Profile On- J Kinder!
Friday, May 2, 2014
J. Kinder, #88 305 Sprint Car
By Joanne Cram
If you’ve ever attended many races south of Iowa, you are sure to recognize the familiar blue and yellow #88 sprinter of the Kinder family. J. Kinder is a third generation driver, also known as James Kinder the third. Knoxville Raceway has had the pleasure of seeing this Missouri native race weekly 305 shows for the past three seasons.
The Kinders are a racing family, much like many American families are a baseball family, or a football family. Some play sports, the Kinders race. To this day, the sprint car team is a family run ordeal; with J’s wife, Tracey; dad, Jim; and mom, Mary towing the four hours north to run the weekly show. Even behind the scenes, the family is involved with J’s uncle building the Marquis Okley Racing Engines. At home in Holts Summit, Missouri, the family has two dogs, Wesmar and Spike; and two cats, Sam and Lucy that keep them busy around the house and shop. J’s sister Amanda also enjoys racing, supporting the 88 when she can. She and J. grew up racing go-karts together when they were young.
The Kinder family started in racing, back when J’s grandpa, the first Jim, decided to start racing go-karts. J’s dad raced next, and after having enough of driving, Jim bought a sprint car in 1988 and hired out drivers. When J. turned eleven, Jim decided it was time to put the kids in the karts and sold the sprint car. Amanda and J. began racing go-karts all over Missouri, and did so for the next five and a half years. When J. turned 16, he wasted no time at all moving into a 360 sprint car. The family frequented XX Speedway in California, Missouri for four seasons where J. can recall his most memorable racing moment. He started on the front row with Randy Martin, and had done so the week before, when Randy beat him to the checkered flags. This time however, J. passed Randy coming out of turn 4 for his first ever sprint car victory.
J. and his family then began to race around Missouri, hitting tracks whenever the race seemed like fun, running no where in particular for points. They hit some WOW races as well as other sprint series. In 2004, the Kinders began racing at the Lake of the Ozarks track the first season it was open. The track was just twenty minutes from J’s hometown of Iberia, making it an easy decision to race there. He wrapped up 2nd in overall points that season.
2005 looked promising going into the season, until the 360 blew up on the third night out. This was a Kinder team built motor, so quickly replacing it wasn’t an option. The alternative was to throw in the 305 motor they had, and J. has been racing the 305 class ever since. When he first started in the 305, he alternated between LA Speedway and Midway Speedway who both ran on Friday nights.
In 2010, J. talked his dad into driving up to Knoxville Raceway. J’s dream had always been to race at Knoxville Raceway ever since attending his first Knoxville Nationals at the age of 10.
Since 2010, the Kinder team has had a lot of success running weekly at Knoxville, earning 2nd place in points last season. They make the 4 hour drive every week, and recently lost their only motor on opening night of the season. Thankfully, The Kevin Hetrick team came to the rescue with a borrowed motor so the Kinders have been able to compete while their own motor is put back together. J’s future is not set in stone, as the team tends to take their racing with a week-by-week approach. With the 305 class only paying $400 to win, the racing budget is nearly always in a deficit after the $350 diesel bill to tow up, as well as pit passes, fuel, and tires. Kinder says that as long as they keep having fun and aren’t having too much bad luck, they will plan to keep coming to Knoxville.
Kinder credits his dad with being the inspiration behind his racing. He’s thankful to have his whole family involved, including his cattle showing-turned-race-fanatic wife! Kinder claims his wife, Tracey has embraced racing, and is a supportive race wife.
Kinder would like to highlight the KRCO, Knoxville Raceway Charitable Organization, as well. He hopes that each racer, fan, crew member, car owner, vendor, and bystander know how hard the KRCO works for the drivers. Kinder is grateful for the safety equipment that they donate to the drivers each and every year, and hopes that the KRCO is never taken for granted. He’s raced at many facilities that have sub-par safety equipment and is thankful for the KRCO putting safety first.
When J. and Tracey aren’t working, they spend time at the shop. J. owns his own race parts business, called Midwest Speed Shop. He sarcastically says they don’t have time for any hobbies, racing seems to be the only hobby they know! The Kinders did manage to take a long overdue vacation this winter to go snowmobiling.
Sponsors of the #88 include Marquis Okley Racing Engines, Afco Shocks, Brett Rugen, Simpson, KRCO, XXX Chassis, Midwest Speed Shop, Eldon Scheuermann, The Print Shop, Jim’s Auto Body, and Engler Machine. The crew is made up of Tracey Bucshmann-Kinder, Jim and Mary Kinder, and Eldon Scheuermann.
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