all traveled down the road together and it was amazing.”
Sometimes we don’t know what we had until it is gone. SWIMS was a great series, and one that was not overripe with rules. Mitch Miller, Bill Hill and Charlie Gottschalck are gone. They and Gene Pastor all found homes in racing Halls of Fame.
We have also lost Hall of Fame drivers Gene Gennetten, Billy Shuman, Kevin Olson, Stan Fox and Kevin Doty. It is why when you look back you understand that for a few glorious weeks in the fall, fans were treated to a show that featured figures we now consider giants of midget racing.