10-TIME USAC MIDGET WINNER CHUCK WEYANT PASSES AWAY
Chuck Weyant, a 10-time winner on the USAC National Midget trail and a 2003 National Midget Hall of Fame inductee, passed away Monday, January 23, 2017. He was 93 years old.
Hailing from St. Mary’s, Ohio, Weyant spent most of his racing career as a resident of Springfield, Illinois. His first racing victory came in 1947 and he captured track titles in Charleston and Belleville, Ill.
Weyant made the first of his four Indianapolis 500 starts in 1955, scoring a career-best 12th place finish aboard the Federal Engineering Special. That very same year, Weyant, a stalwart on the AAA Midget circuit, was victorious in the prestigious “Hut 100” at the Terre Haute (Ind.) Action Track.
Weyant, USAC’s oldest surviving National series winner at the time of his death, scored his lone USAC Sprint triumph at Jacksonville (Fla.) Speedway on February 12, 1956 in a Frank Curtis entry. Just two months later, Weyant became the sixth ever feature winner in the USAC National Midget series when he took the checkered flag at Knoxville, Tennessee’s Broadway Speedway piloting the Johnny Pawl No. 18.
Weyant’s resume includes three AAA wins and numerous USAC National Midget victories in the late 1950s and 60s at Springfield (Ill.) Speedway twice, Illiana Speedway in Schererville, Ind, the Champaign-Urbana (Ill.) Fairgrounds, Fairbury (Ill.) Speedway as well as four indoor victories, including twice at the Fort Wayne (Ind.) Memorial Coliseum and once each at the Cincinnati (Ohio) Gardens and the Chicago (Ill.) Amphitheater.
In a Championship Car career that spanned 11 seasons between 1952 and 1962, Weyant made 18 starts, the first of which coming at the Du Quoin (Ill.) State Fairgrounds in September of ‘52. Weyant made three additional Indianapolis 500 starts after his rookie performance in 1955, qualifying for three-straight runnings at the Brickyard in 1957, 1958 and 1959.
USAC extends its condolences to Weyant’s family and friends.
