Profile On: Tom Lenz!
Thursday, June 25, 2009
Tom Lenz, #8L 360 Sprint
by Joanne Cram
When you look around Knoxville Raceway, its hard to find many drivers who have put in as many years driving around the famed half mile as Tom Lenz. With 21 years under his belt driving sprint cars at Knoxville, Tom has become a fixture here year after year on the 360 back stretch.
Tom started out as a young 7 year old driving quarter midgets. His inspiration came from Rick Hall. John Hall- another of Knoxville’s regular 360 competitors, and his brother, Rick, grew up a few houses away from Tom’s Grandparents The Hall’s, who Tom credits as being a big part of his racing influence. The Hall’s and Tom raced many years together- John and Tom moving onto mini sprints and sprints, and Rick moving onto motor building and midgets. Lenz has great memories of Rick Hall being around to be that older figure for a young racer to look up to. Sadly, Rick lost his life in 1982 while racing a midget at Sun Prairie, WI. Tom had a long run in quarter midgets, running them until he was 16 in fact. He won a 300 lap race in Topeka, Kansas, and had many broken records and fast times over the years. Lenz remembers traveling as far away as Huntsville, Alabama; Todedo, Ohio; Denver, Colorado; and Elko, Minnesota to run his quarter midget.
When Tom was 16, he moved into the mini sprint world and laughs about some of the past Knoxville regulars he used to race against; Larry Ball, Jr, Dave Hesmer, John Hall, Mike Tweet, to name a few. Lenz says he had a lot of fun those years in the mini sprint, ran a lot of fair races, but was always waiting for the next best thing in racing- which was of course a sprint car.
So at the age of 24, Lenz had moved up to a sprint car. He bought the car and took it to Knoxville to run all in the same day. 1988 was his rookie year in a sprint car, and ran only about three or four races at the tail end of that season. Returning in 1989, Lenz earned himself Rookie of the Year in the 360 class at Knoxville. Over his 21 seasons of racing at Knoxville, he has had made the top 10 in season points many of those years. Although he only has one feature win at Knoxville under his belt, Lenz is not the only driver to admit how hard it is to run up front and finish in the same spot. He has been close to many wins, only to fall victim to the cursed yellow on the white flag lap… Either way, Lenz says he’s had a blast racing all these years and doesn’t plan on hanging it up any time soon! He also has a 305 sprint that he likes to run when it doesn’t conflict with Knoxville’s schedule. After a few years of running mid-week races in the 305, Tom says its just too draining to race more than one night on the weekend and work a full time job too. He plans to run the 305 at the conclusion of Knoxville’s schedule and even at the September Knoxville 305 race.
Aside from all his racing, Tom spends his free time with his wife, Debby, and they are expecting their first little girl in October. Tom also works as a machinist for Seger Engineering.
The Lenz car is a family car, with Tom’s dad, Robert helping out, family friend Tom Denton, and Luke Dament. Sponsors of the 8L, Maxim-Sperry Engine 360 include: Denton Casting, Xtream Fuel Stick, Sperry Engines, and Castle Motors (who gratefully loaned Tom a truck for 3 weeks after his blew up!).
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