Kelly Kinser: It’s His Time to Shine
Kelly Kinser never seemed to be too high or too low at the racetrack. He never drew attention to himself or begged for the spotlight. Yet, in a region that has produced a score of Hall of Famers, Kelly will go down as one of the best of his era. His career stretched for over a quarter-century and when he decided to hang up his helmet he did so without fanfare. He has long deserved more recognition for what he accomplished – and the time has come to rectify this oversight.
When asked about his racing life, in typical fashion he says, “I just enjoyed racing. You do what you do and how it comes out is just what happens.” His father Jerry and uncle Roger had the bug, and whenever they had the itch to go fast it was easy to quell that urge. The go kart track known as Mountain Raceway was right on the property of Kinser Timber Products. “It is just on a hill,” Kelly says with a chuckle, “I don’t know where dad came up with the Mountain part. We put a sawmill there in the late 70s, but you can still make out the track. There is actually still an old light pole with lights hanging down. I just left it there “
Some of the very best who made their way to Bloomington Speedway raced at Mountain, and most remember when some of the Andretti clan came down to give the karts a try. It is where Kelly got his start as a teen, and later he raced karts at some of the county fairs. Soon he was hungry for a bit more speed. He purchased a midget from legendary Lafayette, Indiana owner/mechanic Bob Higman. He began racing with the Car Owner’s Racing Association (CORA). He was not overmatched. By the end of the 1980 season, he landed in the seventh position in series points and was named Rookie of the Year.
Midget racing got his feet wet but given his surroundings he already had his eyes on sprint cars. After all, those who handled the big brutes at the nearby bullrings were larger than life figures. “We decided to get a sprint car,” he says, “and I bought one from a guy in Ohio, but we didn’t have a clue what we were doing.” Then he had a stroke of good fortune when he hauled his midget to Sunshine Speedway in St. Petersburg, Florida to race in the dead of Indiana winter. It wasn’t his first time on pavement, but old habits die hard. While his technique on the hardtop may have left something to be desired, he caught the eye of an interested spectator. “I think the race was on a Thursday night,” he recalls, “and Jerry Shields was down there racing with Bob (Kinser), so he came by the track. I started on the tail of the feature, and I got up to fourth place. I didn’t know what I was doing, I was dirt tracking it and the tires were all blistered, but Jerry came over and told me that I had done a good job.”
His life was about to change. That winter Shields gave him a call. “He told me he was going to put a second car together,” Kelly says, “and he wondered if I wanted to race it. I said well, I will do the best I can. It all took off from there.”
To say it took off would be a vast understatement.
Shields hauled Kinser to Lincoln Park Speedway for an afternoon test session and then headed directly south to Tri-State Speedway in Haubstadt for the May 18 season opener. Darrel Waltrip was there to race a late model – he was soundly beaten by Tommy Helfrich - while the sprint car lineup included men like Frank Hollingsworth, Dick Gaines, Bob Kinser, Cliff Cockrum, Rick Hood, Lee Osborne, and Randy Kinser. When he thinks about his first performance in a sprint car he says, “I didn’t do too bad.”
The record backs him up.
The fact is he caught on very quickly. He scored his first win later that summer in what was a memorable night to say the least. “My first win came at Kokomo of all places,” he says with a laugh, “and of all things I had to pass Bob (Kinser) to win, and I nerf-barred him a little to go around him. Right after the race he came down and he had that cigar and I thought uh oh, but he stuck his hand out and said, ‘good driving kid.’”
It wasn’t his last win of 1981 and by the time the season was over every paper in the state that was covering sprint car racing paid tribute to this promising rookie. The 1982 season was even better. Kinser figures he won 20 feature events, and in the end he was the track champion at Bloomington, Paragon, and Kokomo. It was a remarkable achievement, and Kelly credits Shields with his improvement as a driver. “He was the one that really helped me,” he says, “Jery would tell me you’re doing this wrong, or he would tell me what I was doing right.” With the lessons filed away and duly noted, he was ready to move on. He had his eyes on the All Star Circuit of Champions.
He would find work with Kentucky owners Butch and Janie Smith and together the team made real noise with the Ohio-based series. Butch Smith had come into the speed game honestly. His father James Bernard “Chick” Smith was a mechanic by trade who reportedly began racing in Lexington. Kentucky in 1929. He captured W. R. Craine’s Indiana Racing Association title in 1937 and is often referred to as the 1938 and 1939 Indiana-Kentucky champion. Chick was also the 1939 Midwest Dirt Track Association king. Sadly, he lost his life along with Les Adair in Fraklin, Indiana in 1948. Butch Smith’s own racing career was cut short by injury, but he became a top engine builder and car owner. One of his father’s most famous and successful cars was the Blankenbaker-Marine no.47. Hence, when Butch and Janie fielded a racecar that was the number they chose.
In late April 1983 Kelly passed local hero Randy Standridge at Little Springfield, (Illinois) to nail down his first All Star win, and two more over the course of the campaign led to Rookie of the Year honors. He also dropped by Kokomo enough to take another track title. There was great optimism heading into the 1984 season. It proved to be a great year marked by one irony. “We were at East Bay, and I missed the show,” he recalls, “and Fred Linder’s car broke so the Smith’s let him drive my car in the feature. I didn’t care, but I ended up losing the championship to Fred by five points.” One race in February had a major impact on the final standings.
In 1985 he led the All Star points for the majority of the season only to fall short to Jack Hewitt. A highlight came on May 24th when the All Stars visited Bloomington Speedway. Kelly started 9th in the field but when he passed Kenny Jacobs just past the halfway point in the 40 lap feature the hometown fans carried him home.
Two runner-up finishes with this tough group was noteworthy, and to this day he says that Butch and Janie Smith ‘were great people.” However, all racing marriages seemingly come to an end. He then competed for a number of owners including Chuck Merrill, Connie Strohpaul, and Tom Wimmer, and was seriously considering stepping away from the sport. Then his dad surprised him by suggesting they just do it on their own. Thus, by 1988 the famed 4K car was launched.
While they had no intention of following any series religiously, there was plenty of winning left to be done. Kelly was the 1994 Indiana Sprint Week champion, and he took Ohio Sprint Speedweeks with the All Stars in 2005. Wins in the prestigious Hoosier Fall Classic at Lawrenceburg came in 1990, 1995, 1996, and 2005, and he was the best at the Brad Doty Classic at Attica Speedway in 2000. He also won at Florida’s East Bay Raceway in 2005 after 20 plus years of trying.
In 1997 he experienced one of the most memorable interludes in his racing career. He was dozing off when he received an unexpected call. “Karl Kinser called me and asked me what I was doing this weekend,” Kelly remembers with a laugh, “and I told him I was probably racing somewhere. Then he asked me if I wanted to race his car. I said, where’s Mark (Kinser)? He said, ‘he’s off trying to run those damn (NASCAR) trucks.” He told me we would race at West Plains, Missouri, so I got there about an hour before the gates opened, and Karl wasn’t there. I started thinking he wasn’t coming. Well, he got there late, and I was already a nervous wreck because it’s a World of Outlaws race and I’m in Karl’s car. He asked me if I had already drawn and I said I had. I told him I thought we would miss hot laps, and he said, ‘that’s okay,.” I didn’t think it was okay, I wanted to get used to the car. Well, we made hot laps, and I came in and he said I had to pick up the pace. I told him to let me get ahold of it, and I qualified pretty well. Then I went out and won the race. Got a win my first time out. Then we went to Benton, Missouri. It was heavy, black dirt, and everyone was doing wheel stands. I led most of the race, but I think I pulled a wheelie and Sammy Swindell of all people got around me. Karl told me he couldn’t believe I let that #!#@ beat me.”
It was still an impressive showing. Then when Mark was back chasing the trucks Karl knew who to call. “Then the phone rang again,” Kelly says, “and Karl says You think you can hang on to it over at Granite City and Terre Haute? I said I guess I have too.” He recalls that a magneto caused problems at Terre Haute, but after they pulled another car out he was able to muster a quality run. He backed that up the next night on a rubbered down Tri-City Speedway.
A trip to Haubstadt was the last time he was paired with the legendary owner/mechanic. He recalls that when he saw his car unloaded for battle he reminded Karl that this was the car that wouldn’t run at Terre Haute. His complaint was dismissed until it was obvious that his assessment was on the money. An engine swap got him back in action, but Lance Blevins turned him over. Transferring from the B he started mid-pack in the feature and proceeded to get upside down once more. “It was the only time I got upside down twice in a race,” he says, “and it had to be in his car, but he didn’t seem to mind.
In 2007 he was the fast qualifier at East Bay Raceway but hopped a wheel trying to lap a car in his heat race and made violent contact with the wall. That got him thinking that it might be time to walk away. Then after crashing while leading a heat race at Waynesfield Speedway in Ohio he decided he had enough.
There was nothing left to prove. All told Kelly won 42 times with the All Stars. His final checkered flag with the group came in 2005 when he captured the Hoosier Fall Classic for the 4th time.
Today he still works hard at the family timber business but says it is “tuckering him out.” Still, he’s not about to back down. He’s a grandfather now, and while he was enticed back to race a 305 sprint car race in an old timer’s day at Fremont Speedway he proclaims he has put racing in the rear view mirror. Still the memories are there – for all of us – and most who watched him race would agree that the time has come for Kelly Kinser to have his moment in the sun.
Let’s Fill the Hill
John Mahoney Photos
Dan Sheek Collection
- administrator on Aug 13, 2025
- Article Date: 8/13/2025 by Patrick Sullivan