By Jan Landon
THE ERICKSON TRIBUNE

Vern Kinney acknowledges it’s all about the adrenalin when he climbs inside his Spec Racer Ford, a purpose-built, single-design racecar.

“It uses a steel tube frame with fiberglass body work,” he explains. “It is center seat and open cockpit. The handling of these little cars is just unbelievable.”

Kinney has no plans to slow down. He and his wife, Sue, are moving to Tallgrass Creek during the next few months. And Mr. Kinney will keep racing and traveling around the country in the RV that he and his wife own.

A lifetime of cars
Mr. Kinney, who was a mechanical engineer before retiring, has been racing for 20 years. His life seems always to have included cars.

“From the time I was old enough to know what a car is, I’ve been hanging out around them,” he says.

The Spec Racer Ford is the flagship of the Sports Car Club of America (SCCA), which sanctions the races. The appeal of the spec car is that all of the racers are equal at the start of the race because each car is built to the same specifications. And the competition among drivers is fierce, Mr. Kinney reports.

“It’s unbelievable,” he says when describing the feeling of flying around the track in his car. “I’m not very good at watching races because I know the best seat is in the car.”

A racing season
During his racing career Mr. Kinney has won the Mid West Division Rookie of the Year and Driver of the Year. He also worked as the chief instructor at the SCCA headquarters in Topeka.

“The kids are a little hard to beat, but once in a while I still have some good  days,” he says.

Some years Mr. Kinney has raced as often as every two weeks during the season. This year he chose a lighter schedule and will have raced about six times in the Mid West Division, which has races in cities including Council Bluff, Iowa; Topeka, Kans; St. Louis, Mo.; and Memphis, Tenn.

The racing is just the adrenalin part of having a racecar. He explains for every hour of racing it takes 30 or 40 hours of shop time.