The Yanks

 Bob "two gun" Tattersall ("The Streator Streak") ("Tatts")

Robert George Tattersall (Tatts) was born in July 1924 and two months after graduating from school he joined the army. After basic training, he joined the 82nd Airborne Division and during World War II saw service in Normandy, northern France, the Ardennes, the Rhineland and central Europe. He was wounded several times and was a prisoner of war for a very short time before the war ended. He was discharged in 1945 after being awarded the Bronze Star, Silver Star, Purple Heart and Presidential Citation. Bob began driving trucks in Indiana for a living and also began racing stock cars. He first raced a midget in 1950 in South Bend, Indiana Speedway. He won the UARA Midget Championship in 1957 and 58 and also the NASCAR Midget Championship in 1958. He first raced in Australia 1958-59 season at Rowley Park driving a Kym Bonython-owned V8-60 (the ex-Ross Goonan #4 re-numbered #57). He debuted on the USAC midget trail in 1960 and for the ensuing 11 years he never finished lower than eighth in the midget standings. Bob finished fourth in 1962, 66 and 67, third in 68 and second in 65. In 1969 he drove for Jack Stroud and took out 11 feature races, was second on nine occasions and finally won the USAC Midget Championship. Bob recorded 63 USAC midget feature wins and ranks fourth on USAC's all-time midget feature winners. He was inducted into the National Midget Auto Racing Hall of Fame in 1984 and into the USAC Hall of Fame in 2016. Bob drove sprintcars and silver crown cars sporadically throughout his career but concentrated on midgets and favoured dirt over asphalt surfaces.

He made 12 consecutive visits to Australia (often stopping in NZ first) racing a variety of offenhauser-powered midgets. He is considered a legend in NZ and Australian speedway and was by far the most popular and well-known import to appear in Australasia. Bob had a flamboyant personality on and off the track. In both NZ and Australia he would do demonstration warm-up laps prior to racing. In Auckland it was on the concrete cycle track that surrounded Western Springs speedway and he'd have the tail of the offy sideways very close to the fence. In Australia it was high up in the dirt with the tail of the car almost touching the safety fence. Bob was an old-school charger – hard driving with a hard living, hard drinking, off-track lifestyle and he was happy to tell people that he was a great driver. Despite his all-out wheel twisting, his innate skill meant he rarely got into trouble during a race; he was a hard, but not rough, driver. Barry B pitted himself against Tatts whenever he could. The two were not close off-track but they certainly had some close encounters on-track! Bob would certainly have beaten Barry B many more times than Barry beat him.

Bob passed his drivers test at Indianapolis Motor Speedway in 1966. In 1967 he went to Indy looking for a drive but instead ended up in hospital having surgery to remove a cancerous tumour from one of his kidneys. Cancer returned in 1970 and in October, 1971 Bob died from a brain tumour in his home town of Streator, Illinois. His last competitive drive was in early 1971 in Sydney where he drove the second Mackay offy. He was a very sick man - still competitive but nowhere near the brilliant driver of the past.

 "Miraculous" Mel Kenyon

Mel began his racing career in 1954 driving a 1937 Chevy Coupe. He raced modified stocks in 1955 and in 1958 he began his career in midgets. He won the NASCAR Florida midget series in 1962, finished second in the USAC championship in 1963 and won the championship in 1964. Kenyon began his Indy car career in the old front-engined roadster era in 1965 and at Langhorne Speedway, Pennsylvania (June 1965) his engine blew and the car hit the wall knocking him unconscious. Jim Hurtubise and Ralph Ligouri ran into Mel's car and the fuel tank ruptured and ignited. Fellow driver, Joe Leonard, waded into the sheets of flames and with the help of Charlie Musselman (who climbed the safety fence), pulled Mel out of the car. Mel suffered burns to 40% of his body and the fingers on his left hand were very severely burnt. He spent many months in a hospital burns unit and underwent multiple operations including amputation of the fingers of his left hand. During this period, Mel became a born-again Christian and his faith has been a central part of his life ever since.

Mel, brother Don, and father Everett started 3-K Racing and designed a special leather glove, with a rubber socket sown into the palm, for Mel's left hand. He hooked this onto a specially made pin screwed to the steering wheel of his cars. Mel went on to race successfully in the rear-engined era of Indy cars finishing fifth in 1966, fourth in 1969 and 1973 and third in 1968 at the brick yard in a car sponsored by his home town (the City of Lebanon Special). Over the 60s, 70s and 80s his record in midget cars is peerless. He was seven times USAC Champion (1964, 1967, 1968, 1974, 1977, 1981 and 1985), eight times runner-up and had 111 feature wins, 131 seconds and 107 thirds in National USAC midget races. Mel stopped racing on the National USAC trail after his wife, Marieanne, became comatose after suffering major head injuries in a bicycle accident. He did, however, win the Midwest-based NAMARS midget championship in 1995, 1996 and 1997 while in his sixties. Mel retired from racing at the age of 76; his last race was a Ft Wayne Coliseum. Mel was inducted into the National Midget Auto Racing Hall of Fame in 1984.

Mel was always highly respected by his fellow competitors, including Barry B. His clean driving style and friendly off track demeanour made him hard to dislike. The fact that he was extremely fast and won the USAC Championship seven times commanded respect in itself. Barry didn't mind banging wheels with Mel (or anyone else!) even though Mel was not of a mind to return the favour! Indeed, Barry got on well with Mel and he, his wife and children, visited Mel and his wife at their home in Lebanon during Barry's racing sojourns to the USA. Mel is simply the best midget driver there has ever been.

 Mike McGreevy ("Dyna-Mike") ("Iron-Mike")

Mike McGreevy was born in 1929 and stands just 5 feet 1 inch tall. This diminutive man began his racing career on the Bay Area ovals in the late 1940's on tracks such as Oakland Stadium and Belmont Speedway. He won the Bay Cities Racing Association (BCRA) Midget title in 1958, 1960 and 1962 and the BCRA indoor midget crown in 1965. In the early 60's he headed east to race on the USAC midget circuit while still racing in the Bay area during the winter. He won this first USAC feature in 1963 and finished fourth in the Midget Championship in 1964. In 1965 he began the USAC season driving for Jack London but in June Mel Kenyon had his near-fatal crash in an Indy roadster at Langhorne. Mike drove the remainder of the season in the Kenyon brothers midget and won the 1965 USAC Championship. In 1966, Mel was back racing and Mike drove for Dick and Owen Kincaid in the Kincaid Barber Shop Offenhauser and won the Championship again. He also finished second in the USAC Championship in 1967 and 1988 and fourth in 1969. Mike drove for the Kincaid brothers again in 1967 and for Howard Linne in 1968. During 1969 he drove for Ed Lark, an Indiana businessman with a successful equipment company. During that year, Lark suffered a fatal heart attack and Mike continued to drive for Ed's widow before retiring from competition. Mike helped Ed's widow with the car and the business and eventually she became Mrs McGreevy. They later retired to Florida to raise horses. During the 60's Mike yearned to race Championship cars and did qualify for two races. However, his attempts to qualify for the Indianapolis 500 were unsuccessful. Mike was a great ambassador for the sport who always had time for the fans and often made himself accessible to the kids. He was inducted into the National Midget Auto Racing Hall of Fame in 1987 and the BCRA Hall of Fame in 1991.

Mike McGreevy raced in Australia and New Zealand during the 1966-67 season as the current USAC Midget Champion. Mike was undoubtedly one of the best drivers to race in Australasia and he impressed with his smooth driving style. However, starting from the back of the field (in handicap racing), he struggled to stay with his travelling partner, Bob Tattersall and local stars such as Barry Butterworth or Johnny Stewart as they cut their way through the pack. As Bob Tattersall later observed, we never really saw the best of Mike McGreevy down-under. Mike enjoyed his down-under sojourn with his ever-partying friend Bob Tattersall and looked back on those days with fondness. Mike died in Colorado in his early 90s in January 2018.

 Garry Patterson ("The Preacher") ("The Great GP")("The Hostile Hippy")

Garry Patterson was born in 1936 in California but was brought up in Oregon. After a stint in the army he drifted a while and during this time he was involved in a bar fight which resulted in him being jailed for two years for assault. After his release he moved to Stockton, California, took a job as a motor mechanic and in 1961 began racing at Stockton Speedway. By 1963 he was racing sprintcars at West Capital Raceway in Sacramento and from then on considered Sacramento his home town. In 1966 he won the West Capital Raceway Supermodified Championship. It was during the 60s that Garry received his mail-order divinity degree (for no serious purpose) resulting in him getting the nickname "the preacher". Garry raced mainly on the west coast of California throughout the 60s and 70s picking up as many meetings as he could. He concentrated on sprintcar racing and was successful, winning a string of heats and features each year. In 1977 he was voted Northern California Oval Track Driver of the Year by the Motor Sports Press Association for his sprintcar and midget successes. Garry was quite a character and is remembered for his colourful and often unpredictable antics, his long hair, his leather hat, "outlaw" tattooed on his arm and the peace signs that often adorned his race cars. His public speaking was legendary, particularly down-under where he assured the crowd that "Aussie drivers are amateurs and the cars are museum pieces" and "No wonder Australia has so many God dam flies – its just one giant garbage can"! Garry also often stunned the trophy girls in the winners circle with his unsolicited passionate kisses and embraces! He won at least 200 main events during his career including many in Australasia. He was inducted into the National Sprint Car Hall of Fame in 1998 and the West Capital Raceway Hall of Fame in 2000. Garry was lost his life in a sprintcar crash on Memorial Day of 1983 at Calistoga Speedway in the final race of the meeting. The sprintcar he was driving performed a sickening series of 20, or so, violent flips coming out of turn four and he died at the scene.

Garry Patterson was a true outlaw driver and disliked clubs and rules immensely. He never had much money, moved from track to track and race to race and he was a hard-racing, hard-living, larger-than-life character. Barry B and Garry got on well together – they were, in many ways, kindred spirits - they both drove very hard, neither had much respect for authority and they enjoyed smoking and drinking together. The persona of the "Great GP" was probably the major factor that influenced Barry B's outlaw image that he so proudly cultivated during the 80s. Here are some words attributed to Garry Patterson "I sure am a free spirit – Yeah, that's my deal – be'in a free spirit. I live for racing and practically nothing else – racing is what I know – It's all I've ever been. When will I quit? Hell, I don't know – probably when I die. I'm a racer, what else could I be?" Yes, Barry B and Garry Patterson sure did have quite a bit in common!

 "Lightning" Larry Rice ("Rice-a-Roni")("the teacher")

Born in Linden Indiana in1946, Larry Rice started racing quarter midgets prior to turning 10 years old. He went on to race modified midgets at the Logansport Indiana track. He attended Ball State University and graduated with a masters degree in marketing. His early years out of college were spent teaching at Crawfordsville school in Indiana while racing modified midgets. He was known as "The Flying School Teacher". He then moved to Indianapolis and began racing on the USAC midget circuit in 1968. His first big win was the 1970 Hut Hundred, he finished second in the 1972 USAC Midget Championship and won the championship in 1973. In 1972 his highly competitive driving gave the Shannon Brothers their USAC Midget Car Owners Championship. He raced with USAC for 24 seasons and won 15 midget, 3 sprintcar and 5 silver crown feature events and, in total, had 100 finishes in the top three. He won the USAC Silver Crown Championship in 1977 and 1981 and was runner up in the sprintcar standings in 1983. He was inducted into the National Midget Auto Racing Hall of Fame in 1993. Larry raced five seasons, on and off, (1974, 1978-79 and 1981) in Champ Cars and was Indy 500 Co-Rookie of the Year with Rick Mears in 1978. Larry's driving days were over by 1991 and he embarked on a new career in TV. He partnered Garry Lee on ESPNs Saturday and then Thursday Night Thunder programme which covered midget, sprintcar and silver crown races. The show became known as the "Garry and Larry Show". He also commentated for ABC on IRL races, including the Indianapolis 500. After his stint on TV, he went into the Track Insurance business and also helped his eldest son, Robbie, get into sprintcar racing. Larry was a quiet, unassuming and friendly man with few enemies and on the track he was focussed, gritty but fair and clean. Larry had a tongue cancer scare in 2000, then went into remission but was diagnosed with lung cancer in 2005. After many bouts of radiation and chemotherapy he died in May 2009.

Some of Larry's most memorable and enjoyable times were spent racing midgets in New Zealand and Australia. One season he formed a strange travelling duo with Garry Patterson and they were known as "the teacher and the preacher". Larry won the World 30 lap Midget Championship at Western Springs in 1977. Larry raced for the USA midget team in NZ in the 1975-76, 76-77, and 77-78 seasons. The last two seasons, Barry B was in the Lendich VW and a major challenge for the Americans. Larry described Barry as one of the fiercest competitors he raced against anywhere in the world.

 Ron "Sleepy" Tripp

Born in 1953, and raised in Costa Mesa, California, Ron Tripp and his brother raced at a young age in quarter midgets winning numerous trophies along the way. Ron got his nickname as a youth because he would fall asleep between his quarter midget races. The brothers raced motorcycles before turning their hands to full-sized midgets. During Sleepy's high school years he was a wrestler and an accomplished football player. His first midget race was in a VW-powered car. At first he tore up a lot of equipment and was involved in many shunts. Over time, he settled down and in 1974 he was USRC Midget Rookie of the Year and Champion. In his first season racing on the USAC midget circuit (1975) he surprised many by winning both the USAC Rookie of the Year and the USAC Championship. He successfully defended his midget championship in 1976. After that he received an offer to run down in Australasia. He raced the next 17 seasons in New Zealand/Australia. Sleepy married an Auckland girl, Erin, and they now live in Costa Mesa. Sleepy raced on the USAC circuit until 1982 driving his own car rather than for an owner. However the income he made was low and at the end of 1982 he moved from Indianapolis back to Costa Mesa to work in the family electrical contracting business. He hooked up with the car owners George and Gary Zarounian and dominated the early years of the newly formed USAC Western States Championship. He won it in 1983, 85, 87, 88, 90, 91 and 92. For the last few seasons in the States he raced a car owned by New Zealander Danny Lendich. During the 1988-89 season he had many, still talked-about, clashes with a young P. J. Jones (Parnelli's son). Sleepy is a straight-to-the-point person and had an aggressive driving style. As well as 2 USAC Championships and 7 Western States Championships, Sleepy scored 59 USAC National midget feature wins, 104 Western States midget wins, and was Bellville Midget Nationals Champion in 1985 and 1987. He was inducted into the National Midget Racing Hall of Fame in 1986. Throughout his racing career, Sleepy concentrated on racing midgets and only drove sprintcars and silver crown cars sporadically. Sleepy retired from driving in 2003 after being injured in a BCRA race at Stockton. Today, he is an electrical contractor working with his older brother in the family business.

In the 1982-83 New Zealand season, Sleepy got the coveted drive in the Lendich LTC Autocraft vacated by Barry B. That began a long-term partnership with Danny Lendich and he drove the Lendich cars until his retirement (including in the USA). Sleepy ran against Barry B all of the years Barry drove for Danny Lendich and also the first year he drove the Chev V4. The two drove hard against one another and were pretty evenly matched. Sleepy's record in NZ includes five wins in the World 30 lap World Championship and eight wins in the World 50 lap Midget Classic.

 "Rapid" Rich Vogler

Born in the Chicago area, Rich was brought up around speedway. His father, Don, a carpenter and builder, was also a well respected midget driver who won the UARA Midget Championship in 1975 and 76. Don died in a midget accident at the Indy Speedrome in 1981. Rich and his sister raced quarter midgets from an early age; Rich began in 1959 when he was only nine years old. Rich began a serious racing career at nineteen in his father's midget and in between races, like his father, he worked as a carpenter. As he improved, he got rides in other cars and his father reclaimed the seat in his own car. Rich won the NAMAR Midget Championship in 1973 and in 1975 he moved onto the USAC circuit. In 1978 he won the USAC Midget Championship driving for Doug Caruthers. He won the USAC Sprintcar Championship in 1980 driving for Don Seibert and won his second National Midget title the same year. He went on to win the USAC Midget Championship again in 1983, 1986 and 1988. In 1989, Rich teamed up with the Hoffman family and this collaboration resulted in them building a new sprintcar #69 powered by a Buick V6 motor. Rich went on to win his second USAC Sprintcar title in 1989 driving for the Hoffmans. Rich died at the age of 39 in 1990 at the paved half mile Salem Speedway (Illinois). He was leading the race in the Hoffman sprintcar when, coming to the white flag, he hit the outside wall while attempted to lap a car. The car crashed with enormous force and he died of head injuries at the scene. When a USAC race is discontinued, scoring reverts to the last completed lap and Rich was posthumously declared the winner. During his career, he scored 134 USAC feature wins (95 midget, 35 sprintcar and 4 silver crown wins) and won over 200 non-USAC midget races. He was inducted into the National Midget Hall of Fame in 1986 and the Sprintcar Hall of Fame in 1992. Rich was a confident, colourful and charismatic character with an aggressive driving style and was not always popular with his fellow competitors. He was certainly extremely successful, being the holder of the most track records in USAC competition and second on the all-time win list to A J Foyt. He had five starts at Indy from 1985-89 and his best finish was eighth in 1989. After years of frustration, struggling to gain a permanent Indy car drive, he turned his sights to NASCAR and had qualified for a start in a Winston Cup race at Pocono Raceway the same weekend he died in the sprintcar

Rich drove in NZ in the 1978-79, 79-80 87-88 and 80-81 seasons and won the World 30 lap Midget Championship in 1980. He was highly competitive and drove hard starring on some nights while on others the equally aggressive Sleepy Tripp or Barry B starred.

 Stan Fox ("Foxy")

Born in 1952, Stan Fox grew up in Wisconsin. After graduating from with a Bachelors degree in marketing from Arizona State University in 1974 he purchased a midget and spare parts from Don Edmunds and went racing. His first race was an USRC race at Corona, California. He raced mainly in Wisconsin and was Badger Midget Auto Racing Champion in 1979. Since he began racing an Edmunds midget, and it was maintained by Edmunds Autoresearch, Stan negotiated to race an Edmunds-built formula Super Vee single seater as well. This gave him experience so he could try for an Indy Car ride. The motor for the Super Vee was supplied by Steve Lewis. In fact Stan hooked up with Steve in 1979 and won the first race, a USAC feature for the, now famous, #9 Lewis team at Anderson Speedway, Indiana. Over the next 16 years Stan drove midget cars on many occasions for Lewis. He finished fourth in the USAC Midget Championship in 1990 and 1991 but in later years he confined himself to running only major midget events. He won the Belleville Nationals in 1979 and 1980, Turkey Night in 1990 and 1991 and the Copper Classic in 1980, 1990 and 1993. He was inducted into the National Midget Auto Racing Hall of Fame in 1995. Fox competed in the Indianapolis 500 eight times between 1987 and 1995 driving for A J Foyt and Ron Hemelgarn. His best finish was seventh place in his rookie year in 1991. Stan also competed in two Winston Cup races at Talladega and Michigan in 1992 driving the Mansion Motorsports Chev. Stan suffered severe head injuries in a near-fatal crash on the first lap of the 1995 Indy 500. While he never raced competitively again, he remained involved with the sport and started the non-profit organization "Friends of the Fox" to support people with head injuries. Each May he would take groups of head injury survivors to the Indianapolis 500, leading them on a tour of the pits and introducing them to drivers and celebrities.

 Jeff Gordon ("Flash") ("Wonder boy")("The Rainbow Warrior")

 Born in 1971, Jeff was initially raised in Vallejo, California. He was introduced to speedway racing at an early age by his stepfather John Bickford and at five years of age he began racing quarter midgets. At the age of eight he won the National Quarter Midget Championship and at nine he moved on to also race go-karts. In 1980, he won his second quarter midget championship and was racing in the adult class in go-karts. At 13 years of age he had won nearly 500 races and then began racing sprintcars across in Florida. Between 1985 and 1989 Jeff attended high school and during this period his family relocated to the Midwest (Pittsboro, Indiana) where speedway racing flourished. Jeff raced nights and most weekends thus honing his racing skills on the Midwest bullrings while still at school. At the age of 16, Jeff received his USAC racing license. After graduating from school he became a full time race driver. Indeed, in 1989, at about the time of his high school graduation, he ran fourth in a World of Outlaws sprintcar main in Bloomington, Indiana. A few weeks later he won a USAC sprintcar feature at Florence Speedway, Kentucky in the Winterbothan car #6. One week later, he was in Rollie Helmling's midget and won the prestigous "Night Before the 500" at IRP in front of a live ESPN TV audience. He finished fifth in the 1989 USAC Midget Championship and was Rookie of the Year. At 19, he won the 1990 USAC Midget Championship driving for Rollie Helmling. In 1991 he won the USAC Silver Crown Championship driving Fred Ede's M&L Plumbing entry #4. In 1990 he also began his stockcar career in the NASCAR Busch series driving for Hugh Connerty in the Outback Steakhouse #67. In 1991, as well as racing Silver Crown cars, he had 30 starts in the Busch Grand National division driving for Bill Davis in a Ford Thunderbird and was named Rookie of the Year. By 1993, Jeff had signed with Rick Hendrick to become a full time Winston Cup NASCAR driver in the rainbow coloured #24 Dupont Chevrolet. 1993 was his first full season in Winston Cup and he won the Rookie of the Year award. He won the Winston Cup Championship in 1995, 1997, 1998 and 2001 and is now classed as a veteran in the sport as well as a shrewd businessman with a net worth of over $150 million. Jeff was inducted into the National Midget Auto Racing Hall of Fame in 2009.

Jeff raced in Auckland in the 1988-89 season in John Rae's imported sprintcar. He raced at both Western Springs and on the Meremere highbank track. Jeff was faster than any of the locals. Barry B was in the Alach sprintcar and raced him on both tracks. Although Barry was one of the top locals he couldn't stay with Jeff who was certainly in a more modern and faster sprintcar. Jeff raced successfully in Australia three times. In 1986-87 he raced in the World Sprintcar championship at Claremont, in 1988-89 he raced a midget at Claremont and in 1989-90 he raced Dennis Farr's sprintcar at Parramatta.

 A J Foyt ("SuperTex")

Anthony Joseph Foyt Jr was born January 16, 1935 in Houston, Texas and began driving midgets in the mid 50's. He graduated from the USAC midget division in 1957 and began driving sprintcars, silver crown cars and Indy roadsters. He still occasionally competed in midgets. He was successful in all USAC divisions and won the Indianapolis 500 in 1961 and 1964 in front-engined, offenhauser-powered roadsters. He quickly adapted to the new rear engined cars and won the Indy 500 again in 1967 and 1977. He, in fact, competed in the Indy 500 each season between 1957 and 1992. AJ raced in the USAC and NASCAR stockcar divisions. He won 7 major NASCAR races including the 1972 Daytona 500. He was 1960 USAC Sprintcar Champion, 1972 USAC Silver Crown Champion, 1968, 78 and 79 USAC Stockcar Champion, USAC National Champion in 1960, 61, 63, 64, 67, 75 and 79 and IROC Champion in 1975-76 and 76-77. He holds the USAC all-time record of winning a total of 138 feature events. Foyt also raced sports cars and had a brief foray into Can-Am racing in 1966. In long-distance events, he won the Daytona 24 hour race in 1983 and 1985, the Sebring 12 hour race in 1985 (all with co-driver Bob Wollek) and the 1967 Le Mans 24 hour race in a Ford GT 40, Mk IV (with co-driver Dan Gurney). Once AJ retired from driving in 1993, he continued his involvement in motor racing as a team owner in CART, IRL and more recently NASCAR. As a team owner, he won the 1996 IRL Championship (Scott Sharp), the 1998 IRL Championship (Kenny Brack) and the 1999 Indy 500 (Kenny Brack). Now in his late 70's AJ continues to actively run his IRL team. During his racing career, he was involved in many accidents. The two most notable were in a NASCAR stockcar at Riverside in 1965 where he sustained severe chest injuries, a broken back and fractured ankle and in a CART race at Elkhart Lake in 1990 when he suffered serious injuries to his legs and feet. Foyt is considered as the greatest American driver to originate from a speedway heritage although Parnelli Jones, Mario Andretti and Tony Stewart would run him close. He was inducted into the National Midget Hall of Fame in 1988, the National Sprintcar Hall of Fame in 1990, the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America in 1989, NASCAR's 50 Greatest Drivers List in 1998 and the International Motorsports Hall of Fame in 2000. As a driver, AJ was known as a highly talented, very competitive, confident, tough and irrepressible character.

Foyt drove VW-powered midgets in Australasia in the 1974-75 and 75-76 seasons. In 74-75 he drove for 3-K Racing alongside Mel Kenyon and in 75-76 he drove a car owned by his good friend Ziggy Snider. Barry B raced against him in Auckland in both seasons. In the first season he was still sorting out the Bruin VW (#14) and in the second he drove brother Max's Mazda-powered #12. Neither car was fully competitive with the imported Autocraft-engined VW midgets so a showdown between SuperTex and Crunchie never really eventuated. Although Foyt was super-fast in the VW midgets, he usually could only just stay with midget specialist, Mel Kenyon. Nevertheless, his presence down-under greatly increased and improved the profile of speedway racing among the general public.