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USAC: Farewell To Kenyon And Crocky
It all began in 1957 at Fort Wayne’s Memorial Coliseum and that’s where it finally ended last Sunday afternoon when Mel Kenyon retired, shares SPEEDtv.com's Robin Miller.
Robin Miller  |  Posted December 29, 2009   Indianapolis, IN
Mel Kenyon’s final tally is a tribute to his drive and determination as he captured 111 USAC midget features and seven USAC midget titles – mostly when it was the fiercest form of competition on four wheels. (Jim Morrison)
It all began in 1957 at Fort Wayne’s Memorial Coliseum and that’s where it finally ended last Sunday afternoon. In between those bookmarks, Mel Kenyon put together a body of work which isn’t likely to ever be seen again.

He went from a jalopy driver in Iowa to a midget champion in USAC to a crewman for Parnelli Jones to last rites at Langhorne to the starting lineup at Indianapolis and into the record books with his own chapter.

He lost most of his left hand in a fiery crash in 1965 and won the respect of his fellow drivers for the next three decades.

Kenyon’s final tally is a tribute to his drive and determination as he captured 111 USAC midget features and seven USAC midget titles – mostly when it was the fiercest form of competition on four wheels.

“Kenyon was a helluva racer and always the guy to beat in a midget,” said Gary Bettenhausen, whose stellar USAC career of 82 victories includes 27 in the midget division and many good duels with Kenyon.

“He was good on any type of race track and you always had to go through him to get to victory lane.”

Back in the ‘60s, the quickest way to get to Indy was to shine in a midget or sprinter in USAC because car owners knew that talent pool was deep.

“I won my first USAC championship in 1964 and I was also working for Johnny Paulsen on Parnelli’s Indy car,” related Kenyon. “I’d had a couple of offers to drive a roadster at Indy but they hadn’t worked out and then I finally got a ride in 1965.

“It was Elmer George’s old car and I didn’t qualify at the Speedway but we went to Langhorne.”

That first Indy-car race was damn near Mel’s last one as he crashed on the treacherous track at Langhorne, Pa. After starting 18th, he’d stormed up to eighth place by Lap 27 when his engine exploded and dumped oil everywhere. He smacked the fence and was knocked unconscious as his car was enveloped in flames.

Fellow racer Joe Leonard and a couple of brave spectators managed to pull Kenyon from the inferno but not before he was critically burned. Three months later he left the burn center in San Antonio with all of the fingers gone from his left hand.

“Those guys saved my life but every time I see Joe he apologizes for not pulling my left hand out of the fire the first time he tried because it was too hot,” said Kenyon, who devised a glove with a socket to plug into the steering wheel.

“After modifications, I was ready to go racing again.”

Besides returning to bully USAC’s midget series for the next 25 years, Kenyon became a fixture at Indianapolis – qualifying for eight consecutive races and finishing third (1968), fourth (1973) and fifth (1966).

“Some of my best memories are at Indy because I had to set the car up, build the engines and then drive it,” he recalled with a chuckle. “Those were very satisfying days.”

He battled with Bob Tattersall, Bob Wente and Mike McGreevy for 80-90 races a year in the ’60s. His main competition in the ‘70s was Rich Vogler and Sleepy Tripp. In the ‘80s, it was still Vogler before Jeff Gordon came on strong in the early ‘90s.

Kenyon started out with no cages and a high mortality rate and finished in a relatively safe environment. He and brother Don opened 3K Racing in 1967 and today they’re still cranking out open wheel cars of all sizes from their shop in Lebanon, Ind.

Retiring from driving at age 76 may seem a bit absurd since his best days were 30 years ago, but Mel and Don have lived and breathed midget racing for the better part of 56 years and show no signs of backing off.

“I went to my 50-year high school reunion and they asked how many of us were happy with our jobs,” said Kenyon. “Out of 550, only six of us raised our hands.”

FAREWELL TO CROCKY

He claimed to be the only man ever fired at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway for “going to fast” but Crocky Wright’s real legacy was his devotion to midget racing.

Wright, a wonderful man who died last week at age 90, began following midget racing in the late 1930s and pretty much became the historian of the east coast. He covered hundreds and hundreds of races for various racing publications over the past 60 years and his only payment was a pit pass.

He befriended Johnny Thomson, Dutch Schaefer, Ernie McCoy and Rex Easton and authored books on Thomson, Easton and the board track at Nutley, N.J.

He also drove the tour bus at IMS, briefly, but had to be let go because he refused to drive at the preferred pace of 20 mph. Hence, the title for his business card.

Crocky became a fixture at the USAC races starting in the ‘70s and by the late ‘80s he was touting a teenager from Rushville, Ind. who was tearing up the three-quarter midget circuit. He served as Tony Stewart’s unofficial PR man back then and was rewarded when Smoke surprised him at Wright’s induction into the Midget Racing Hall of Fame in 2005.
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