Ready to "Rumble in Fort Wayne" 2023 with Fedorcak, Osborne, Houk & more
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 3 ม.ค. 2024
- What a great way to ring in the New Year with some indoor Midget racing at the Allen County War Memorial Coliseum in Fort Wayne, Indiana. The 25th annual "Rumble in Fort Wayne" provided some spectacular open-wheel racing on the Coliseum concrete floor December 29-30. Interviews include Mike Fedorcak, creator of the famous Munchkin Midget, and Trey Osborne who reveals his 2024 plans with the USAC Sprint and Silver Crown Series...and his Chili Bowl ride with Cruz Pedregon Racing. I also introduce newcomer Ayrton Houk who just returned from a whirlwind tour of Formula Ford racing in Europe, which included touring several Formula 1 race shops...all that and much more. Thanks for your support of the History Mystery Man...and Happy New Year!
Don, your coverage of this event demonstrates why you shouldn't listen to that 'niche' nonsense - your being there, behind the scenes, allows us to see currents stars & those of the future. Chris.
Thanks again, Chris...so appreciated...and so helpful. Happy New Year ole friend...HMM
Outstanding ! Thanks for the Video/Edit work. Glad to see Too Tall Tray getting The Rides! The Munchkin History and interview made me smile.
Thanks Steve...greatly appreciated. HMM
This kid deserves greatness, for all the hard work and sacrifice. I hope he gets it. I'm pulling for you Osborne
Hi Don
I am the one that yelled out History Mystery Man at you. Yes i watch all your videos, i hope you don't give up on covering racin. I enjoyed seeing you at Fort Wayne. Nice video thank you! I hope you have a great 2024!!!
Good to hear from you again, Richard. Yell at me anytime! No worries, my racing coverage will always be a part of what I do on this channel. Thanks for your support...HMM
It's been Years! 25+ since I've been "this close" to racers like these... Thanks
You're welcome...glad to get you right in there up and up close. Thanks for your support HMM
I still get nostalgia chills looking at quarter-midgets. As a kid I dreamed of having one so much, but racing is spendy and my dad had the midget already. Moms rule, 1 race car in the family. 😆 The midgets here remind me of TQs also. So fun to watch.
I'm with you on the quarter midgets...so cool. And yes, the Midgets are so much fun to watch...especially on a tight little flat concrete coliseum floor. Thanks for your support...HMM
Loved the video. Great behind the scenes interviews, and especially Trey Osborne. Neat guy.
Thanks, Don for covering this event.
You're always welcome; thanks for taking the time to watch! HMM
Love seeing my hometown getting the love! I just messaged Joey Payne to let him know I saw him. Always good to see Mel Kenyon and Mike Fedorcak. Great job by Curtis Setser. Watched his grandfather Cliff and Dad Curtis race for years at Baer Field. Great work, Don!
Thanks again, Jeff...glad you enjoyed it. I'm definitely going back again...HMM
Well sir, you knocked another one out of the ballpark. Great interviews and coverage.
Thanks sir...so appreciated. HMM
Great vid sir
Your editing is nice, good selections of hours of footage.all groups, ..nice stuff.!
Thanks Bob...always appreciate your feedback. HMM
Happy New Year 2024.
Thanks ole friend! Happy New Year back to you! HMM
Love the older midgets 👍🏁
Oh me too...love all the older open wheel cars in fact. Thanks for watching, Shawn. HMM
I enjoyed your video more than the Tulsa shootout stuff I saw. Great too see Trey getting some good opportunities! Thanks for your efforts. Happy New Year!
Thanks Robert...your continual feedback is always welcome here. Talk soon...HMM
Fantastic coverage!
So many thanks! HMM
I was there for the first time. What a neat experience! ❤
4:14 mark of the video is my brother and my nephew.
Glad I could squeeze your brother and nephew in! Great experience for me too. Thanks for stopping by...HMM
Can't wait to meet Trey in person this year. Will be at Bridgeport,Williams Grove and Port Royal. Excited
Great guy...you'll love him. Tell him the History Mystery Man sent you! Thanks for your continued support Marie...HMM
@@HistoryMysteryMan I will 👍 shared this to my big brother.
Thanks Don, Enjoyed the action in Fort Wayne, and the interview with Trey. This kid is going places.
You're welcome Tom; thanks again ole friend! HMM
Somewhere I have the Open Wheel magazine that had the first in-depth article about the Munchkins.
If you find it, I'd love to see it...thanks for your support! HMM
One of your best. You dabbled us into many different classes of cars in this clip and got some Fedorcak insite. Bitchen!
Thanks Stew...always appreciated. I thought the quarter midgets and go-kart were "bitchen!" HMM
LOL. Touche' to me from you! :-)
👍👍👍👍👊
Every year I keep saying I'm going to go over there since it's only an hour from me.
Hopefully I actually make it happen next year.
Yeah...it's worth it. I'm definitely going back; I want to see more. Lots of cool stories there. Great racing too...thanks! HMM
Thank you HMM,great video.
You have to ask Trey if hes interested in getting a ride in a Indy car, the kid has a world oof talent.
Thank you again!
I had that conversation with Trey...his ultimate goal would be to race in the Indy 500...naturally, being the greatest, most famous, most prestigious sporting event in the world. Thanks Roger...HMM
@@HistoryMysteryMan thank you for answering my question.
Of course...always. HMM@@rogerozdarski2935
Great video Don. I want to meet Trey this year. So how did he do?
Thanks Chuck. Unfortunately, something broke on the car; he's was having some issues...so he never got to the A-Mains. HMM
@@HistoryMysteryMan Darn. That's racing!
Gosh what fun! Dangerous, but fun! I have a question. It’s probably a stupid question, but I’ll ask anyway lol. Do fumes build up since this is indoors? And how the heck does Trey fit in one of those? Great video. Really enjoyed learning about this 👍🏻
Great questions. I was wondering the same thing about Trey. He's super crammed in there but somehow he folds himself up enough to fit...but it can't be comfortable for a long period of time. And yes...the fumes are a problem. They have pretty good ventilation going...and they keep lots of the doors open to the outside to help bring in new air, but it's still a problem and something they're still trying to figure out. During one of the 50-lap features, they had to stop the race 19 laps from the finish to help clear the fumes out before they resumed. Thanks...HMM
A human pretzel Trey is. Talk about devotion! Hopefully they can work out better solutions for the fumes. Sounds a little worse than I thought. Thanks so much for answering!! 😀@@HistoryMysteryMan
Anytime and always...HMM@@critterscute3642
I was there friday late afternoon and night, too bad I didn't know you were comming, though I also talked to too tall trey and mentioned I saw your interview with him, hope you got a chance to go the 15 minutes north to auburn and see it if you had time, though the building by ninth street brew coffee the auburn hotel they are on the verge of tearing down, the last buisnessed had to vacate by the first, I dont know how long it has, but it is vintage circa 1903-1905 build, prob one of the oldest buildings in down town and was basicly the front and center to the auburn cord dussenburg festival since its first meetup, or maybe even where the festival among the acd car club fans gathered and formalized it, I know that first group stayed there in the hotel though, but its very ran down it was not cared for well for a long time so they got no choice but to take it down, plan is to rebuild it to about what it would have looked like on the exterior, inside the layout will have residences up stairs and buisnesses downstairs, as to how it will be laid out time will tell.
as for the raceing they said fort waynes colosium has hosted the most indoor midget races in the nation, and was the last aaa venue and about 2 weeks later hosted the first usac sanctioned event, though I was not around back then and dont know how frequently they had racing there, went on though till it stopped and they built the expo center and picked it up then, I talked to tony steward finally but he was buissy and I did not want to bug him too much knowing he is buissy with the car, and talking to actual drivers and knowing he can have a temper, did get to ask him most of what I wanted about the eldora mile, the land they dont own that, and I belive it was to be banked so it would be too big and too little passing for decent racing, said he was not sure what eldoras origional banking was right off hand, and I guess why you dont see more then 100 laps on a race for the long events, and why they dont really if ever do full 100 mile races on half miles as by the time you get half way it would really burn out the track surface and would be too late of an event, though I told him I meant like a stand alone silver crown event and not necessarly at the 4 crowns, which is fun but the cars are made for long distance as you know Don.
I also wanted to ask if he thought there would be a way to get the hoosier back on dirt like it should be even without the state fair in indy, hence the question on 200 lap dirt racing, and subsequent answer, though I imagine you could have an intermission for track prep half way not unlike the half way mark I saw on video of the origional hoosier 100 days where they come in and refueled and made a few adjustments, dont remember what year the video was taken though, I also wanted to ask why he sold the allstar circut of champions since they killed the name of the oldest traveling wing 410 series when high limit bought it , and about why they run a dished wing on pavement but not on dirt since the early more cowboy days before the rules were established and standardized, but did not have time.
I did kind of like the racing but its too brief and they dont even always let the cars and carts get into formation before starting the race, and you had some classes have their finals while they were still running heats in some classes, it was a little hard to follow, but I did like russ gamsters old roadster style nose midget though love the more traditional line that harkens way back, and did get to have a good conversation with tony's driver Joey Payne while by the pits, and talked a little with Mike Fedorcek, and talked about the time I got his autograph at baer field when he was trying to put a car and team togather for the indy 500, and he said that was several gray hairs ago lol. mike is an indiana ledgend, racing since just before I was born, and seen some footage of him I think at winchester or another track in the 80's when espn used to carry auto sports in the good old days and their programing was more then just football basketball, and sports talk shows, though he isn't necessarly a household name anymore, I have heard of his skill at car building and racing especially that midget and how it was too good that they banned it form competition.
didn't get to go saturday though had to work, but its ok I got to be part of a big thing, and for the racing I could not belive the low to the ground gokarts are the fastest things in the building would have thought it was the midgets, liked the 600's though about perfect for a track that size and not ear splitting loud but loud enough to get the blood rushing, the midgets made my ears ring thought it was not going to be as loud as was even though had earplugs didn't put them in thinking was just going to be like the gokarts since not 30 midgets racing like the outdoor tracks with usac, boy it gets smoky in there with the 50 lap feature they do, and was startled as the midgets sometimes fire up like a gun going off when they start which outside is not near as echoing as inside, boy though the collasium sure wants a ton for food now, even eldora is not that expensive nor many of the tracks
Thanks Manga12...sorry we couldn't connect at the Coliseum. You have really peaked my interest on that hotel in Auburn. And I didn't know that the Coliseum in FW has had more indoor Midget racing than anywhere else...so thanks for that! I didn't know that Fedorcak ever tried to put an Indy Car team together either...super interesting. Do you think Fedorcak would make a good, more in-depth interview? The noise didn't bother me as much as the fumes, but the fumes were not a deal crusher for me...and I will go back! Thanks again, my friend...HMM
@@HistoryMysteryMan I am sure mike is full of stories, someone did a piece about the munchkin midget or a short interview I think with in the last 2 years, they did say of the places that have held indoor racing fort wayne has had the most the buisnesses in the retail space of the hotel have varied over the years, but I do remember next the four crowns a dive and blue collor bar that was there since the late 60's there was a space that for a time was opened up and was where the area had its first coffee house in the late 1990's thats as far back tho, and in the space in the middle where the first coffie house the cupbearer a christian coffee house was 9th street brew started out with just the small room in the middle called Jeremiahs brewed awakinings, later around the time of the pandemic he sold it to two of his workers, on the mainstreet side I am not sure what was in there when I was little but its been several things, last being a natural grocery sort of thing, with local made foods, herbs and magic supplys, though they made their own soaps and candles next door, and would also host classes in candle making and the like, they also had local blened teas , but soon it will all be for naught, now they will likely reuse decoration elements when they rebuild the auburn hotel to look close as they can to the origional but it is going to come down its too far gone to try to restore unfortunatly.
They put Pepsi on the pavement?
From what I understand...yes. Pop syrup of some kind. They also added another ingredient this year that really seemed to help. I thought the track had great grip! Thanks again...HMM
Wat is the track size?
Man I'd say no more than a fifth of a mile...if that. Thanks again! HMM
1/6th mile.