SHELDON KINSER JR PLANNING ON ENTERING FATHERS MEMORIAL RACE IN 2015
By Zach Tasker

Longtime open wheel racing driver Sheldon Kinser Jr is finalizing plans to enter the 2015 running of the Sheldon Kinser Memorial race for non-wing sprint cars at the Bloomington Speedway in Indiana. The driver who now calls Inverness, Florida home currently races winged Micro sprints as part of the Florida Outlaw Micro Sprint tour but is relishing the chance of getting back behind the wheel of a sprint car.

“There is nothing set in stone yet, but Steve mentioned to me in Ocala last week that if I wanted to go run my Dad’s race he had a car for me. It would be a huge deal for me to go and run my Dad’s race. Not only to be running it but in Steves car. I think that would be pretty cool.”

The Kinser family name is like racing royalty. However Steve, even with his 20 World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series championships told Sheldon Jr. that non-wing racing isn’t his forte. “That’s the first thing he told me, I don’t know anything about it, you are on your own. That’s what he said.”

Sheldon was at the North Florida Speedway just a few weeks ago as part of the Gator Dirt Nationals weekend which served as the season opener for the series. Even though most drivers would consider a micro sprint a step down from a sprint car Kinser Jr. insists that the micro is still a challenge. “Believe it or not these are a little harder to drive. You have no power steering, a short wheelbase; they are real twitchy with a lot of power to weight ratio.”

Kinser Jr enjoys running for the bendinrulesmotorsports.com racing team, knowing he always has solid equipment when he shows up to the track. "I started out running my own sh**box, and they seemed to see something in me and they have never owned a car before and they decided that they were going to buy me a racecar. We got an old 08 Stallard and put her together, and they have been very good to me and we have been running up front a lot. This track (North Florida Speedway) seems to work well for me, I won a few features here last year, we won everywhere we went last year, except Ocala. That place, I don’t know what's going on there, but that’s the only place I couldn’t win. We won at Volusia; we won at East Bay. We won everywhere we went except Ocala but this place here gave me more wins than any other track last year.”

Even though Kinser Jr has moved to Florida to race down south and escape the harsh Midwest winters, he can't wait to make the trip up north on June 26 for the 27th annual running of the Sheldon Kinser Jr. Memorial. The $3,000 to win race on the ¼ clay oval is one of the most coveted trophies in all of non-wing sprint car racing, especially when you are racing to honor your father.