“Rosie”and son Mike Roussel “RINGS AROUND THE ROSIE” story by Doug Schiller
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“Rosie”and son Mike Roussel “RINGS AROUND THE ROSIE” story by Doug Schiller
 
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“RINGS AROUND THE ROSIE”
The “Rings” in the title above refers to the many southern California quarter midget racing ovals that were barnstormed by “Rosie” Roussel and his young son, Mike. During the mid 1950’s this duo, along with Mike’s sister Denise, could be found taking home the main event hardware at many local tracks.
Seven year old Mike Roussel was considered a “chip off the old block”
when it came to driving a race car. His dad, Rosie, piloted a variety of race cars on dusty southwest tracks for more than a decade. The elder Roussel was a hard charger and a winner and top competitor in midgets, sprint cars, roadsters and at times, USAC stock cars.
Rosie and his son Mike’s involvement in early quarter midget racing began about 1954. While living in Whittier, CA, Rosie completed the rolling chassis for a quarter midget of his own design. He used 1”
channel for the frame which was similar to full-size rail midgets from an earlier era. Later, a tube chassis was constructed but unfortunately never used. When Rosie’s family situation changed, he moved to Fillmore, CA where he continued the construction of the quarter midget.
During this time he fabricated the bumpers, radius rods and nerf bars.
When the car was complete, nearly two years of effort had been put into this sleek racer.
An area that Rosie spent considerable time on during construction was the front axle and related steering geometry. He was a firm believer that if you were able to set the caster, camber and toe-in correctly then the driver would have greater success getting through the turns, as well as recovery coming out of the turn to start the straight-away.
I personally have had the opportunity to observe the front ends of many 1950’s era quarter midgets. It is very evident that in many cases little attention was paid to overall front end geometry, in particular, king pin inclination. The value of paying attention to these details was measured by the success that Rosie, Mike and the car achieved.
When finished, Rosie and Mike’s quarter midget was clad in a fiberglass body -- jointly fabricated by Rosie, Ray DePuy and Bill Finley. The tail cone section was modeled after a full-size Kurtis Kraft midget.
The cowl and nose section was a design that the trio collaborated upon.
Bill Finley went on to market fiberglass bodies for home built quarter midgets using a body design similar to the one on Mike Roussel’s quarter midget.
The finishing touches consisted of a beautiful hand-rubbed red paint paint job and black naugahyde upholstery with the letter ”M”
embroidered on the headrest. The large numeral “68” that adorned the tail was a number Mike liked as well as a salute to an open wheeled race car that Rosie drove in the late 1940’s.
The power plant in Roussel’s creation was an unusual one for the era., Almost all quarter midgets of that time were powered by the compact Continental Red Seal AU-7R 4 cycle engine. Rosie and Mike, however, chose for their car a Lauson engine with less than 6 cubic inches of displacement. To give it more “kick,” Rosie stroked it by 1/16”, built a special aluminum connecting rod, lightened the stock flywheel, ported and polished the block to improve the engine’s breathing and matched it to a Stromberg carburetor with a 5/8” venturi. The Lauson, like the Continental, had a reduction gearbox on the output shaft. Just as in today’s racing, Rosie often changed sprockets in an effort to attain optimum performance at a specific track.
While interviewing Rossie for this article, he related a couple stories. Although details may be different, the issues are still dealt with in today’s quarter midget racing. I thought you might find them of interest, so here they are, as Rosie told them.
He explained, “After Mike won the county championship, we were invited to run at a track in Norwalk [in LA County]. When we arrived our car was inspected by their tech committee. They informed me that two things had to be done. [First] put a roll bar on, which I came prepared for as that was being done [more and more] and it was a good thing. I totally agreed. [Second] they wanted me to relocate my seat belt. Mine was anchored as a race car should be, to the back and down in the rear of the seat. [This was] so the belt came over your waist and hips to hold you in the car . . . They wanted to have me anchor it to the frame, forward . . .when fastened it came over the KNEES. After considerable discussion . . . how wrong that was, to no avail, we loaded up and left.”
Rosie, then went on to relate the time . . . “We arrived one Sunday at a track and unloaded. Immediately, I was approached by the ‘head duck’
and was told we could not run [since] I had taught my son professional [racing] tactics. But, they would love to see my car run if I would let one of their drivers in the car. Needless to say, another disappointment for Mike, but he understood. Once again we loaded up and left!”
Although Rosie and his son were sometimes thwarted in their efforts to compete, more often than not they met and raced with a wonderful group of families. Because of his vast racing experience, Rosie and several of his friends often tried to help others with setting-up and racing their quarter midgets. With some folks they were more successful than with others. Rosie recalls, “A few that we helped set up their cars and tutored their young drivers, came back and blew our doors off!” That put a smile on Rosie’s face, seeing another child in the winner’s circle.
The Roussels only campaigned the car for two years. They were rewarded with a great deal of racing success on tracks from Port Huneme to Montebello. In 1969, about 10 years after they stopped racing, a fellow asked Rosie if he could borrow the car in order to make a copy of it for himself. A couple months later, Rosie went to retrieve the car. He was told that it had been stolen. He was suspicious of the explanation, but was left with little recourse.
“Rosie” Roussel proudly displays his son Mike’s race winning quarter midget which he fabricated from the ground up.
Seven year old Mike Roussel strikes a classic pose clad in helmet and
goggles of the era.
The Roussel quarter midget churns up the dirt during an early shake down run. Like father, like son!
Mike Roussel in a position he often found himself -- First! A great photo of early quarter midget competition in southern California.
Father and son share the spotlight in their respective race cars.
Mike Roussel shares a moment with a pretty young admirer, after he garnered still another trophy for his exploits on the track.
Please take a close look at the photos. If you recognize it or know of its whereabouts please contact me or Brian Caruso.
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RE: “Rosie”and son Mike Roussel “RINGS AROUND THE ROSIE” story by Doug Schiller
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In reply to this post by vntgdotr
Mike, You are very welcome. I will make corrections tonight. Regards, Brian _______________________________ Brian Caruso Micar Fabrication & Design Company Inc. 5166 S. Arville St. Las Vegas, NV 89118 (702) 871-4300 P. (702) 220-8603 F. http://www.micarfabrication.com http://www.carusomidgetracing.com
From: vntgdotr [via Caruso Racing Museum Forum] [mailto:[hidden email]] Thank you for this wonderful article on my father! Believe me, it was a major thorn in his side that this "so called friend" stole the car and did this to Dad! If you reply to this email, your message will be added to the discussion below: To unsubscribe from “Rosie”and son Mike Roussel “RINGS AROUND THE ROSIE” story by Doug Schiller, click here. |
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