He may be nearing 60 but Steve Kinser is far from beyond beating the best of the best in a Sprintcar.
Before a crowd of 8000 fans, the King of the Outlaws gave a driving display reminiscent of his golden period in the late 1980’s when he set a quick time and won the 35-lap main at Sydney’s Valvoline Raceway.
Kinser arrived in Sydney on December 20 to quietly assemble his and Kraig Kinser’s Bad Boy Buggies Hoosier-shod Maxims.
Their first show on December 26 at Valvoline Raceway fell to rain, but he made up for lost time by leading the qualifiers which included Kraig, Ohio’s Dale Blaney and South Dakota’s Justin Henderson.
Steve drew the 10 pill inversion for the $10.000 to win main event which meant he gave all the guns a competitive start in the field of 24 cars.
Local tear away Max Johnston charged to the front on a neat two lane track to set up a big lead.
Kraig Kinser came out of the pack to catch ‘Magic’ but couldn’t edge him.
Then along came Steve with Valvoline’s Max Dumesny and track champ Ben Atkinson in the Garry Rush Pick ‘N Payless entry to slowly close on the leaders.
Steve wore down Johnston, drew alongside and surged to the front and that’s where he stayed to head Dumesny and Atkinson at the finish.
“I just love this place,” said Steve as he climbed from his familiar white 11k Maxim to accept the winner’s trophy from Australia’s Iowa based former champ Skip Jackson.
“Here in Sydney we always have two high speed lanes which makes for good racing, both for the drivers and the fans,” he added.
In supporting late model races Americans Steve Casebolt and Steve Francis were the class of the fields with Casebolt winning his heat, the six lap dash and 20 lap Coke Zero Firecracker.
