racingfan03
Well-Known Member
http://www.bnd.com/2010/06/20/1300500/giants-of-the-midgets-bellevilles.html
There were five Knepper brothers: One sold farm equipment. The other four raced Midget and other cars in Belleville.
The four passed down the passion. Walter Knepper gave it to his son, "Junior," who passed it to his son, Steve, who shares it with his son, Nick.
And it is not just fathers and sons. Daughters have welded. There are many people in the family who are not related.
"It's a lot of good people, a community," said Steve Knepper of Belleville. "It's a big racing community. Like you have a baseball community, we have a racing community."
Next weekend, Steve Knepper, 49, and Nick Knepper, 23, will be racing their red and yellow Midgets against each other to mark the 75th anniversary of Midget racing in St. Louis. It also is just more than 61 years since Belle-Clair Speedway opened, a track built for Midget racing.
"We try to race as much as we can," Steve Knepper said. "The last time we ran at Belle-Clair a couple of weeks ago, I beat Nick. It's not a very big track, a fifth-mile, but it's good racing. We probably run 70 mph to 80 mph down the straightaway."
The Midget cars father and son drive are essentially identical: Same engine, same body. They sit in their own part of the family's auto repair business, K and K Garage, on Iowa Street in Belleville.
"It all comes down to the track and the driver," Steve Knepper said. "There is a little bit of friendly rivalry on the track."
The Knepper family has been racing Midgets in Belleville since the 1930s. When the brand-new, $75,000 Midget track opened June 15, 1948, there were 4,000 fans with more than 1,000 others turned away.
The purse that first night was $1,395. Fans paid $1 for a bleacher seat, $1.50 for grandstand seating and $2 for a reserved seat.
Thirty-six drivers registered, but not all of them made it to the track.
"It rained that night, but it didn't rain on the track," said Eileen Waters, a St. Louis area motor sports historian and race fan. "We're talking dirt roads back then, and some of the guys couldn't get their cars to the track."
Chuck Marshall, winner of the races that evening, set a national record for a lap of 12.26 seconds during time trials. He also won the 25-lap feature event, but not in his car. The rain kept it from arriving, so he drove a Belleville owner's car.
Also racing that night was the youngest of the five Knepper brothers, Ray. He placed fourth.
Ray Knepper started his racing career in 1939 and was inducted into the National Midget Auto Racing Hall of Fame in January 2009. He died in 2000 at age 79.
His brother Butch's son, Arnie, also became a Midget, sprint and open-wheel racing icon, racing five times in the Indianapolis 500.
Junior Knepper was 12 years old when the first Midget races were run at Belle-Clair. He took a break from working on a customer's Buick and paged through a scrapbook of racing photos next to his son and grandson's cars, talking about drivers and friends famous in racing circles from Midgets to Indy to NASCAR.
He's moved in and out of Midget racing, working at Indy for a year, and was drawn back to Midgets when Steve was a teen and old enough to race. He remembers Midget races at the fairgrounds before the new track was built.
"They just put hay bales around the track, which was where the livestock barns are now, and they raced there," he said. "They liked it so much that the next year, they came back and built the new one. My dad (Walter Knepper Sr.) was an official at the track and I used to go to the track with him. I used to drive my dad's car around the track."
During the 1930s and 1940s, Midget races held at the old Walsh Stadium near Forest Park in St. Louis easily drew 15,000 or more spectators.
"The Midget races drew more people than the baseball game down the street did," said Junior Knepper. "The guys were all coming back from the war, and they had a taste for something dangerous and fast. They had a little extra cash in their pockets, and I guess they wanted to see it."
Today, Belle-Clair Speedway average about 1,200 fans on Midget racing nights.
"There are a lot more forms of motorsports now than there were 75 years ago," Waters said.
She said people still love to come to Belleville to watch Midget races on the one-fifth mile oval.
"They are fascinating," Waters said. "It's a real neat time to just get together. Everyone is there for one thing and they are like your second family, your racing family."
Midget and Micro racing will be celebrated during the 75th Open Wheel Anniversary on Friday and Saturday at the Belle-Clair Speedway. Saturday will be the big race night, featuring a fan festival, a vintage race car display, race simulators, a meet-and-greet with the drivers and a 75-lap Midget feature to finish the evening.
Performance Open Wheel Racing Inc., or POWRi, and the Badger Midget Auto Racing Association are sponsoring the event and the Midget racing series.
Both Midgets and Micros will race during the anniversary weekend. The POWRi Racing Performance series was started in 2003 by Millstadt native and Belleville West High School graduate Kenny Brown.
"Like any sport, it has a niche following," Waters said. "POWRi is one of the best Midget shows you'll ever see. They run on time, they start hot laps at 6 p.m. and run through all their classes and will be done by 9:30. They run a very fast, efficient show."
There were five Knepper brothers: One sold farm equipment. The other four raced Midget and other cars in Belleville.
The four passed down the passion. Walter Knepper gave it to his son, "Junior," who passed it to his son, Steve, who shares it with his son, Nick.
And it is not just fathers and sons. Daughters have welded. There are many people in the family who are not related.
"It's a lot of good people, a community," said Steve Knepper of Belleville. "It's a big racing community. Like you have a baseball community, we have a racing community."
Next weekend, Steve Knepper, 49, and Nick Knepper, 23, will be racing their red and yellow Midgets against each other to mark the 75th anniversary of Midget racing in St. Louis. It also is just more than 61 years since Belle-Clair Speedway opened, a track built for Midget racing.
"We try to race as much as we can," Steve Knepper said. "The last time we ran at Belle-Clair a couple of weeks ago, I beat Nick. It's not a very big track, a fifth-mile, but it's good racing. We probably run 70 mph to 80 mph down the straightaway."
The Midget cars father and son drive are essentially identical: Same engine, same body. They sit in their own part of the family's auto repair business, K and K Garage, on Iowa Street in Belleville.
"It all comes down to the track and the driver," Steve Knepper said. "There is a little bit of friendly rivalry on the track."
The Knepper family has been racing Midgets in Belleville since the 1930s. When the brand-new, $75,000 Midget track opened June 15, 1948, there were 4,000 fans with more than 1,000 others turned away.
The purse that first night was $1,395. Fans paid $1 for a bleacher seat, $1.50 for grandstand seating and $2 for a reserved seat.
Thirty-six drivers registered, but not all of them made it to the track.
"It rained that night, but it didn't rain on the track," said Eileen Waters, a St. Louis area motor sports historian and race fan. "We're talking dirt roads back then, and some of the guys couldn't get their cars to the track."
Chuck Marshall, winner of the races that evening, set a national record for a lap of 12.26 seconds during time trials. He also won the 25-lap feature event, but not in his car. The rain kept it from arriving, so he drove a Belleville owner's car.
Also racing that night was the youngest of the five Knepper brothers, Ray. He placed fourth.
Ray Knepper started his racing career in 1939 and was inducted into the National Midget Auto Racing Hall of Fame in January 2009. He died in 2000 at age 79.
His brother Butch's son, Arnie, also became a Midget, sprint and open-wheel racing icon, racing five times in the Indianapolis 500.
Junior Knepper was 12 years old when the first Midget races were run at Belle-Clair. He took a break from working on a customer's Buick and paged through a scrapbook of racing photos next to his son and grandson's cars, talking about drivers and friends famous in racing circles from Midgets to Indy to NASCAR.
He's moved in and out of Midget racing, working at Indy for a year, and was drawn back to Midgets when Steve was a teen and old enough to race. He remembers Midget races at the fairgrounds before the new track was built.
"They just put hay bales around the track, which was where the livestock barns are now, and they raced there," he said. "They liked it so much that the next year, they came back and built the new one. My dad (Walter Knepper Sr.) was an official at the track and I used to go to the track with him. I used to drive my dad's car around the track."
During the 1930s and 1940s, Midget races held at the old Walsh Stadium near Forest Park in St. Louis easily drew 15,000 or more spectators.
"The Midget races drew more people than the baseball game down the street did," said Junior Knepper. "The guys were all coming back from the war, and they had a taste for something dangerous and fast. They had a little extra cash in their pockets, and I guess they wanted to see it."
Today, Belle-Clair Speedway average about 1,200 fans on Midget racing nights.
"There are a lot more forms of motorsports now than there were 75 years ago," Waters said.
She said people still love to come to Belleville to watch Midget races on the one-fifth mile oval.
"They are fascinating," Waters said. "It's a real neat time to just get together. Everyone is there for one thing and they are like your second family, your racing family."
Midget and Micro racing will be celebrated during the 75th Open Wheel Anniversary on Friday and Saturday at the Belle-Clair Speedway. Saturday will be the big race night, featuring a fan festival, a vintage race car display, race simulators, a meet-and-greet with the drivers and a 75-lap Midget feature to finish the evening.
Performance Open Wheel Racing Inc., or POWRi, and the Badger Midget Auto Racing Association are sponsoring the event and the Midget racing series.
Both Midgets and Micros will race during the anniversary weekend. The POWRi Racing Performance series was started in 2003 by Millstadt native and Belleville West High School graduate Kenny Brown.
"Like any sport, it has a niche following," Waters said. "POWRi is one of the best Midget shows you'll ever see. They run on time, they start hot laps at 6 p.m. and run through all their classes and will be done by 9:30. They run a very fast, efficient show."
