Story by: Langley Austin ~ [email protected]
Ashland, VA(January 11, 2011) — After coming from behind to win the points championship at Motor Mile Speedway as well as helping to lead driver, Brandon Dean to his first Late Model Stock Car win, Kiker Motorsports looks to a veteran driver as the team searches for their second track championship in as many seasons.
Travis and Eddie Kiker, owners of the Kiker Motorsports team have built a great Late Model Stock Car program in just a few short seasons. From winning a pole with Shaun Mangum in the UARA-STARS Series at Concord to taking home two wins en route to the championship with Dean last season, the Kiker team has become second to none.
Kiker Motorsports isn’t about to sit still either as at the tail end of the 2010 season, they hired veteran Frank Deiny, Jr. to pilot one of their cars in three big end of year races. Deiny, who had run only one race last season before getting with the Kiker’s, turned in three varied performances in a trial run with the North Carolina based team. Deiny, finished in the top five in his first race with them at Caraway, then destroyed one of their cars at Ace Speedway when a brake failure sent him into the wall hard and nearly flipped the car in qualifying. Deiny, however bounced back and put on a clinic at Myrtle Beach Speedway in the Myrtle Beach 400 coming from the middle of the pack to win the race in the last segment of the race.
Deiny’s performance gave the Kiker’s their biggest win ever and couple that with their championship with Dean, the team had to be on top of the world when the season ended. As the season wound down, rumors began to swirl, first that Brandon Dean wouldn’t be back with Kiker, despite his championship, another placed Deiny in the car for this season, others put drivers such as Tommy Lemons, Jr., Andy Mercer and even Matt McCall behind the wheel of Kiker Motorsports cars.
Possibly all the rumors in this situation were true, maybe the Kiker’s were finally in a position to negotiate with some of the most talented drivers in the business and maybe they talked to all of them, but in the end it was a veteran with countless wins and championships, who got the ride for next season. Frank Deiny, Jr. will lead the Kiker Motorsports team during the 2011 season as they will be chasing down a second straight track championship.
Deiny and the Kiker ride, however won’t be back at Motor Mile Speedway full-time in 2011 as the veteran driver and his new ride will take their championship hopes to South Boston Speedway instead. Deiny’s plans for 2011 not only includes challenging for the South Boston championship, but he also expects to compete in all five of the “Super Five Series” races at Caraway Speedway this season, beginning with the Sunday, March 13th race, one day after the season opener at South Boston Speedway, which will make for a hectic opening weekend.
For Deiny it’s a new lease on life for his racing career as he had been putting his own racing on the back burner, while he worked to build his FDJ Motorsports brand, his driver development and chassis program.
“I’m really excited about this deal,” said Deiny in a recent phone conversation. “Travis and Eddie(Kiker) are really good people and to get to do this deal with them is pretty cool. They have built a great team and have a good reputation and I’m excited about what we can do together.”
Deiny is ready to return to racing full time and believes that this will be not only a great chance for him to return to championship winning form, but thinks all the seat time he’ll be getting will help develop better setups and better cars for his clients.
“This deal is big for me in a number of ways,” continued Deiny. “When I raced over the last couple of seasons, I had to put my car on the back burner and focus on my drivers, but with this deal the Kiker’s will keep the car up and I won’t have to worry about it. The car will be ready when we get to the track and for my drivers, me and my shop guys will have more time to prepared their cars and not have me racing take any attention away from them.”
It’s a win, win situation for Deiny as he’ll have the chance to personally race with not having to worry about keeping his own car up and being able to develop his young drivers and groom them to be the next big thing in racing. For the Kiker’s this is an incredible chance to put a high profile driver behind the wheel of their car as they continue to make their mark in Late Model Stock Car racing.
With the success Kiker has already seen and with the success Frank Deiny’s had over the years in Late Model Stock Car racing, there’s no doubt that this combination has the chance to win on a regular basis with a full slate of races from South Boston’s full schedule to Caraway’s “Super Five Series” and even select starts at Motor Mile and Ace along with a full slate of big races.
