Shorty Templeman, who listed Washington as his home during his racing career, was USAC’s National Midget Champion in its first three seasons, 1956, 1957 and 1958. He scored 22 USAC Midget wins prior to his untimely death in a crash at Marion, Ohio in 1962. A multiple Midget racing champion in the northwest, he scored a “sweep” of the three features comprising the 1956 “Night Before the 500” program in Indianapolis, Ind. Inducted into the National Midget Auto Racing Hall of Fame in its inaugural class of 1984, he competed in five Indianapolis 500s, earning a fourth-place finish in 1961. His best National Championship finishes came at Du Quoin, Ill. and Syracuse, N.Y. in 1961 where he was second.