Ronney Householder

Ronney’s first race in 1932 was in an outboard midget at Loyola Stadium, Los Angeles, CA. He soon got to traveling and started touring the whole country racing his midget and won the 1934-35 midget indoor Mid West championship.

On the midget scene, Householder won at Rosemoor Park oval near Davidson, Michigan on May 27, 1937. Then after winning further East he stopped at Detroit long enough to snag the National Midget title, taking the 150mile classic on the Zeiter half mile, breaking a big car record in qualifications doing it. Back on the West coast, he won the big 150 lap Thanksgiving Day Grand Prix Classic on Thursday, November 25, 1937. Sam Hanks finished second.

June of 1939 found Householder winning a championship race at the Chicago board track before 30,000 fans and also the AAA National Midget Racing Championship. By this time Ronney was crisscrossing the country and running all the big midget races right and left. An example of his determination to win was shown in September of 1940 during the 100 miler at the Toledo one-mile dirt track. He was leading with 30 miles to go when the carburetor came loose. Driving with one hand, he held the carburetor in place and won the race in 1 hour, 12 minutes, averaging 82 MPH, while driving one handed.
Householder raced until World War II, served overseas, and emerged a lieutenant colonel. He retired as a driver in 1948 to manage a radio station he owned. In 1955, Chrysler employed Householder to monitor a stock car program and work as a development engineer on projects such as the Plymouth Fury. He stayed with Chrysler in various racing capacities and was planning on retiring in 1973, but Ronney Householder, one of the greatest midget drivers ever, succumbed to cancer on November 11, 1972 in Detroit.