Mike Caruso
Beginnings
Michael Caruso was only months old when his family came to America and settled in Brooklyn. By the time he completed sixth grade, his father had died, and young Mike had to seek work.
When he got a job in a garage, he embarked on what would be a lifelong adventure with automobiles. As a young teenager, he made a crude car with no brakes, but it had what was important to the young Caruso: a powerful Excelsior motorcycle engine. Not long after that, he attended his first automobile race. Two things were becoming clear: he had initiative, and he had a love for speed.
In 1922, Mike married fellow Brooklynite Rose Adessio. They moved to Hicksville, where Mike operated a garage. In 1927, he gave up the garage and started Hicksville Auto Wreckers, knowing that junkyard parts sales would be more profitable than garage work. Mike purchased a large piece of property on Barclay Street, which the business would share with Rose and Mike's home. The Carusos both must have foreseen the advantages that such a business would offer for people who raced - which Mike was about to do. His next step was buying a Sprint car.
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Race Driver
The earliest newspaper reference I've found for Mike's involvement with racing appeared in the summer of 1927. The Brooklyn Standard Union described him as a "plucky Italian driver" who "has been one of the stars of the auto racing season at the Metropolitan Heights Fairgrounds" in Queens.
In September 1928, Caruso drove his "M.C. Special" in races at the Mineola Fair, which that year was held at the old Roosevelt Raceway. Crowds of up to 35,000 watched the cars race on the harness track oval. Alas, he did not complete his qualifying heat for The Long Island Sweepstakes. Mike's car "went over the hay and over the fence" - one of four cars to leave the course at the same point on that day. Although thrown from his auto, he was not seriously hurt.
When the new Deer Park Speedway opened a few weeks later, Caruso was listed as one of the star drivers to compete in the 15-mile main race. Reports of the subsequent meets at Deer Park, however, indicate that Caruso had begun hiring drivers to race his car. Perhaps Mike and Rose had reached an understanding because of his recent exciting flight "over the fence." If so, thoughts of their little children may have played a part in his making the change.
Fran and Ro Caruso with their father's first Sprint car
carusomidgetracing.com
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The Early Caruso Cars
When Mike purchased the sprint car, its chief selling point may have been its engine, an Anstead, likely comparable to the Anstead engines which had powered Lexingtons to the top two positions in the 1920 Pikes Peak Hill Climb.
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Two years later, he built a new sprint car (shown in February's Hixtory), and another Caruso-built racer soon followed. In addition to the ovals already mentioned, the cars raced at other tracks in the New York metropolitan area, including Flemington Speedway in New Jersey, considered the fastest of all 5/8 mile dirt tracks. During these years, Mike must have refined his ideas about building race cars, and also learned a lot about the logistics of running a racing team, for by the mid-1930s, his efforts would start yielding exceptional results.
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