Local Dirt Track Legend Passes...

Great story about Miles Melius. He was THE guy to beat when I first started going to the races in 1959... RIP.

‘The Mouse’ was a racing legend in his own right before he fueled the passion of another

Sorry for your lose. Sounds like he was a great guy.

Sorry to hear, like hearing about the old legend's, great pictures. May he rest in peace.

Awesome first picture pulling him from some wreck... RIP

Last picture is of him at state fair park clay track that was in the infield of the Milwaukee mile during the early 60’s. That is his Ford sedan modified at speed flying down the front straightaway. Guy with the flag is none other than Duane Sweeney who went on to be the starter of the Indy 500.

You can see the mouse’s 34 ford modified on display at the Hartford auto museum in Hartford, Wisconsin along with cars of his competition like Etchie’s falcon and Fuzzy’s gremlin.

Fuzzy just passed last year, ending of an era. RIP gentlemen.

the number 12 car is the one in the museum in Hartford, WI. it was a game changer car with torsion bar suspension on all four corners of the car and a power pack that would turn the right side rear tighter as you pumped it. Mouse told me the torsion bars only bounced once after going over a bump compared to 3-4 times for a buggy spring. he also told me on a restart of a race he could get the right rear tire up into the wet clay that was thrown to the outside of the track that was real tacky, give the power pack a couple of pumps and sling shot around 2-3 cars at once. it also didn't hurt that he had a visibly faster car than the rest of the pack due to a 289 small block ford stroked to 325 by Schlieper's speed shop. roller cammed, Hilborn fuel injection running on methanol. he was the 1968 Cedarburg track champion.

I still have the Porto-Power hyd. jack that was in my late model that was run at Wilmot and Waukegan in the 60's.

That one was installed on the RF on top of the coil spring. Some guys had them on the front eye of the LR leaf spring. One or two pumps would change the " wedge" in the chassis.

I remember that Mouse had two cars late in his career....one Ford powered one Chevy. Much needed when running six nights per week.

While these modifieds were home built and crude by today's standards many were built by skilled machinists and fabricators. SE WI was known as the World's Machine Shop at that time with hundreds of private firms employing tens of thousands in the trades.

I know some race teams had two or three shifts of guys working on the cars. They were factory workers doing shift work. And did the maintenance and repairs after they came home whether it was 7 am or 7 pm.

I was not aware of the Chevy the mouse ran.
I was 10 years old the summer of 68, kids didn't go anywhere without their parents after 8 pm back in those days and it cost about $6 for an adult ticket to get into the track at Fireman's Park in Cedarburg which was about 5-6 blocks from my house. that was like a half days wage's if you had a good job or more if you didn't. I saw the Mouse race maybe 3-4 times in my life, but distinctly remember that one was a 50 lap feature that he ran away with. but it couldn't have been "all car", Etchie didn't have the fastest car. he had to place in the semi feature to get into the feature at Cedarburg most Wednesday nites. if he was out in front of you, he was hard to get around. he made you race your hardest to pass him, he just was a phenomenal driver. so was the Mouse and Fuzzy and now all 3 have passed.

And there where others, if you are touring Wisconsin for any reason, I HIGHLY RECOMMEND stopping in at the Hartford Auto Museum and check out the Wisconsin Short Track Hall of Fame exhibit there on the second floor. for me it is 3 hours of Nirvana every time I go.

times have changed. racing 5-6 nites a week and working a full time job you had to have drive and commitment. most guys I know that race it is one nite a week. so many tracks have closed, Cedarburg and Hales Corners just to name 2.

smart phones are not that smart and playing video games suck. WTF is wrong with people these days?

Our local track (1/4) has struggled for years and changed hands on repeated occasions. The guys running it now have added some pavement and started doing drifting events. While it is not my cup of tea it appears that it will save the track with its financial impact. Long live drifting????

whatever it takes, long live auto racing.
the track at Sheboygan closed a couple of years ago which is 13 mi from me.
the track at Plymouth about the same distance is run by a bunch of jerkoffs.
how a track is run is everything and owning and managing a track takes a special kind of person. try laying down the law among 50 independent racers not to mention putting up with and paying liability insurance.
Cedarburg was closed because the grand stand was too close to the track and the cyclone fence separating the 2 was deemed not strong enough by the insurance company.