Profile On: Kaylene Verville!
Monday, June 30, 2008
Kaylene Verville, #01 410 Sprint
(Joanne Cram) Self described as stubborn, dedicated, and one who never gives up, Avondale, Arizona’s Kaylene Verville is fighting her way through the Knoxville routine to become one of the best female sprint car drivers that Knoxville has seen race around the famed half mile.
Since coming to Knoxville last season for Friday night of the Nationals, she and her husband, Alan began making plans to get out here and race. Being from the Phoenix, Arizona area, there are few opportunities to race for Verville, once every other week at the most. Ready for the challenge of commuting across several states to try to rise to the top of Knoxville’s finest, challenges are readily met.
With an already packed weekly schedule, Kaylene has a lot to do once she gets here to race. Champion Auto and Truck Recyclers is her business that she runs back in Arizona, so it needs her attention just as much as her sprint car does. Kaylene and her husband, Alan (who also owns his own graphics and vinyl business) have their routine down to a tee. It all begins on Friday night after working all day at their respective businesses, they take the last available flight out of Phoenix into Des Moines, arriving at 11:45 pm where Dave Arbogast picks them up, grabbing their luggage and bee lining for Knoxville, where the Verville’s have their motor home away from home awaiting them at Jerrell Slinkard’s Slinkard Machine. Throw in a quick stop for groceries or other necessities, and the pair are ready to get up bright and early for Saturday’s crazy events. Saturday morning entails any last minute preparations that didn’t get done from the previous weekend, a trip to the track, and of course racing that night. Just as soon as they are able, the Verville team is out to the car wash for washing and maintenance, a few hours of sleep, and out by 1 pm to catch the flight back to Phoenix. Piece of cake!
Kaylene says she owes her racing addiction to her mother, Charlene. Charlene has always encouraged Kaylene to do what she wanted, and racing was it! At the age of 17, Kaylene had finally saved up enough money of her own to buy her first go kart, which she raced until 1992. She did very well in the karting class, earning double state championships. There were a couple tracks to compete at, Fridays at Tucson and Saturdays at Phoenix. Her dream though, was to run a midget.
Verville had all but given up on this dream, as the midget scene was just too much money for her to come up with, when Judy Yeley called and told her that she knew of a midget that was up for sale, at a price Kaylene could afford. That call helped Kaylene get on the track in a midget. However, big budget midget racing was very difficult to compete with when you have a fixed racing budget to contend with. So, at the end of 1994, Kaylene got on board the new 360 sprint scene.
A karting friend had gotten hired to drive for someone else, freeing up the family owned ride. Al Warner, who Kaylene calls her ‘adopted dad’, had her drive the car one weekend, and it evolved into a great racing experience. The following seasons of 1995 and 1996, Kaylene drove a wingless 360. She was the Manzanita Rookie of the Year, and in her second year of competition, she raced both at Manzanita and Canyon Raceway in Peoria, Arizona.
Then in 1997, with a new Gambler and a 360, Verville went winged sprint car racing. The SCOA was running shows around her area, but only with 410s, Kaylene competed anyway to see if she was going to tolerate the winged sprint. Kaylene was also running the 360 at Manzanita, and was leading the points, until a couple of bad accidents put her behind- and she ended up 8th overall. Verville also ran Los Cruces, El Paso, and the Tucson short tracks in the 360, where the difference between a 360 and a 410 motor wasn’t as noticeable.
Eventually she saved up enough money to put in a 410 though and 1999 found Verville racing the 410 all over the Southwest with SCOA.
However, the wingless cars were still calling her, and the opportunity presented itself- and found Verville back at wingless USAC events. In fact, Kaylene Verville is the only woman to have won a USAC feature, and is the first and only woman in Arizona to have won a sprint car race. For another two seasons (’02 and ‘03), Verville ran the wingless cars, until again the expenses caught up with them. With the majority of the racing being in California, the towing and physical competition with the cars resulted in a lot of carnage and rebuilding of cars each week. With Alan’s disinterest in the non-winged cars, it was up to Kaylene to work on the car each week. She decided to take her husband’s advice and move back to the winged 410 in 2004 with the SCOA.
Verville ran with the SCOA until 2006, when Tucson reopened winged sprint competition, so she split her time between the SCOA and Tucson’s USA Dirt Track Sprint Cars. The same was true for 2007, but with less of the SCOA races.
That brings us to 2008, which finds Verville at the Knoxville Raceway. Jerrell Slinkard, a past Knoxville regular has a brother in the Phoenix area; Jeff Slinkard. Jeff and Kaylene raced together and he suggested that she get in touch with Jerrell to talk about the possibility of getting set up in Knoxville. Admittedly, Verville has struggled thus far this season- but in comes her determination and perseverance. She is determined to make every feature, and has goals to place in the top ten in the feature as many times as possible. Alan and Kaylene have both said they are racing at one of the best race tracks in the country.
Kaylene has her company, Champion Auto and Truck Recyclers and her husband’s company, Up Front Graphix and Vinyl to thank for sponsorship, as well as Slinkard Machine for allowing them to use shop space and park their motor home at the shop. Crewing on the Maxim/Shaver 410 are Alan, Dave Arbogast, Jerrell Slinkard, as well as herself.
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