The Scoop
MIKE KING – GETTIN’ “DOWN & DIRTY WITH MODIFIED, GRAND NATIONAL IN ’22
Posted on: Monday April 18, 2022
Kaukauna’s Mike King poses with the IMCA modified and grand national sportsman cars he’ll race on the local dirt tracks in 2022. (danlewisphoto.net)
Mike King has raced in many different classes in his 22-year racing career on both dirt and asphalt.
But heading into the 2022 season the 45-year-old Kaukauna racer will ditch the pavement and embark upon a new challenge – racing an IMCA modified on the dirt.
“I’ve tried (walking away from the sport) but it just doesn’t happen,” joked King, who was lured into trying an open wheeled modified at the prompting of his good friend Ryan Pennings. “Ryan and I go back to the old Chilton Fairgrounds racing days and we’ve been friends for a long, long time. He was always giving me a hard time saying I should race a modified one year.”
Pennings knows a little bit about the IMCA modified cars as he was a crew chief for Greenville’s Travis Spaulding for many years. “The talk about a modified actually started a couple of years ago when we were running our late model at WIR (Wisconsin International Raceway in Kaukauna, Wisconsin),” King explained. “If we’d be having a bad night occasionally Ryan would always joke ‘let’s get rid of this thing and go modified racing.’ We’d all laugh about it.”
Well heading into 2022 the modified thing was no longer a joke and has become a reality. “Last year towards the end of the season at WIR we blew the motor up in the late model and it was sort of the icing on the cake for the rough season we experienced on Thursday nights,” King admitted. “I simply wasn’t having fun on Thursdays anymore and truth be told I just needed a break from Thursday nights. Plus, it was starting to get pretty expensive too. We were still racing our grand national sportsman on dirt and were having a blast. Once again, the option was brought up about racing a modified and I told Ryan ‘You buy the car and I’ll drive it.’”
Mike King poses next to the No. 21 IMCA modified he plans on wheeling weekly at The ‘Burg Speedway in Luxemburg on Sunday nights. (danlewisphoto.net)
Pennings started looking for a car and he found a Slick chassis available from James Lee Tebon of Algoma. “It’s kind of funny because when we picked it up James said his wife and daughter actually didn’t want him to sell the car,” King said. “It’s a great chassis built by Russ Reinwald and James gave us one helluva deal on it.”
King had a history of sorts with Tebon as he bought a top-notch street stock from Tebon in the early 2000s. “We won two street stock titles at Chilton with that car, so I knew James ahead of time before we bought the modified from him,” King said. “I really miss the Fairgrounds track at Chilton. There were some nights we’d have two B mains in the street stock class.”
King provides the racing seat and the drive train to this new modified effort. “Ryan owns the car and if we ever do decide to part ways that part would be easy,” King explained. “I see this being a very good racing relationship. Ryan is a very knowledgeable guy and never stops studying the physics of the race car. He watches a lot of videos. If you remember the night Travis (Spaulding) won the Chilton Fall Classic from the E main right up to winning the A main in the late ‘90s Ryan was the crew chief for that. We’ve got our work cut out for us no doubt but it’s a challenge we’re very much looking forward to taking on. If there are any problems truth is it could be the loose nut behind the wheel.”
The game plan for King racing his modified will involve chasing the rookie-of-the-year crown on Sunday nights at The ‘Burg Speedway in Luxemburg. “I’d also love to take the modified up to Sturgeon Bay (The Hill Raceway) as they are hosting the modifieds three nights up there. Ultimately with the modified our goal is to make every feature. It’s a very tough class especially for someone new.”
King will be pulling double duty on the dirt this year as he still has his grand national sportsman – a race car he was able to bag a pair of feature wins with last season. “We only finished out the top five twice at 141 (Speedway, Francis Creek, WI) and one of those times we had a broken shock,” King said. “We plan on running for the grand national points title at 141 and we’re going to try the Clash at the Creek with the IMCA modified. The goal there obviously is just to make that show.”
King will house the race cars at his shop. “Ryan and I all work on the race cars together,” King said. “Titles are won at the shop – not at the track. The time you put into maintaining your race car in the shop a lot of times reflects on how you run at the track. What I also like about the drivers in the modified division is that for the most part they race pretty close to each other and with a lot of respect.”
When it came to maintaining King’s WIR late model they were usually in the shop three nights a week. “We seemed to work on that car a lot,” King admitted. “We had a lot of problems with that car and for some reason Lady Luck just wasn’t on our side on Thursday nights at WIR. Unless our dirt cars really need some work we plan on taking Thursday and Friday nights off from working on them unless they need something done to them.”
Mike King poses with family and pit crew members with his grand national sportsman No. 21. (danlewisphoto.net)
King’s team members in 2022 include crew chief/car owner Ryan Pennings, Chris Robley, King’s sister Terri King, Mike’s daughter Madelyn King along with Mikenzie Pennings and Ryder Pennings.
King has worked hard over the years to acquire a stout lineup of marketing partners to support his annual racing efforts. These backers include Pro One Janitorial, Baumgart Tire & Wheel, N.E.W. Plastering LLC, Prestige Auto, MotoMart, Milis Flatwork, Lindsey Kate Real Estate, Ostenson Home, Solutions, Grant Thompson Construction, Envirotech Equipment, Outlaw Chassis & Suspension, Mike’s Racing Services, Van Zeeland Collision & Paint, The Corp Racing Kayak, The Durty Leprechaun, Marty Nussbaum Racing Enterprises, The X Bar, Gnome Games, Woody’s Signs, Hoffmann Strobel Builders, KORR Powder Coating, KR Truck and Trailer Repair, Valley View Unloaders, Kimberly Service and Warner Elite Racing Oil.
“I don’t mind getting my shoes dirty as racing on dirt is where I’ve had most of my success,” King pointed out. “The fire to race still burns strong. I may go back to WIR someday and myself and Marty Nussbaum (WIR co-car owner) are still good friends. But it most likely will be a couple of years.”
