A
pioneer of Midget Racing in Colorado Lloyd Axel began racing
the small cars when they made their first appearance in the
Denver area in 1937. He was one of the invites to the AAA
Championship races held on the Chicago Board track at Soldier
Field in 1939.
Axel
founded the Rocky Mountain
Midget Racing Association in
1940. RMMRA is the third oldest midget club in the nation that
is still sanctioning midget races. With the club running
mostly on paved tracks the Denver cars were known for their
beautiful paint jobs and fielded some of the prettiest cars in
the nation.
Axel was quick to recognize the potential of the Kurtis
Kraft Offy combination and purchased the third Kurtis Kraft
chassis off the line.
Lloyd was the RMMRA 1940 and 1941 Champion and was the
club’s first President. He placed second to Hall of fame
member Johnnie Tolan in the 1946 RMMRA points. In 1950 he won
the Mile High Auto Racing Association title and won over 75
features in Colorado during a career that continued into the
late 1950s.
Records indicate several victories with AAA including
events at South Bend, Indiana and Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
Lloyd Axel died in 1971 at age 65. He is also a member
of the National Sprint Car Hall of
Fame.
