California driver eyeing East & West Coast Supers, Sprints in 2014
MADERA, Calif. (April 11, 2014) – Sanger, California’s Kyle Vanderpool opened his 2014 season with another dominating supermodified win at his home track, Madera Speedway in Madera, Calif.
In the first of six Super Modified vs. Winged Sprints special shows at Madera this year, Vanderpool wheeled the Penix Racing No. 3 Hyder chassis to a convincing six-second victory over JoJo Helberg. Vanderpool’s fast lap time of 12.692 around Madera’s 0.333-mile oval was some four-tenths better than any other car in the field.
The 30-lapper went green to checkered without a caution flag and Vanderpool completed the fast-paced open-wheel extravaganza in just over six and a half minutes.
Kyle Vanderpool(shown here at Madera Speedway) will traverse the country in 2014. Photo by Orange Freak Photography.
“The car had a pretty good push in it for most of the day but we were able to get it going pretty good for the main event,” said the 25-year-old racer, who qualified third and finished third in his heat before winning the feature. “I want to thank everyone who came out to support the speedway and the supers and sprint cars. On our team, I want to thank our owners Don and Chuck Penix, my dad, Dan Vanderpool, our crew chief and shock man Jeff Gardner of KW Shocks and my wife Kami. Thanks to all our sponsors who make it all possible.”
Vanderpool will be back in action for the second round of the Supermodified vs. Winged Sprints at Madera on May 3.
In addition to supporting Madera and west-coast-style supermodified racing, the Penix Racing team has a 2014 schedule on tap that includes east-coast super racing with their Belfab chassis and some winged sprint car racing in the new King of Wing series organized by Davey Hamilton.
Vanderpool took some time Thursday to talk about Penix Racing’s upcoming season.
“We’re excited to get back out east and run the Belfab car. I think we showed very good last year when we went out to Sandusky, Star and Thompson. We really learned a lot and we’re looking forward to building on it this season. And the sprint car deal with Davey Hamilton’s series, that is going to be cool. We’re going to run the west coast portion of that series November 21-23, which will have us at Madera, Irwindale and Kern County. We’re working to get a sprinter together to run that deal, and it should be a lot of fun,” Vanderpool said.
After running Madera May 3, Vanderpool says the team may travel to the Ohio to run a Midwest Supermodified Association show at Sandusky Speedway on May 31. The team also has the June 13 MSA event at Toledo Speedway on their radar, however Vanderpool added those two events are very tentative for the Penix team.
If Vanderpool and the Penix Racing team don’t make it to the Midwest for either of the aforementioned Ohio shows, the June 21 MSA event at Sandusky will be their first race east of the Mississippi.
International Supermodified Association (ISMA) events are on the team’s radar in 2014, as well. Don Penix will look to enter the No. 3 in its first ISMA event of the year at Sandusky for the annual Hy-Miler Nationals July 25-26.
Penix will store the Belfab chassis on the east coast through the fall and hit ISMA shows at Oswego Speedway August 30 for International Classic weekend, New Hampshire’s Star Speedway September 6 and the World Series of Racing at Connecticut’s Thompson Speedway October 17-19.
For more information on Kyle Vanderpool and Penix Racing, visit PenixRacing.com, where fans will find Kyle’s 2014 schedule of events, bio story, news, photos, racecar specs and more!
Penix Racing and Kyle Vanderpool thank the crew and team sponsors that made a season of racing supermodifieds coast-to-coast possible, including NH3 Plus, Inc., Administrative Solutions, Caps Brite Hot Coatings, Belfab Racing Products, Schaeffer’s Racing Oil, McGaughy’s, Tioga-Sequoia Brewing Co., Simpson Race Products, K&N Filters and SpeedMeetsArt.com. The team also sends out a special thanks to Jet Star Inc. in Indianapolis and Cooper Machine in Tewsbury, Mass., for housing the Penix supermodified during last season.
Penix Racing is also active on Facebook and Twitter, and can be found at http://www.facebook.com/Penix-Racing or twitter.com/penixracing.
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Penix Racing is a supermodified racing team based in Madera, California. Penix Racing is the only supermodified team that owns east-coast and west-coast-style supermodifieds, and in 2013 became the first team to ever regularly compete in events west and east of the Mississippi River.
Penix Racing and Kyle Vanderpool’s marketing partners are NH3 Plus, Inc., Administrative Solutions, Caps Brite Hot Coatings, Belfab Racing Products, Schaeffer’s Racing Oil, McGaughy’s, Tioga-Sequoia Brewing Co., Simpson Race Products, K&N Filters and SpeedMeetsArt.com.
