DUQUOIN, Ill. – Indoor racing has always had its place within the USAC racing scene.
In fact, racing under a roof is where it all began with Gene Hartley’s National Midget victory in 1956 at Memorial Coliseum in Fort Wayne, Ind.
As teams and drivers prepare USAC’s next indoor race on Saturday, March 7, at the Southern Illinois Center in DuQuoin, Ill., featuring the USAC NOS Energy Drink National Midgets, Rich Vogler stands head and shoulders above the rest with 10 victories at places ranging from Scope Arena in Norfolk, Va., to the Indiana State Fairgrounds Coliseum, the Hoosier/RCA Dome and the Memorial Coliseum, where he captured half of those ten wins.
Tyler Courtney, Justin Grant, Cannon McIntosh, Thomas Meseraull and Logan Seavey are among those in recent years who’ve scored an indoor triumph, all of which have come at the Southern Illinois Center’s sixth-mile dirt oval in recent years.
Indoor USAC Midget racing was heavily prevalent in the early years of USAC with three and four or more events being held each year on mostly concrete surfaces with tight confines that weren’t always conducive to side-by-side racing, but more of the beating and banging variety that required patience, and even more patience.
The first dirt indoor USAC race wasn’t held until the blockbuster doubleheader in 1969, the Astro Grand Prix, held at the world’s first multi-purpose, domed sports stadium, the Astrodome, in Houston, Texas. Gary Bettenhausen and Lee Kunzman captured victories in the event which continued with second and third editions during the 1970 and 1972 seasons.
The Memorial Coliseum was one of the most prevalent venues in all of USAC Midget racing and has held more indoor USAC events, by far, than any other track with 62 races between 1956 and 1989. That doesn’t even include the eight races at the newer Fort Wayne Coliseum Expo Center, which held a slew of events throughout the decade of the 2000s.
An array of interesting venues have provided the stage for USAC Midget racing, including NFL stadiums such as the Hoosier/RCA Dome (17 races), Astrodome (4), Seattle Kingdome (2) as well as several NBA arenas: International Amphitheatre in Chicago, Ill. (11), Cincinnati Gardens (10), Utah’s Salt Palace (2), two versions of ARCO Arena in Sacramento, Calif. (2) and once apiece at San Francisco, Calif.’s Cow Palace, Milwaukee, Wisconsin’s Mecca Arena and North Carolina’s Charlotte Coliseum.
USAC’s most recent USAC National Midget race held north of the border came in 1993 at the SkyDome, home of Major League Baseball’s Toronto Blue Jays. Freedom Hall in Louisville, Ky. is one of six venues to have hosted a USAC Midget race and an NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament Final Four along with the RCA/Hoosier Dome, Astrodome, Kingdome, Cow Palace and Charlotte Coliseum.