MIKE STREICHER MEMORIAL BRINGS USAC MIDWEST THUNDER MIDGETS TO LIMALAND FRIDAY
By: Richie Murray – USAC Media
Lima, Ohio (May 9, 2022)………The USAC Midwest Thunder SpeeD2 Midgets return to action this Friday night, May 13, at Limaland Motorsports Park in Lima, Ohio, for the second running of the Mike Streicher Memorial presented by Post Printing.
The event honors Streicher, the 1991 USAC National Midget driving champion and 2018 National Midget Hall of Fame inductee, who passed away in November of 2019 at the age of 62.
The series has made just five previous appearances at Limaland under the “Ford Focus” and USAC Midwest Thunder SpeeD2 Midget banner. Winners include Jordan Noblitt (2003), Robbie Ray (2004), Ryan Smith (2005), Chett Gehrke (2007) and Stratton Briggs (2021), the victor of the inaugural Mike Streicher Memorial race a year ago.
Streicher, the native Ohioan from Findlay, made his mark in several aspects of the sport and had an enormous impact on generations of individuals who have occupied the sport in the past and the present with a legacy in auto racing that will carry on well into the future.
The event also brings awareness to the scholarship fund created by the Streicher family and the University of Northwestern Ohio following his death. More information on the scholarship fund can be found at www.unoh.edu/streichermemorial/streicher-memorial-form.pdf.
Streicher was a success in nearly all facets of midget racing, capturing USAC National Midget championships on both the driver and team side as a mechanic and car builder.
In 1983, Streicher, with his father Jim, captured their first USAC National Midget owner title as mechanic for driver Rich Vogler. In 1988, at Indiana’s Kokomo Speedway, Mike won the first of his seven (six points-paying) career USAC National Midget features.
Mike was victorious once again in 1989 in home state of Ohio at Barberton Speedway in Norton, Ohio, winding up 4th in the final standings. He then scored three more wins in 1990 with a major victory at the Hoosier Dome Invitational in Indianapolis, Ind., at Indiana’s Lawrenceburg Speedway and Kentucky’s Florence Speedway, finishing 3rd in the series’ driver points while the team notched its second owner title.
The following season, in 1991, Streicher had his breakout year, racing to victory at Kentucky’s Richmond Raceway en route to the USAC National Midget driving title and the family’s third entrant championship. By doing so, he remains the most recent USAC National champion from the state of Ohio.
He won once more in 1992, fittingly, in the Buckeye state at Portsmouth Raceway Park.
Mike constructed the Hawk Chassis, which raced to countless Midget feature wins in USAC, NAMARS, ARCA, NEMA, ARDC, and other series. Streicher also served as a professor at University of Northwestern Ohio’s motorsports program to educate future racers and mechanics and was instrumental in the development of the USAC .25 Midget program.
Tickets for Friday’s Mike Streicher Memorial are $12 for adults, $6 for kids aged 11-15 and children aged 10 and under are free. Pit passes are $30 apiece.
Pits open at 4:30pm ET, grandstands open at 5pm, hot laps at 6:30pm and racing at 7:30pm.