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The 16-year-old Houston, Minn., native has been on the track at the Tri-Oval Speedway racing Midwest Modifieds for three years now, and this year has been his coming out party.
In nine weeks of racing, Jumbeck has eight wins.
The only week he didn’t win was Week 1, and that week his car was running on seven of eight cylinders, because of a faulty spark plug wire.
Perhaps he should run that way every week, just to be fair.
“I’ll pass,” Jumbeck said.
Oh, and for the record, with seven cylinders, Jumbeck took second.
Jumbeck’s success this season can be traced back to his first year on the dirt track.
As a boy amongst men in a car he had very little experience with — he did travel with his dad to Texas for a driving school — the 14-year-old did take his lumps.
“The very first night out, I got put in the wall up at Deer Creek,” Jumbeck said. “I bent some stuff up front. It
wasn’t the best start ever.”
Kyle and his dad, Kevin, spent hours in the shop working on the car that year, and the turning point came near the end of the season.
Racing at the Tri-Oval, Kyle totaled his car.
“There were just a few races left in the year,” Kyle said. “I just totaled it. I came out of a corner, got hit and spun out. There was nowhere for anyone else to go, so I got hit a few more times. It all happened so fast, but didn’t hurt too much. You’re tucked in the car pretty tight.”
Totaling the car turned out to be the best thing that ever happened to Jumbeck.
Kyle and Kevin went out and got a new chassis, which turned out to be exactly what he needed.
“I think it was a blessing, I guess,” Kevin said. “The new chassis fit his driving style better. But at first, he was too fast in the corners with it, and was hitting people and getting sent to the back of the pack.”
Eventually, Kyle got the hang of it. The next season he finished third in the points standings with five wins. This year, it doesn’t look like anyone can stop him.
“It’s really cool to me,” said Brad Waits, who’s been helping Kyle get started. Waits is leading the standings in the USRA Modifieds.
“I think it’s something,” he added. “I wish I would have had someone do that for me.“
What Waits is talking about is how Kevin has done so much to help his son with racing.
When Kyle was 7, dad brought home a go-kart racer, and it snowballed from there.
For the next five years Kyle raced karts all over the place. One year, he finished with points championships at the track in West Salem, Wis., another in Westby, Wis., and another with the International Karting Federation.
Eventually, it was time to move up, so father and son found themselves a chassis.
“A friend of mine in Winona had a used chassis and I bought one from them, and the rest is history” Kevin said.
“I probably should find that person and beat them up,” he joked.
