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Kitchen Races Uphill With One Hand Tied Behind His Back

Like swimming uphill, bringing a knife to a gunfight or using a one-gear bike in the Tour de France, Ryan Kitchen races on in his wingless sprint car.

Kitchen, along with his father Regan, a former (winged) sprint car driver, run the most unusual racing team in wingless sprint car racing.

See, the Kitchen race car, white with red trim and a black tail, runs an iron-block 360 cubic-inch engine. He races against the much-lighter and more-powerful 410 sprint cars that have aluminum engines and approximately 200 more horsepower.

“It comes down to driving on the dirt tracks because, without the big wing, you don’t have the downforce and you are sliding sideways through every turn,” said Regan, who raced for more than 20 years at Midwest and Eagle raceways.

For Ryan, who does the driving and much of the planning, there is no better way to race.

“We have a good time and we’re doing pretty good,” the Lincoln driver said. The 26-year-old, who works at Kawasaki Motors, finished seventh in the recent USAC Rumble in the Bullring feature after winning his heat race at Eagle Raceway — against all 410 sprint cars. He has three top-three finishes and three more top-10 finishes in seven races his first season in the wingless sprint cars. Ryan is ninth in the Wingless Auto Racing national standings.

“People come by the pits after races and ask if we’re running a 410 and we tell them ‘No. 360.’ And they shake their heads,” said Ryan, who raced the winged sprint cars for a number of years.

“We’re doing what we can because we don’t have the $30,000 to $40,000 to buy a 410 engine,” he said. “Heck, we’re always searching for any sponsors for anything. But it’s hard. Right now, the investment in the car comes from loose change after paying the bills.

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“Tires, parts, paint, gas for hauling the car to races, mostly in Missouri, all come from anything I have left over from my paycheck.”

The racing is exciting and the father-son bond is stronger than ever because Regan and Ryan work together when not working their regular jobs. Regan works at Ready-Mixed in Lincoln.

“It sure is a lot of fun to work on the car, get things ready and watch Ryan race,” Regan said.

Ryan’s mom, Angie, comes to most races, and Regan’s daughter Jennifer is married to hobby stock racer Sean Slezak.

“We’re a racing family and have been for a long, long time,” Regan said. “Sean’s grandfather is Stu Vavra from back in the Midwest Speedway days, and I drove Ray Lee Goodwin’s sprint car for 10 years for Geneva Machine,” Regan said. “Ryan gets a call earlier this year from Bob Hasenstein in Topeka (Kansas). He ran a car for Stu Snyder for a lot of years, and asked Ryan if he’d drive for him, too. We jumped at the chance and it’s been great ever since.”

The next race for the Kitchens is at I-35 Raceway in Winston, Missouri.

“This is so much fun, we’d like to race more often and we’d like to find some sponsors, but racing mostly in Missouri, it’s hard to get interested businesses around here,” Regan said. “I think if they could see us race, we might be able to sell them on the idea.”

Eagle Raceway has rescheduled its annual Freedom Fest from last week to Saturday at 6:30 p.m., while I-80 Speedway prepares for the annual Silver Dollar Nationals, with the biggest racing purse in Nebraska, on July 22-23.

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