Home > Auto Racing > Understanding Auto Racing > Circle Track Racing > Midgets

Midgets

     Small Car, Full-Sized Trouble

A Midget does not look threatening until somebody puts a serious engine in one.

Then the proportions start making sense.

Very little car. Very little wheelbase. Very little weight. Plenty of power. Open wheels. A driver sitting almost on top of the rear axle with enough steering and throttle authority to rearrange the whole machine before the next thought has finished arriving.

That combination is why Midgets have spent generations teaching drivers one lesson faster than almost any other oval car can.

If the car starts doing something wrong, deal with it now.

Small Does Not Mean Beginner Car

The name causes trouble before the engine even starts.

A Midget is physically compact, but the category has never been a toy version of something larger. These are purpose-built open-wheel race cars designed for short ovals, with a long history on both dirt and pavement.

The chassis is small because the whole package is concentrated. Driver, engine, fuel, steering, suspension and rear axle occupy a very short machine. That keeps weight down and makes the car respond quickly to steering, throttle and track conditions.

Quick response sounds wonderful until the response is to a mistake.

A larger, longer car may give the driver a fraction more time to recognize that the rear is coming around.

A Midget is already asking what the plan is.

The Short Wheelbase Is the Whole Personality

Wheelbase affects how eagerly a car rotates.

A long-wheelbase car usually resists quick yaw changes better because its mass and tire contact patches are spread farther apart. A short car can change direction more readily.

Midgets live on the short side of that argument.

That helps them turn into tight corners quickly, but it also makes them responsive to disturbances. A little extra throttle, a bump, a patch of changing grip or one ambitious steering input can move the rear of the car noticeably.

The driver therefore works with a machine that reacts immediately.

There is less distance between calm and interesting.

Low Weight Makes Every Input Count More

A light car does not require much force to change what it is doing.

That is one reason Midgets accelerate hard for their size, but it also means steering, braking, throttle and weight transfer all have a large effect on vehicle attitude.

Move weight forward under braking and the front tires gain load quickly.

Apply throttle and rear load changes just as quickly.

Turn the steering wheel while the chassis is already transferring weight and the car may rotate before a heavier machine would have finished thinking about it.

The advantage is agility.

The price is that lazy inputs become expensive.

The Engine Is Larger Than the Car Looks Ready For

Midget racing has always taken the idea of a small car and resisted the temptation to install a small personality.

Over the years the category has used a wide range of purpose-built and production-based four-cylinder engines, many capable of producing power that looks unreasonable beside the size of the chassis carrying it.

The important point is not one exact horsepower number.

It is the power-to-weight relationship.

A light open-wheel car does not need an enormous V-8 to accelerate hard. Enough four-cylinder power in a small chassis can make throttle application a handling adjustment rather than merely a request for more speed.

That is why the engine belongs in the handling discussion.

The gas pedal is attached to the rear tires.

The rear tires are attached to everything else that is about to happen.

Throttle Is Part of the Steering

On dirt, especially, the driver can use power to influence how the car rotates.

Apply more throttle and the rear tires can increase slip, helping the car continue turning. Back out and the rear may regain grip, changing the car’s attitude and line.

The useful amount is very specific.

Too little throttle and the car may stop rotating or lose momentum.

Too much and the rear steps farther out than intended, turning a fast corner into a correction.

The short wheelbase makes this especially obvious because the car responds quickly to the change.

A Midget driver does not simply steer with both hands.

One foot has voting rights.

The Front Wheels Have Nowhere to Hide

Open-wheel cars make steering mistakes visible.

The front tires tell everybody where the driver is asking the car to go. They also sit directly in the airflow and remain exposed to contact with other cars.

Front-end geometry has to give the driver enough bite to turn the car without making it so nervous that every rut or steering twitch becomes another event.

Caster, camber, toe, spring rates, shocks and tire pressures all influence how quickly the front responds and how much grip remains available as the chassis loads and unloads.

A good Midget changes direction immediately without becoming vague.

A bad one can offer both nervousness and no grip, which is an impressive amount of inconvenience for such a small package.

The Rear Axle Keeps Things Simple and Complicated

Traditional Midget layouts are mechanically direct.

The rear axle and driveline do not need the elaborate independent systems found under many road-racing cars. That sounds simple.

The setup problem is not.

The rear tires still have to accept engine torque, generate lateral grip and work with chassis roll and weight transfer. Rear-end geometry, stagger, spring and shock choices, tire pressure and track condition all influence how easily the car rotates and how strongly it drives off the corner.

When the track has grip, the car may accept aggressive throttle.

When the surface goes slick, the same setup can turn extra power into extra wheelspin.

Simple hardware does not guarantee a simple answer.

Stagger Helps the Car Want to Turn

Oval cars often use different tire circumferences from one side to the other.

That difference is called stagger.

With a larger circumference on the outside rear than the inside rear, the tires naturally want to cover different distances in one revolution. On an oval, that can help the car rotate through the corner.

Midgets can be especially sensitive to stagger because the short chassis reacts quickly to changes in rear behavior.

Too little and the car may resist rotation.

Too much and it may become too eager.

As track conditions change, the amount of useful stagger can change with them.

The car is small enough that a tape measure can become part of the steering department.

Dirt and Pavement Ask for Different Personalities

Midgets have long raced on both dirt and pavement, and the same basic chassis has to approach those surfaces differently.

On dirt, controlled slip is part of the process. The car may rotate visibly and use throttle to manage attitude. Suspension has to cope with changing grip, bumps, ruts and a surface that evolves during the race.

Pavement usually rewards a cleaner tire contact relationship. Excessive sliding overheats tires and costs speed. The setup may emphasize precise platform control, consistent grip and a car that takes a stable set without wasting energy in unnecessary movement.

The same little race car therefore has two very different conversations with the ground.

Dirt lets it dance.

Pavement keeps score on the footwork.

Weight Transfer Happens Fast

Every race car transfers load when it accelerates, brakes and corners.

A Midget makes the process easy to notice because there is not much mass or wheelbase available to soften the transition.

Brake or lift entering the corner and load moves toward the front. Turn and load moves toward the outside tires. Apply throttle and some load moves rearward again.

Those changes affect which tire has grip at each instant.

The driver is therefore timing inputs around where the load needs to go next.

Turn too abruptly before the chassis is ready and the front or rear may give up grip.

Apply power too early and the rear tires may be asked to accelerate the car before they have finished handling the corner.

Fast laps look smooth because the driver is staying ahead of the load transfer.

The car itself is doing everything quickly.

No Wing Means the Mechanical Grip Has to Work

Unlike the winged Sprint Car most people picture when they think of modern dirt open-wheel racing, the classic Midget does not depend on a huge top wing to create major aerodynamic load.

That keeps the visual package simple and places even more emphasis on tires, chassis setup and driver control.

At the speeds and track sizes where Midgets race, mechanical grip remains central. The car has to create traction through tire load, suspension geometry, weight transfer and the driver’s ability to keep the tires working.

The absence of a giant wing also removes one obvious stabilizing influence.

The car is light, short and responsive because that is what the category asks it to be.

Nothing on the roof is volunteering to calm it down.

Traffic Changes Everything

A Midget may be tiny, but the racetrack does not become larger to accommodate it.

Short ovals can put many cars into a small space, which means drivers spend a great deal of time dealing with traffic.

Open wheels make contact particularly undesirable. Touch bodywork in a stock car and somebody may lose paint. Interlock exposed wheels and the conversation can become airborne.

That changes how passes are judged.

The driver has to place the car aggressively enough to use a lane before somebody else takes it, but accurately enough to avoid turning a small overlap into a large incident.

Short wheelbase helps the car change direction.

Traffic supplies reasons to do it immediately.

The Track Can Change Faster Than the Setup

On dirt, the groove can migrate during the race.

A moist bottom may be quickest early. Later it can polish over while grip builds farther up the track. The cushion can become the fast lane, then move higher until the useful dirt and the wall are becoming uncomfortably close neighbors.

Midget drivers have to adjust without stopping to change springs.

That may mean altering entry speed, throttle application, steering timing or the amount of rotation they ask from the car.

A setup that is perfect for one lane may be merely survivable somewhere else.

The driver who can move with the track often looks smarter than the driver whose car was perfect twenty laps ago.

Why Midgets Have Trained So Many Drivers

Midget racing has long attracted and developed drivers who later succeeded in other forms of American racing.

The reason is not mystical.

The car gives immediate feedback.

It teaches throttle control because too much power changes attitude quickly. It teaches steering discipline because a short-wheelbase car responds immediately. It teaches traffic because short tracks put cars close together. It teaches changing surfaces because dirt can move the useful groove during the race.

Most importantly, it teaches recovery.

A driver repeatedly encounters small slides, corrections, weight-transfer changes and changing grip. Learning to recognize those conditions early is useful in almost any race car later.

The Midget does not need to be the fastest car a driver will ever race.

It can still be one of the quickest teachers.

Why a Midget Is Not Just a Small Sprint Car

The resemblance is obvious.

Both are compact open-wheel oval cars. Both can race on dirt. Both can use substantial power and throttle steering.

But shrinking a Sprint Car does not explain a Midget.

The Midget’s shorter package, different engine tradition, generally wingless identity and compact proportions create a distinct handling problem. The car rotates quickly, changes attitude quickly and puts enormous emphasis on mechanical grip and driver response.

A Sprint Car has its own extreme combination of power, wheelbase, rear tire, direct drive and — in many major forms — enormous aerodynamic wing load.

The Midget gets a different assignment.

Make a very small race car behave while everything happens very quickly.

Reading a Midget Race

Start by watching corner entry.

A good driver gets the car rotated without wasting speed in a dramatic correction. If the front pushes, the driver waits longer before getting back to power. If the rear rotates too quickly, the hands get busy and the exit suffers.

Then watch the throttle phase.

On dirt, a fast car may remain slightly sideways while the driver feeds power in. The useful slide should tighten toward the exit rather than continue growing all the way down the straight.

Watch the front wheels.

Large repeated corrections usually mean the driver is managing a car that is not settled. Small decisive inputs suggest the chassis is doing what was expected.

Then watch traffic.

Midgets are small enough to find openings, but open wheels make those openings less forgiving than they appear. The best pass often comes from positioning the car one corner earlier rather than forcing a hole at the last instant.

Finally, look at how quickly the driver reacts when the track changes.

The whole point of the car is responsiveness.

The fellow behind the wheel needs to be at least as quick.

↑ Back to the Top — Before the Rear Gets There First