Northeastern Midget Association

The Northeastern Midget Association was formed in March of 1953 as an effort to preserve midget racing. The Bay State Midget Racing Association (1940-1949) and United Car Owners Association (1948-1950) had both previously had brief successes before their popularity quickly dwindled while stock cars became more prominent in the area.

NEMA debuted at Seekonk Speedway on May 30, 1953 as part of a twin-billed event with the ARDC Midgets. Fred Meeker took the win. Their second race was the next day at the Waterford Speedbowl with Bill Eldridge taking the checkered flag. From 1953-1957, Offenhouser (Offy) engines were not allowed at NEMA sanctioned events. From 1957-1969, they crowned 2 class of champions (Offy, Non-Offy) plus an Overall Champion.

From those humble beginnings, NEMA eventually became the premiere series in New England for asphalt midget racing. They continue to hold events annually at Seekonk & Waterford and through the years have competed regularly at other New England tracks like Monadnock Speedway, Lee USA Speedway, Hudson Speedway, Thompson Speedway, Wiscasset Speedway, Beech Ridge Speedway, Unity Raceway and Star Speedway.

Their marquee event is the Boston Louie Memorial held each season at Seekonk Speedway to honor NEAR Hall of Famer Louie Seymour. The NEMA midgets have also traditionally been a part of Seekonk’s Open Wheel Wednesday, the Star Speedway Classic, Lee USA Speedway’s Oktoberfest and Thompson Speedway’s season-ending World Series event each season.

NEAR Hall of Famer Drew Fornoro has a record 9 driver championships driving for car owner and fellow Hall of Famer Gene Angelillo, who has a record 14 total owner championships. Drew’s brother Nokie had an interesting season in 1981. He missed the first 7 races, yet won 10 out of the 12 races once he arrived in Mike Scrivani‘s midget and earned enough points to take the championship.

Tim Bertrand has won 12 of the last 16 NEMA Championships as a car owner (including the last 7 as of 2023) with Randy Cabral (8), Avery Stoehr (3) and his brother Todd (1) driving the Bertrand Motorsports cars.

SERIES INFO

NEMA MIDGET CHAMPIONS

NEMA MIDGET PHOTO GALLERY

NEMA A RACE THROUGH HISTORY
DOCUMENTARY SHORT

The organization created the NEMA Lite series with cars that feature Ford Focus or Quad 4 engines as an entry level division in 2008. Interest grew continually and they started awarding points & crowning champions for the Lite series in 2013.

NEMA LITE CHAMPIONS

NEMA LITE PHOTO GALLERY