USAC CHAMPION CAR OWNER GARY ZAROUNIAN DIES
By: Richie Murray - USAC Media
Speedway, Indiana (July 13, 2023)………Gary Zarounian, one-half of the legendary Zarounian Motorsports team which captured over 100 USAC-sanctioned feature victories between the 1980s and the 2000s, passed away on July 11, 2023.
Gary, along with his father George Zarounian, owned the gorgeous red and blue midget, sprint car and Silver Crown machines that competed regularly with the United States Auto Club for a two-decade stretch. George died in 2014.
The Visalia, California-based team got into the business of winning USAC races starting with the 1983 Western States Midget season where the Zarounians collected the first of their record five entrant titles with the series, which they also went on to tame in 1985-87-88-92, all with Hall of Fame driver Sleepy Tripp at the wheel.
With the USAC Western States Midget division, the Zarounians racked up a total of 88 feature wins – 78 of them with Tripp, and 30 of those coming at the famed Ascot Park in Gardena, Calif. Ken Nichols grabbed six USAC Western States dubs with the Zarounians while Jeff Gordon, Donnie Beechler, Pat Bliss and Tony Hunt each notched one apiece.
In that same time frame, the Zarounian ride scored 11 USAC National Midget victories between 1984-94, 10 of them with Tripp and one with Steve Knepper during the 1994 4-Crown Nationals at Ohio’s Eldora Speedway.
Further cementing their status as midget racing giants, the Zarounians scored three triumphs at the Belleville Midget Nationals in Kansas in 1985 and 1987 with Tripp, and once more in 1991 with Jack Hewitt. Donnie Beechler put the Zarounians in victory lane at the Chili Bowl in 1995 at the Tulsa (Okla.) Expo Center.
Gary never had the urge to race, and instead found satisfaction seeing his cars run well. Gary owned the family car dealership in Visalia, which sold Oldsmobile, Cadillac and Isuzu vehicles, but soon found his way to central Indiana in a shop on Gasoline Alley in Indianapolis where Zarounian Motorsports hit the USAC National scene full-time in 1995. On occasion, Gary would be in the Midwest fielding a Zarounian Silver Crown car while George would be on the west coast getting the midget together for a run with the Western States series.
That same year, Zarounian entered the USAC Silver Crown ranks. Over the next nine seasons through 2003, Team Zarounian accumulated 12 series wins with a superstar cast of drivers, including Donnie Beechler, J.J. Yeley, Kasey Kahne and Bud Kaeding.
Beechler scored five Silver Crown wins for Zarounian, including the inaugural Sumar Classic at the Terre Haute (Ind.) Action Track in 1995, a race in which they won again in 1997 en route to a runner-up finish in the season-ending point standings. Beechler and Zarounian were also the winners of the rain-shortened 1998 Hoosier Hundred at the Indiana State Fairgrounds.
Zarounian dominated their home state dirt mile at the Cal Expo State Fairgrounds in Sacramento, Calif. with three-straight victories, in 1996-97 with Beechler and in 1998 with J.J. Yeley.
Yeley earned a total of four wins for the Zarounians at Cal Expo and Illinois’ Gateway Motorsports Park in 1998 as well as Iowa’s Knoxville Raceway and Eldora in 2001, which led the team to another runner-up finish in the standings.
Kasey Kahne was named USAC Silver Crown Rookie of the Year in 2000 while piloting a Zarounian entry, winning twice in his career for the team, once at the Du Quoin (Ill.) State Fairgrounds in 2000 and at Pennsylvania’s Nazareth Speedway in 2003. Kahne also added a pair of USAC Western Sprint Car scores in 2002 for Zarounian.
Bud Kaeding became Zarounian’s last Silver Crown winner at Oklahoma’s Tulsa Fairgrounds Motorplex in 2003.
