Ward Ellsworth Swarthout is a stocky little (5 ft. 6 in., 135 Ibs.) motor bug. As a peacetime Army pilot in the '20s, he flew airplanes for a while, but gave them up as "too dangerous." Swarthout found a substitute in something closer to the ground by turning auto racer in big (270 cu. in. cylinder displacement), standard racing cars, then gave them up for earth-hugging midget (up to 145 cu. in.) racing. Last week, at Brawley, Calif., 50-year-old Ward Swarthout, now a grandfather, was happily racing just a couple of inches off the ground in the tiniest of all racers:...
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