Speedway, Indiana (January 13, 2025)………Ken Brenn, who made his name winning some of the most distinctive midget races across the United States and was also a pioneer in motorsports safety, has passed away. He was 97 years old.
Brenn, of Warren, New Jersey, was the last surviving USAC National Midget winning car entrant from the 1950s. In all, Brenn totaled five career USAC National Midget victories, his first coming in 1959 at the New Jersey State Fairgrounds where his driver, Jiggs Peters, collected a 250-lap feature victory, the longest race in series history.
In 1966, Larry Dickson grabbed his first career USAC National Midget win at the wheel of Brenn’s number 24 machine at Pennsylvania’s Nazareth Speedway and added another late in the year at Arizona’s Manzanita Speedway. Sandwiched between the two was Don Branson’s final USAC score during the Hut 100 at Indiana’s Terre Haute Action Track.
Jimmy Kirk earned his one and only USAC National Midget triumph for Brenn during a 100-lapper at New Jersey’s Flemington Speedway during the summer of 1971.
However, it was Rodger Ward who may have provided Brenn with his most incredible victory at the 1.5-mile Lime Rock, Connecticut road course in 1959. There, in what was considered a Formula Libre event under the USAC banner, Ward took Brenn’s decade-plus-old Offenhauser-powered midget to victory over a field that included the greatest sports car drivers and cars of the day. Still today, it is considered one of the most significant upsets in American motorsports history.
Fellow Indianapolis 500 champion Mark Donohue followed suit in 1963 by winning in Brenn’s midget at Lime Rock, marking Donohue’s first professional race victory.
Additionally, Brenn had a long association with the American Racing Drivers Club, capturing the five car entrant championships with Len Duncan (1963-1964) and Johnny Coy Sr. (1968-1969-1971). Between 1969-1970, Brenn served as the President of ARDC.
Furthermore, Brenn was a steadfast supported of advancing racing safety. In 1958, he designed a roll bar to affix to his midget. A year later, in 1959, roll bars were adopted by the entire circuit’s drivers and teams. In 1966, Brenn’s sprint car, driven by Larry Dickson, became the first of its kind to utilize a roll cage in an event at Maryland’s Cumberland Raceway.
While in charge of ARDC, he led the charge in making roll cages and shoulder harnesses mandatory for all competitors by 1970. Away from the racetrack, Brenn owned and operated a construction company and was elected as mayor of Warren, New Jersey.
During the decade of the 1970s. Brenn became the promoter of East Windsor and Bridgeport Speedway in his home state of New Jersey and also was a successful car owner on the northeast modified circuit with Stan Ploski and sons, Ken Brenn Jr. and Jimmy Brenn.
Brenn is a member of both the Eastern Motorsport Press Association Hall of Fame and the National Midget Auto Racing Hall of Fame.
