Rick’s Racing Roundup: King of the Outlaws Kinser Announces Retirement

| August 24, 2016

The King of the Outlaws Steve Kinser announced his retirement from racing Monday night
Legend, Steve Kinser announced Monday night at Lebanon Valley Speedway that it would likely be the last race of his career.

(Photo of The King of the Outlaws Steve Kinser, who announced his retirement from racing Monday night. Photo by Rick Rarer)

Kinser is considered by most to be the best to ever strap in a sprint car. Kinser’s stats speak for themselves. He has 20 World of Outlaw championships to his credit along with a record 577 feature wins.

Kinser also has won the coveted Knoxville Nationals a record 12 times. He was inducted in the National Sprint Car Hall of Fame in 2005 and also spent time racing in NASCAR and competed in the Indianapolis 500 during his impressive career.

Locally, after dodging rain several times over the past few weeks Mother Nature finally wiped out action at Lernerville Speedway Friday and in the process crowned three of the track’s four season champions.

With the rain Russ King, Mat Williamson and Corey McPherson clinched 2016 track championships leaving just the sprint cars to be decided.

Friday the final Fab 4 racing program of the season will decide this year’s sprint car champion.

Going into the final race Jack Sodeman Jr. holds a 28-point lead over defending track champ AJ Flick. For Sodeman it would be his first Lernerville title and he could join his dad as a champion. His father Jack Sodeman Sr. won the sprint car championship in 1979 and then the modified title in 1985.

Despite regular racing coming to a close this Friday there are several special shows still on tap at Lernerville in the following month including appearances by the World of Outlaws late models and sprint cars.

Mercer Raceway Park completed racing action on Saturday and for the first time ever the Central Ohio F.A.S.T. 305 sprint car series invaded the 1/3 oval. The Ohio invaders stood their ground taking four of the top five spots with Alvin Roepke taking his first career Mercer win.

Alvin Roepke led the FAST invaders into Mercer scoring the win. Photo by Rick Rarer

Alvin Roepke led the FAST invaders into Mercer scoring the win. Photo by Rick Rarer

Andy Priest of New Castle was the only Mercer regular to crack the top five with a fourth-place finish. In the 410 feature Sodeman Jr did it again scoring his eighth win of the season making him the winningest driver on the circuit.

Saturday will also be the final points race of the season at Mercer. Double points will be awarded and champions in all seven divisions will be crowned this weekend.

Sharon Speedway was back in action Saturday after losing the past three shows to rain. Rick Richner scored his first big block modified feature win of the season while Chris Schneider was the victor of the 1,000 to win Penn-Ohio Pro Stock special.

Sharon will also wrap up their points this Saturday with another six division regular show featuring the big block modifieds. Also on the card Saturday will be bike races for the kids with racing slated for 7 p.m.

Good news from Sharon Speedway was that the Lou Blaney Memorial held on July 9 raised $7,500 for the Alzheimer’s Association. The event honors Blaney, who lost his battle with Alzheimer’s in 2009. One of the greatest racers to ever come out of the area, He recorded over 600 wins in his illustrious career.

Rick’s Racing Roundup is brought to you by:

Ron Seidle’s Redbank Chevrolet
Red Bandana Winery
Prime Choice Wireless
Bauer Truck Repair
Dagny Design Group

About Rick

Rick Rarer, a Franklin resident, is the owner of Racestud.com and SprintCarNews.com. He has been covering racing for 18 years, taking racing photos for 13 years, and has covered races at over 100 tracks in 15 states. Most recently, Rick won the Bill Steinbach Media Award at the Lernerville Speedway Annual Awards Banquet.


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