He is remembered as the
first “Superstar” of midget car racing, this deeply religious
youngster who began competing in the early weekly races at
Loyola Stadium in Los Angeles, California in 1933.
Gifted with natural mechanical abilities,
Betteridge built his “Little Red Racer” and before the second
season of midget racing had upgraded his machine twice with
more powerful engines.
Before the start of the 1933
season Billy took his car to the Muroc dry lake for a test and
ran over 100 miles-per-hour in it.
In 1934 Billy won over 50 features. He scored ten of
them before the new Gilmore Stadium opened and was on his way
to the Midget Auto Racing Association Championship. Billy won
the 75 mile road race at Greenwich Village, six features in a
row at Gilmore and seventeen more at other tracks before
September 27th of ’34. That was the day Curly Mills showed up
at Gilmore Stadium with the new Offy Engine in a Curley
Wetteroth built machine.
The Offy soon took over as the dominate engine for the
little cars. Betteridge was still able to win his share of
events and he took the National Midget Association Title in
1936.
His death on June 8, 1937 at Atlantic Speedway just two
months past his 23rd birthday brought an end to the list of
truly competitive drivers from the first year of the sport and
also spelled and end to the outboards as a serious threat in
competition.
