4/3/2024
Badger Midget Auto Racing Association
Meet AFS Badger Midget Series Driver Lamont Critchett
Work keeps him busy and he only made four features with the AFS Badger Midget Series in 2023, but Lamont Critchett's fast when he does make a race. From an unlikely start (Big Wheels), to a great break, he's been around midgets for about 20 years now. He drops some old school racing names as he shares some insight into his circle track experience. Read on about Lamont Critchett:
Car Number: 44
Owner: Lamont Critchett
Team Name: Critchett Racing
Sponsors: T1-Racing, PBH Indy, Beta Gear Service, Arizona Aunts Linda & Connie, Mamma Earl, JC Auto & Critchett Transport
Crew: Loran Jr., Darren, Karebear, David Cooper, & David Cooper Jr.
Engine: Skeet Bushor
BMARA: Were you a fan of racing before you got behind the wheel and if so, who were your heroes and what tracks did you attend?
Lamont: Fan of racing before I got behind the wheel? Welp I don't think I had much choice in the matter. My parents followed the Stapp family when Pancho Carter was driving their sprint car in the mid '70s, so I grew up crawling around in the pits at tracks like Eldora and Terre Haute before I could walk and talk.
Hero would be the obvious, Super Tex, A.J. Foyt. The man was fast no matter what he drove and could win on any type of track, in any type of car. What a real champion is in my opinion. Not just a specialist to a particular type of racing.
BMARA: Give us a synopsis of your racing career:
Lamont: My "career" started at the ripe age of 4 when my parents entered me in the annual Big Wheel races at Gilberts Raceway (Gilberts, IL; River Valley Kart Club) in 1980, which I won and then defended that win the following year.
I'm not 100% sure when I got my start in karts because it was so limited but I wanna say '89 and do know my first race was at Raceway Park in Blue Island,IL
in my older brother's BKS kart.
Later in life after I graduated high school and was able to fund my passion. I started my first full season in '96 at Joliet Memorial Stadium where I would make a connection with Bob Samari and start racing full time for him in karts. In '97 we won the Raceway Kart Association Championship. One of the awards of that championship was getting to strap into a midget for the first time. We got 10 laps at Lake Geneva Speedway in one of Laverne Spencer's midgets. I knew from that day I was going to strive to get back into a midget some day.
I continued racing for Bob for the next few years winning 5 more Championships for him in the Championship Enduro Series.
In '03 I'd finally had the funds to start my midget career with the help of my brother Loran Jr. He let me pull his #44 Stapp built midget out of storage and start putting it together to run with and against him ( he was driving the Dave Gass #17 midget at the time) in what at the time was the UMARA Sportsman division, currently known as the Illini Racing Series.
I won my first midget race that year leading all 69 laps in the Bob Lockhard Memorial. Won the R.O.Y. that season. Won my first midget championship in '07 in the same car same series. That championship wouldn't of been possible without the help of my good friend Anthony Dambrose from T1 Racing.
BMARA: How much time do you spend on the car each week during the season?
Lamont: I work on my car every night during the season till I pass out pretty much. I believe races are won in the garage. Race day is simply execution and lady luck.
BMARA: What is your day job and how does racing fit in?
Lamont: Running the family business ( auto transportation) keeps my brain sharp. Our industry can be very difficult. You always have to be ready for a back up plan and make what you have work. There are so many factors outside your control that affect what you do, and what you have planned to do.
And I'm pretty sure I'm safer trading paint on the track than I am
driving an 80,000 lb trucks on the roads today. We put in roughly 80 hours a week/6 days a week so the race car feels like a gravy job/hobby.
BMARA: What's something interesting the fans might not know about you?
Lamont: Never won an "A" main on dirt. Dirt has been my kryptonite. I've won on every type of track but dirt. Finished 2nd more times than I care to admit, even led part of the last lap but haven't finished the job... yet.
Other hobbies would include animal rescues. I don't have children so my kids all have four legs. Currently have four horses and four dogs. My old/young lady tries to get me to go snowmobiling in the U.P. each winter, but work just doesn't allow me to take off that much time at once. So I get to go about once every four years or so.
Article: Bill Blumer Jr. with Lamont Critchett
Photo: A throwback to Lamont's IRS days from Angell Park Speedway
by Bill Blumer Jr.
Submitted By: William Blumer