John Marcum

Who was John Marcum?

John Marcum was the co-founder of ARCA and a NASCAR official from Toledo, Ohio, United States. He raced in the 1930s and 1940s. He owned cars entered in two NASCAR Grand National races with one Top 10 finish. He was inducted in the International Motorsports Hall of Fame in 1994. Marcum would be inducted into the Dayton Speedway Hall of Fame October, 2010.

Marcum's first raced as a 14-year-old in his family car after lying about his age. Marcum raced against NASCAR founder Bill France, Sr. in the 1940s in open wheel roadsters. After France formed NASCAR in the late 1940s, he hired Marcum as an official, a position that he held from 1949 until 1952.

In 1953, Marcum created a Midwestern United States racing series called "Midwest Association for Race Cars" with his wife Mildred in his hometown Toledo, Ohio. It was a regional stock car racing series, a Northern counterpart to the Southern stock car series of the day, Bill France's NASCAR. The first MARC race was at Dayton Speedway, in Dayton Ohio, on May 10, 1953. The series race slightly modified street cars.

John Marcum, Blair Rattliff and Tom Cushman would be parts owner of Dayton Speedway in 1958.