[riskybrisky5]

Article from the Bedford Times Mail

By Jeff Bartlett:

Kenny Niflis’ career took off like a rocket in the junior ranks as the Bedford youngster, now living in Springville, dominated races during his days in karts and Micro Sprints. Then his foray into full-sized Sprint cars took a strange turn and for the first couple of seasons that once-glowing career was like a couple of the bad firecrackers we had last week.

It went off like a dud. There was very little of the expected fire coming from the Niflis camp, and there was virtually no noise.

Guess what? The spark has been re-lit.

Niflis’ racing fortunes went off like a booming Roman candle two weeks ago when he came out of nowhere to win the 21st annual Sheldon Kinser Memorial at Bloomington Speedway. In a race loaded with firecracker drivers, Niflis was the loudest and brightest. Not only did he beat guys like Brady Short, Jon Stanbrough, Dickie Gaines, Bryan Clauson, Jeff Bland Jr., Shane Cottle, Chad Boat, Robert Ballou and Casey Shuman, but he had to work through the B-main and start 16th in the feature. It proved to be no problem for the 17-year old Niflis as he roared through the star-studded field to claim his first career Sprint car victory.

“It was incredible,” said Niflis, who earned a $3,000 winner’s paycheck and $2,600 in lap money for his maiden win. “I’ve been going to that race since I was a little kid, and we had some of the best Sprint car drivers in the country there that night.

“Honestly, I sat there 16th during driver introductions and I just told myself that if I could work my way up, stay out of trouble, and get a Top 10 finish I’d be happy. Then I just started passing cars like crazy. It was unbelievable. I thought I might get up to a certain point and stop passing them, but I just kept going.”

Niflis moved into the Top 10 before the 40-lap feature had reached double digits in laps, and now had the No.01 Niflis Designs/Indiana Stoneworks/Gutswear.com/The Edge Collision Center car working as though it were hooked to a magic magnetic wand that weaved him in and out of traffic.

He picked off Cottle on Lap 17, and made quick work of Shuman, Clauson and Stanbrough to pull up into second behind Short, the Bedford driver who is the current Bloomington points leader. Niflis kept it nailed to the floor and flew past Short on Lap 25, then steadily stretched the lead with nifty work around backmarkers, and he wound his way to Victory Lane as the huge crowd gave him a standing ovation.

“I could take that car anywhere on the track and pass people,” said Niflis who also lists Indy Race Parts and Indy Screen Print as sponsors. “If somebody was running the middle, I could pass them on the bottom, and if they were on the bottom I could go to the top. It was hooked up, and it was a great feeling.”

The crowd rose up because it sensed it was a victory for the little man in a world of big-budget race teams, and it was a comeback victory for the ages for Niflis and his dad, former Super Stock and Modified driver Trent Niflis, who suffered severe setbacks their first two years in the Sprint business.

“It was a rough start,” Kenny said of his 2007 debut after winning 24 Micro Sprint features in 2006. “The first time out in my own car I flipped it at Bloomington and destroyed the car, and it was our only car. I didn’t even get to race for about a month-and-a-half, and when I got back into the car I wasn’t my same old self, so it was a struggle.

“Then last year we just didn’t really have the money to do it. There was a guy we didn’t really even know who had a car, and we had a motor, so kind of put it together and tried to go. But I always set up my own car, and I wasn’t really getting to do that, so we didn’t race very well.

“Toward the end of the season we finally got our own car to go with our motor, and I was able to do a little better.”

This season he’s starting to look the Kenny Niflis that many people had stamped for stardom. He followed the Sheldon Kinser Memorial win with an eighth-place finish on a slick track Friday night at Bloomington, and he’s currently seventh in the point standings at venerable track. The comeback has occurred because of a healthy combination.

“This year I’ve got more control over the car than I ever have before, and when you feel like you’re comfortable in the car, that’s when you go fast,” Niflis said. “If you’re not comfortable, it’s hard to push it real hard.

“And it’s a lot of people helping us. I couldn’t race without Don Short of Indiana Stoneworks helping me out, and my dad is still in there helping me out a bunch. I really appreciate all of my sponsors and what they do for me. I think we’re going the right way. My car wasn’t very good last week, but that my fault for how I set it up, but I still got eighth on a bad night, and I learned how to set it up if the track is wet.”

While appreciative of the smaller sponsors he has, Niflis hopes to land a big deal, or add more smaller ones so they can compile a bigger racing arsenal.

“This winter we’re hoping to get a lot of stuff, a lot of spares of everything,” he said. “We’re still racing with one motor and one car, and we have to be careful not to tear it up. It would be great to get that one name sponsor who could help us build up, or a bunch of smaller ones.

“We hope it happens, but we’ll keep going the best we can until then. I just have to keep moving forward

[old timer]

Great write up and all tru,I might add that Kenny is a very good driver with greatness in his future!