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1948 Kurtis Kraft Midget – Video Car Profile

1948 Kurtis Kraft Midget at Sears PointLong before he became famous for designing and building Indianapolis racers that won the 500-mile race five times, Los Angeles fabricator Frank Kurtis made a considerable reputation building the best midget race cars in the world.

Beginning in the late 1930s, his company, Kurtis Kraft, churned out over 1,150 midgets, 500 in ready-to-race form and 600 kits. Described by the National Midget Auto Racing Hall of Fame as “virtually unbeatable for over twenty years,” the Kurtis midget racer won countless events all over the country for decades and still performs well at vintage races today.

In a first for Sports Car Digest, we teamed up with GrayRoss Productions to create a video profile of the 1948 Kurtis Kraft Midget owned by Mark Sange. Shot at Infineon Raceway Sears Point during the 2009 CSRG Charity Challenge, the video includes on-board shots and interviews with the driver and lead mechanic.

Sange’s Kurtis Kraft Midget is powered by a 1937 Ford V8-60 and it’s maintained by Mike Ryan. The Midget has extensive racing history in the 1950s and 60s on both oval and road courses, including a last-to-first win at Willow Springs against a field of 83 entries comprised of Jaguars, Aston Martins, Ferraris and others. The win was so convincing, that the Midget was barred from future competition in that class.

As always, we welcome feedback on how we can improve, longer/shorter and other suggestions.

1948 Kurtis Kraft Midget – Video Car Profile

[Source: GrayRoss Productions; Mecum]

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12 Comments

  2. Didn`t Roger Ward pull a similar stunt, coming from behind to embarrass a whole raft of Jags, Ferraris, Corvettes, etc. driving an Offy powered midget? I think it may have been at Lime Rock(?)
    The result was the same. No more midgets at SCCA events.

  3. If my fading memory still serves a bit I think the legendary Phil Walters, who sometimes raced under the alias “Ted Tappett” (a relative of “Click and Clack”?….) once entered a sports car race (Lime Rock?) driving a midget and competing against Aston Martins, Ferraris, Corvettes and the like, and humiliated all of them.

    Can anyone confirm?

  4. I remember my Dad telling me about a midget beating the ‘sporty car’ guys on their own track in a midget that had a Crosley two speed rear end.
    My Dad was born in LA in 1920 and went to the orginal Ascot track, the two of us were at the opening night at the ‘new’ Ascot in 1958. Dad bought a new Kurtis with a v60 in 1961 and after a few years put a Fiat in it. It was a dead ringer for the one in the article when he bought it that was close to race ready. I have a few pictures of it with both the v60 [ painted red and white] and the Fiat [painted orange and lavender] in it

  7. It was Rodger Ward that beat some of the best in that race at Lime Rock. The car he drove, Offy powered, was 11 years old. There were other midgets in that race, too. Ted Tappett (Phil Walters) never drove a midget on a road course. He did, however, sign to drive for Ferrari in 1955 – driving their Sports/Racing cars and Grand Prix Cars. That was to take effect after LeMans. If you recall, about 100 people were fatally injured at LeMans that year, and Walters retired from racing on that day. Alan Heath won a 500 mile race on the Riverside Road Course with a Ford powered midget – with his one hand and a hook where the other hand used to be.

  9. A name from the past—Alan Heath. I saw his first ‘come back race’ afer losing his hand, sprint car, at Riverside with my Dad around 1960. It was a two car race which Heath won. I also remember him raming the back of another car in the pits area by the finish line at Ascot–he did have a bit of a temper. My dad said that he had forgotten more about racing than most of the drivers would ever learn.

    1. I remember as a grammar school kid traveling with Frank Griffo and his son Gerry to Ascot and Saugus with his Ford V8 60. Frank was instrumental in my career in the Automotive business. He was a master machinist and actually manufactured his own fuel injection system for the new Fiat engine after the V8 60. I believe the car number was either 66 or 6. He used a 1957 Ford Station Wagon with a 6 cylinder to tow the trailer and car to every race.

  10. Great story on Roger Ward, I had the pleasure of meeting him at my high school (El Paso High School) in El Paso, Tx in 1959 when he came to give the school a safety lesson. He gave me an autographed picture of himself in his race car. That year he won the Indianapolis 500. Great guy!!
    Bob Gomez