1963 Knight Midget

Jimmy Knight was known as the 'racing brakeman from Chicago' whose first major Midget win during July 1953 launched a driving career that tallied at least twenty-three feature wins through 1967, largely on mid-West tracks. He was a tough competitor, as shown by posting back-to-back wins over a 2-day schedule during July 1954 at Canfield, Ohio, followed by Kokomo, Indiana. He raced AAA and USAC events and won the 1954 July, August, and September feature races at the Kokomo Speedway. Along the way, he learned considerable chassis and suspension design, then applied his knowledge in 1963 when he undertook to design and build his own Midget with attention to making the car's weight as light as possible.

The result was this car. Among over twenty builders of Midgets who produced cars weighing about 750 pounds without fuel, Knight's lightweight gave him an advantage on the race track. Compared to similar Offenhauser inline 4-cylinder powered cars, the 'Light Knight Special' weighed just 510 pounds without fuel. This is the car believed to have been raced to at least three major wins during June 1965: the 100-lap USAC Midget race at O'Hare Field, Chicago, held on June 4; the 100-lap USAC Midget race at Cloverleaf Speedway, Valley View, Ohio; and the USAC Midget feature race at Sandusky Speedway, Sandusky, Ohio held June 30. Several drivers of note raced this car. It later became a restoration project that returned the car to its mid-1960s configuration.