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Not all the forgotten dirt tracks were stock car tracks. There were several micro midget tracks in the Carolinas. There was the micro-midget track in Indian Trail appropriately named Indian Trail Speedway…I can still hear Jim McClain saying now, “Out of the night, into the light at Indian Trail Speedway”, and “here comes Horace Fitzgerald, the power slidin’ king”…Indian Trail Speedway was located not too far from where the square is now, and the owners were Jim and Joe McClain of McClain Concrete Company. It was in operation from about 1966 to 1971, was relocated near Wingate, NC, as Rock Rest Speedway.
| 1969 handmade modified midget Daytona… This car was built by Bill Brafford of Charlotte, NC, and driven by Bruce Kepley at Indian Trail Speedway in 1970-1971 season in the B class modified midget category. It featured a full roll cage, was about 10 feet long, and entry was through the roof hatch. The engine was a water cooled Cushman engine and the car was correct in every detail. The model used to create this 1/2 size replica was of the 1969 K&K insurance car model kit. The car was in instant crowd favorite, |
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| This is a photo taken just after a trophy dash victory at Indian Trail Speedway in late 1970. The car was built by my father and myself at Western Carolina Tractor Company in the evening hours, with Terrell Machine Company supplying some of the critical (government job) components. Note: (1) the aircraft steering wheel which was hogged out to house a kill switch, (2) the Pep Boys mirrors mounted on the cowl, (3) the latest technology Bell Star helmet, (4) fully independent front and rear suspension (hand made) with the shock tower stiffener, and (5) handmade dual exhausts coming from a single cylinder 250cc Ducati Engine. |
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| September, 1956, … This is a photo of my uncle Lloyd “Short” Kepley taken in September, 1956. This was a micro midget that he and my dad built back in the day with a highly modified air cooled Cushman scooter engine, and did fairly well in the Salisbury area. Note: (1) the grille was from an early car dash, (2) the young kid in the background (me) is now 61 years of age today, (3) the Rowan County Fair decal advertising the fair from September 25-28 and (4) the football crash helmet with the aviation goggles from back in the day would certainly not pass NASCAR standards. |
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| This is a photo of my 2 year old ’67 Buick GS400 4 speed, only one of two in Charlotte, getting ready to tow the Indianapolis type micro-midget racer. I remember the night ended in a crash which effectively wiped out my right side suspension and took two evenings to rebuild. |
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| This is a photo of my dad (extreme right), J.C. Kepley, at Indian Trail Speedway in 1968. My brother Steve, on leave from Viet-Nam, is sitting on a hill in the extreme left of the photo. The car was my first race car that I ever owned, and was built by my dad and myself, with Frank Haas of Haas Sign Company doing the lettering. |
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This modified midget racer sported a 250cc Koenig racing boat engine from Germany, and was track champion at Indian Trail Speedway in 1970 and NC State paved track modified midget champion in 1972 at Two Flags Raceway. It was originally built by Jan Thomas who campaigned the car with Junior Neal, the class C open go cart national champion in 1969, winning about 90% of the feature races it entered (car number 7).
I bought the remains of the car after a bad accident
(t-boned) at Wayno Speedway in 1971, rebuilt it, and won the paved track championship in 1972 (car 54). Just after that I painted the car yellow, renamed it the Screamin’ Yellow Zonker and that’s how it ended its career on dirt at Rock Rest Speedway. Note: one peculiar feature of the car on pavement was that it got so much bite that it wanted to go on two wheels through the turns on pavement at Two Flags Raceway in Concord. |
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Bruce Kepley, Monroe, NC |
