Getting to Know...MIKE KINGMA

A Silver Anniversary Story

By: Rich Boteler (aka: RacerRich)

Mike Kingma has now completed twenty five years of involvement with racing on the local tracks of Northwest Indiana as well as competing in other states. Through the years Mike has driven many types of race cars and has won some championships along the way. We’d like to share some of Mike’s accomplishments during these past twenty five years and let his fans learn more about his life.

Mike lives just outside of Shelby, Indiana but has a rural Lowell address. His fiancée, Amy Geruska, has become his crew chief for his race team. You will find Amy working on his race car at their shop as well as at the race track. While Mike has cut back on his racing schedule over recent years, they share their time together currently racing in the UMP Modified Division. During their years together, Amy has become a hands on helper, doing anything that is needed to prepare the car for racing.

Life started for Mike in Dyer, Indiana on April 19, 1963. His proud parents are Sam and Pat Kingma, though Sam has passed on. They have always been very supportive of Mike’s racing. Anytime he would be in competition at Crown Point Speedway you could find his parents in the front row of the stands cheering for Mike. He states proudly that they followed him to other tracks whenever the opportunity was available for them to do so. Mike has one sister named Lynn, a brother-in-law named Chuck and three nephews, Greg, Doug & Jeff. The boys were named honorary junior pit crew when they were younger. Now they just enjoy watching Uncle Mike race whenever possible.

Pat served as a personal statistician for the race team for twenty three years. Sam was always available to share thoughts about Mike’s racing. He would suggest ideas for him to try and make his race cars better. And Mike adds with a smile that "Dad was always on my case if I did a bad job of driving and he would not tolerate any rough driving." Mike also tells that Raleigh Hinkle, former track owner and flagman, gave him a lot of advice about his driving. Mike credits Raliegh for making him a better driver. Mike also gives credit to Dick Ludlow and Gibby Reed for their assistance with chassis set-ups in Mike’s early days of racing.

Mike is a 1981 graduate of Lowell High School. He worked as a Natural Gas Vehicle mechanic at the Northern Indiana Public Service Co. for fourteen years. Since his dad's passing, Mike has taken over co-management duties of the family farm. Besides overseeing farm operations and marketing, Mike helps with getting the crops in and out of the fields each year.

Mike enjoyed riding go-karts and three-wheelers as a young lad. In 1980 he got involved with racing when Troy Knorr brought his stock car to school and the auto shop class would pitch in and work on it. Mike and others would venture out to the race tracks to help Troy with his racing. This introduced Mike to our wonderful sport of auto racing and he was hooked for life.

In 1981, Mike started to go to the now defunct U.S. 30 Drag Strip where he raced his Dodge Warlock pickup truck. When his Mom learned about this she and dad would come out to the track to watch him compete. Later during this year he got the opportunity to drive in a couple of stock car mechanics races, thanks to his friends Mike Ray and Mike Gerner.

At this time the old Rensselaer Raceway would feature Spectator Drag Races and Mike got involved with this. The Spectator drags lasted 1 lap with 2 cars competing from a dead start at a time; then the winner would advance. Typically eight cars would compete until there was a single winner. Using a 1977 Plymouth Grand Fury ex-Porter County Squad Car with a 440 Police Interceptor engine, named the Pig Mobile, Mike was nearly unbeatable in these races. At the end of the year he was crowned as the champion of these events. Mike brags that he received a big trophy, a bottle of champagne, $100 and a big kiss from the trophy girl. He adopted his familiar car number for his future racing from the ’77 Grand Fury.

Mike’s addiction to racing was now in full swing and he was making plans and building a new street stock for competition. Racing must have come naturally for Mike as in his first year of competition he earned track championships at Southlake Speedway and Rensselaer Speedway and just missed winning the points race at Kankakee Speedway, finishing second by just a few points. A highlight of this season was setting a new track record at Rensselaer. This all took place in 1982 and the next year Mike showed his season was no fluke as he raced to the season’s championships at all three tracks.

For the next three years Mike got away from the driving and helped a few of his friends with their racing endeavors. All the while he was making plans for advancing his own racing career to higher standards. Mike built a new Late Model for the 1987 season and made his debut in this division by winning the first ever Late Model race at the Southlake Speedway. At the end of the year he had finished ninth in points. The next year he continued his winning ways in the Late Models by adding two trophy dashes, six heat races and two feature wins to his resume.

In 1989, Mike again changed divisions and started racing in the Hobby Stock division at Crown Point. While he only won four races during this first year his program started to bloom in 1990 as he had seven fast times and won seven trophy dashes, three heat races and seven features. Along with these impressive stats he set a track record for the Hobby Stocks and finished third in points for the year.

Continuing in the same division in 1991, Mike had a career best type of year by winning the track championship with 528 points, more than a hundred points better than the second place driver. He accumulated six trophy dash wins along with fourteen feature wins during the year. A couple of highlights during this year were resetting the track qualifying record, winning the fifty lap Father’s Day Special and winning eight straight races in two months.

For the 1992 season, Mike again raced in the Late Model division at Crown Point and finished third in points. He had two fast times and won two heat races and two features. He was also the recipient of the ‘‘Best Appearing Pit Crew’’ award. 1993 again found Mike finishing third in Late Model points. He earned the ‘‘Hot Shoe Qualifier’’ award by setting fast time eight different nights. He won five trophy dashes, a heat race and three features including the fifty lap Tom Bredemeier Memorial and the Harvest 100 lap Special where he led the entire race. At the end of the year he was voted ‘‘Most Popular Driver’’ which is a favorite highlight of his racing career.

Over the next three years Mike continued winning races and finishing in the top seven of the point standings. For the next two years Mike stepped away from driving full time and only raced occasionally. He turned his attention to being the track photographer and part time flagman at Crown Point. Along with these two duties at the race track, Mike has served as a track official, spotter, time keeper, pit stewart, announcer, tech inspector, and scorer. So to say that Mike has done it all over the years, pretty much makes this a true statement.

In 1999 Mike returned to the driver’s seat full time and drove three divisions for T. R. I. Motorsports owned by Tony Roland. In the Late Model division he finished third in points by winning eleven races and earned the Autumn Showdown. The Showdown was a race with the top five points drivers racing for bragging rights and Mike took this victory. Racing in the Hobby Stock division he earned one fast time by setting a new track record and ended up winning three races. Competing in the Super Street division he added one fast time and two race victories. While Mike did not compete in each division every night of the race season, but he did accomplish his personal goal of winning a feature in all three divisions that he raced in during this year.

Starting the 2000 season, Mike drove a UMP Modified for T. R. I. and won a couple of races but only raced in this division for six nights. Switching back to the T. R. I. Late Model where he won seven additional races until he parted company with his T. R. I. ride and finished the final ten nights of racing by driving the new MastersBilt Late Model that he had bought. Mike added another eight race victories to his year and finished second in the points standings. His season stats add up to three fast times, two trophy dash, seven heat race and six feature wins.

Crown Point moved up to the UMP Super Late Model division in 2001. This was the start of a very rough year for Kingma Motorsports as the first night out the car was destroyed in a crash. After the car was rebuilt with a new front and rear section, Mike could never get the handling right. Missing a number of nights to the weatherman and four consecutive nights with a back injury, this resulted in a very poor year for the team. He did manage to finish eighth in points for the year while accumulating seven fast times and a couple of race wins. In the UMP Super Late Model National Standings, Mike finished 118th out of 1,201 competing drivers and finished seventeenth in the Rookie of the Year points.

With last year’s tough season behind them the team was looking forward to a more successful season in 2002. In the end they would win a half dozen races and finished 94th out of 1,193 drivers competing in the national points standings. More impressively this would rank Mike 4th in the Indiana standings. Competing in the Summer National Event at Crown Point with all of the top name drivers in attendance, Mike made the field by winning a consy race. He made his way up to finish 12th from his 20th place starting position in the main event. During this race season, Royal Flush Productions out of California highlighted Kingma Motorsports for their documentary entitled ‘‘Sideways’’. Following Mike and his team around the pits and at their shop, this film was showing what a typical race team experiences while racing as a small time local racer. Mike smiles when telling about this ‘‘movie making’’ experience and tells that it was his introduction to ‘‘fame’’ without the ‘‘fortune’’.

When they got ready for the 2003 racing season, the team had decided not to race for a track championship. This idea took them to various tracks that raced with the UMP Late Models. A highlight of this year was qualifying for the trophy dash at the Summer National Event at Kamp Motor Speedway with all the big names running the show. Mike was the only ‘‘local’’ guy to make it to the main event. When the year was over Mike had won five more races including one feature and the team had a lot of fun touring around to the different tracks. Another highlight for Kingma Motorsports was being voted ‘‘Best Appearing Car of 2003’’ by a group of Lake and Porter County car dealerships and parts suppliers.

During the off season the team made a decision to go back to UMP Modified racing for their future. Cutting back on their number of nights of racing and just going to various tracks when they decide to go racing would be on their agenda for the coming years. They continue to win some races and most of all continue to have fun with their favorite past time.

Mike names Crown Point Speedway as his favorite track and with the closing of this track his enthusiasm has dwindled but he has not hung up his helmet. Mike says sadly that he really misses the old Rensselaer Raceway. He doesn’t follow other racing very much but in past years he has been to Indy, Daytona, Talladega and Joliet. He has no favorite drivers from big time racing but lists Larry Mobbs, Rich Rish, John Nimetz, Phil Line, Dale Lomax and Tony Tauber as his favorite competitors from the local tracks. Other than racing he enjoys guns and shooting and 4-wheeling with Amy and Woody their "Wonder Lab".

With his twenty five year involvement in our great sport of auto racing in his past, Mike still looks forward to racing as his hobby. He has sold his UMP Modified and is considering other options for racing during the 2007 race season. Since he and Amy still enjoy racing they are waiting to see what plans might become available for them. Whatever turns up for them we wish them good luck and continued success with their racing endeavors!

Throughout his racing career, Mike has received valuable support from his family, many sponsors and various pit crew people that have helped to make him a successful local racer. Without this supporting group of people and businesses, Mike tells that his success in racing would never have developed the way it has. Mike also appreciates all of his fan support during his racing career. Mike is thankful for all of this support and is always available to visit with his fans. You can email Mike and Amy at: kingmamotorsports@airbaud.net.