Fedorcak ‘Back In Blue’ For Rumble In Fort Wayne

Mike Fedorcak (second from left) and his crew unveiled a throwback paint scheme for the No. 97 midget at the Rumble in Fort Wayne. (Jacob Seelman photo)

FORT WAYNE, Ind. – A chapter of midget car history was revisited before race cars ever took to the floor Thursday for practice ahead of the 26th annual Rumble in Fort Wayne presented by Jason Dietsch Trailer Sales.

Officials from Tony Stewart Racing – led by midget division crew chief Sam McGhee – unveiled a new-old paint scheme for longtime veteran and fabricator Mike Fedorcak’s iconic No. 97, moving back from the car’s black-and-silver scheme to the bright blue, yellow-numbered look that Fedorcak carried on the original Munchkin chassis he built in 1986.

McGhee spent nearly a year bringing the redesign to fruition, using photos of the debut Munchkin midget as a guide, and did so all without alerting his driver to what was going on behind the scenes.

“I’m blown away,” Fedorcak said, a big grin on his face as the car was unveiled inside the Allen County War Memorial Coliseum. “This is truly a surprise and an honor.”

“This idea started at the 2023 Rumble when a fan brought an original body panel from this car to give back to Mike, and Tony [Stewart] and I sat there and both agreed it looked really cool,” McGhee reflected. “When we were loading up to leave at the end of the weekend, I said, ‘Hey Tony, next year I’m going to wrap Mike’s car like his original car … and Tony immediately said it was something I had to do.”

It was a plan that very few people were in on – as McGhee had to get creative with how to keep Fedorcak from catching wind of the idea.

“Mike spent his 70th birthday actually in my shop, welding on that car, so I couldn’t do anything to get it ready until he left and I knew the next time I’d see him after that was here [at the Coliseum],” McGhee noted. “His reaction was absolutely worth it, though. He thought we were playing a joke on everyone else in the building when, in reality, it was on him for a really great reason.”

Those familiar with the history of indoor and outdoor racing in Indiana know that Fedorcak first designed the Munchkin as a radical shift from the traditional cars of the United States Auto Club in the mid-1980s.

Fedorcak built nine cars originally, including six with the help of late fabricator and longtime friend Mike Streicher, and the car he continues to campaign at the Rumble to this day was the third chassis built – originally featuring a longer wheelbase for use at Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park in that era.

The new scheme, however, is a call back to Munchkin No. 1, which still sits in Fedorcak’s personal race shop. He hopes to eventually rebuild that frame into a show car.

“I don’t necessarily associate the blue scheme with memories in [the IRP] car, but those are good memories nevertheless,” Fedorcak explained. “That was a time when I was just challenging myself to go faster each time, and I ended up getting the track record there for a few years. We had a lot of exposure in that car and a lot of ideas that were tested; some good, some not so good, but a lot of trial and error.”

Fedorcak remains the oldest driver to set the fastest qualifying time and the oldest driver to lead a feature lap in Rumble in Fort Wayne history, and though he’s started on his eighth decade around the sun, the native Hoosier is as passionate as ever when he straps in behind the wheel.

“Rubber on the track,” Fedorcak noted as the reason he keeps coming back to the Rumble year after year. “It’s an exciting place to get around and [racing in a car of his own creation] is better than any ride I could ever pay for.

“Ever since Tony took me under his wing, it’s made it easier and more fun for me to do, honestly,” Fedorcak continued. “He told me that as long as I’m having fun, I’ll be able to keep doing it, and I haven’t stopped enjoying it yet. It gets a little bit more distant between races each year, but once I get in the car, everything usually comes back within five laps and slots right into place.

“Usually there’s a great big smile when I strap in, but seeing this car look like [the original] … it’s already here. I’m just ready to go make some new memories now.”

Alongside Fedorcak’s redressed No. 97, four other Munchkins – Stewart’s No. 2 driven this year by Joey Payne, Ryan Flores’ white-and-gold No. 15, Travis Welpott’s orange No. 18, and Cory Setser’s black-and-green No. 24 – are also in the building to compete during this weekend’s Rumble activities.

Live coverage of the weekend’s action can be viewed through Pit Row TV, part of the SPEED SPORT Network. Streaming begins at 11:15 a.m. ET both Friday and Saturday and continues through the last checkered flag.

In addition to the headlining national midget division, winged and non-winged 600cc micro sprints, as well as numerous classes of go-karts and quarter midgets, round out the two-day program.