The RMMRA was formed in 1940 by a group of drivers and owners headed by Lloyd Axel, the Midgets had been running on a regular basis in Denver, since 1937. They started off at the Merchants Park Baseball field on South Broadway just north of the Gates Rubber Company. In 1937-’39 the Midget club in south Denver was known as the Mile-Hi Racing Association. Promoter Tom Holden, with Co promoter J.E. Kimbrough. Holden was a big car promoter in the Kansas, Nebraska area. With the Midgets being so popular in the United States since 1933, Holden & Kimbrough formed the Mile Hi Racing Association and based it in the Denver area. 44 shows were held in 1937, with California driver Harry Hart being crowned Champion at the seasons end.
In 1938 Merchants Park held their second season, but not without competition
from a new group that had formed together at a North Denver location that over time would become one of the premier Midget tracks in the United States. Ben Krasner owned an amusement park in northwest Denver called Lakeside. Krasner who also had a baseball field in his amusement park seen a vision of holding his own Midget car races. The two tracks both ran the 1938 season, with both having done well, but two Midget clubs were cutting into car counts at both racing plants. Krasner’s group was called Rocky Mountain Midget Association.
In 1939 Ben Krasner took his racing facility one step further by paving his race track and it was known as the dustless track. In 1939 the American Automobile Association was the sanctioning body at the Lakeside 1/5 mile oval. The plant cost Ben Krasner $25,000. to pave in 1939.
Merchants Park was also still running races at the south Denver track, however
they had lost several of their cars and drivers to the Lakeside facility, August 16th 1939,
Merchants Park held their last race, as they could not compete with the Lakeside Speedway.
In 1940 the owners and drivers decided to discontinue having AAA as their sanctioning body, and they formed the club known as the Rocky Mountain Midget Racing Association. Lloyd Axel and Roy Leslie were the two main people in forming the RMMRA. Axel from Lakeside, and Leslie from Merchants Park, teamed up to form and be the stars that would launch the RMMRA into the 21st century. Lloyd Axel was the first RMMRA President and also the first Champion. Axel won back to back Championships in’40-’41.