4/7/2025
Midget Auto Racing Association
Midget Auto Racing Association (MARA) Set for Weekend Doubleheader in Illinois
The Midget Auto Racing Association (MARA) opens its third season this weekend with a doubleheader. The action kicks off on Saturday night, April 12 at Coles County Speedway and moves an hour and a half northwest to compete at Lincoln Speedway for a Sunday evening race.
2024 MARA champion Parker Jones will be making the near five-hour tow from Blue Mounds, Wisconsin to Mattoon, Illinois for the Coles County go. “I’m looking forward to carrying our momentum from 2024 into 2025 and get as many wins as we can,” said Jones. In fact, Jones already started the 2025 momentum in January at the Chili Bowl where he made the A-Main in his preliminary night and ran a respectable ninth in his D-Main on Championship Night.
The runner-up in 2024 and 2023 MARA champion, Daltyn England, is uncertain if he’ll make opening night. The Springfield, IL driver is excited for the season to get going and plans on being at Lincoln for sure. After putting in a lot of work in the offseason, he’s looking forward to starting the year on a high note. England was a feature winner at Lincoln in 2024.
Fourth in points last year, Tyler Roth from Springfield, is ready for Coles County where he scored quick time at the final race. A tough draw put him in the fourth row for the A-Main that night and he fought his way to third at one point.
Alex Midkiff of Belleville, IL plans on doing the double and said, “ Brian and their crew have done a great job at making it (Coles County Speedway) one of the best facilities in the area and the tight bullring always produces great racing. I will be at Lincoln the next night and I am also looking forward to getting back there, as we had great success at that frequent stop on our schedule last year.”
Rebooted in 2023, MARA is growing into a major player on the midget racing scene. The original MARA series was founded in Springfield, IL in 1977. Its first race was held in Champaign, IL and Duke DeRosa was its first victor and champion. When the series ceased operations in 2006, Don Lehmann, son of one of MARA’s original founders, Howard Lehmann, was the final champion.
The MARA rulebook mirrors that of the oldest midget sanctioning body in the world, the Badger Midget Auto Racing Association. With falling car counts, Badger rewrote the rules on their engine package. The result was a more affordable power plant that has allowed many more teams the ability to race due to much lower costs compared to the so-called “national engine.” In comparing the packages, consider that the success Jones had at the Chili Bowl was thanks to a MARA/Badger-legal engine where most teams ran a national car. Other clubs have made the Badger/MARA rulebook their blueprint too.
Please see the media pages of Coles County Speedway and Lincoln Speedway for times, pricing and the most current updates.
Article by: Bill Blumer Jr.
Photo by: Randall Brown
Submitted By: William Blumer