Racing Provides Fountain Of Youth For Indy Veteran Kenyon
By Dick Mittman
indy500.com
Saturday, August 24, 2002

Mel Kenyon finished fourth in the 1973 Indianapolis 500. Every other driver who started that rain-shortened race is now either retired or deceased.

Except for Mel Kenyon.

Kenyon, now 69, still races midgets and Kenyon cars four and five times a week around Indiana and Wisconsin.

Not only does he race them, he's right in there challenging for the checkered flag.

In July at Camden Speedway in northeastern Indiana, he outraced Jamie Williams to win a Kenyon car race. Runner-up Williams was 15, an incredible 54 years younger than Kenyon.

At the Indianapolis Speedrome in August, Kenyon chased Bobby East across the finish line in a midget. East is all of 17.

Kenyon is competing in the NAMARS midget series as a regular. In mid-August, he was second in the standings only to Aaron Pierce of Muncie, Ind., who at 29 is the oldest driver in the series other than Kenyon and Mike Nigh, a 51-year-old rookie.

Incidentally, the leader in the Kenyon car series standings is Bryan Clauson of Noblesville, Ind. He turned 13 on June 15.

Kenyon has driven most of his life without fingers on his left hand due to an accident early in his career. He puts his hand into a special socket on the steering wheel and has raced that way for the last 37 years without complaint. It's never been used as an excuse.

His total victories have reached 380.

Kenyon, from Lebanon, Ind., has no compunction about racing with youngsters who could consider him their grandfather.

"Why not," he said, "if it's what you like to do best?

"I was second at the Speedrome because East got me (for the lead and the win) because I was not charging into the corners. I blocked everybody else because I charged harder."

That's his fighting spirit.

He's even raced against his son, Brice, 30, and given him no quarter.

So there's no thought about retirement next season after he reaches his 70th birthday April 15.

"It depends on as long as I'm competitive and can make a dollar," he said.

Kenyon pooh-poohs the age factor, pointing out Herschel McGriff still races stock cars on the west coast and actor/driver Paul Newman won a race this season. Both are in their mid-70s.

"Newman's a friend of mine," Kenyon said. "He used to sit with me on the wall at the Speedway. In five minutes, we'd be surrounded by photographers and he'd say, 'That's why I drive race cars.'"

Ralph Liguori raced until he was 71, and Kenyon often was in the same lineup. Now one of Kenyon's challengers is Liguori's grandson Joie.

Kenyon's racing slacked for several years while he tended to his ailing wife, Marieann. After her death two years ago, he purchased a couple of Stealth midgets and went at it again full blast. He doesn't know how the youngsters who see the rear of his car in races refer to him.

"It's hard to say what they call me," he said. "I outlast most of the kids. I never get tired driving."

The Kenyon car is a midget that cannot top 1,100 pounds with the driver in the seat. A motorcycle engine powers the car. A midget weighs 900 pounds without the driver.

John Stiles, who used to run the Speedrome, came up with the idea for the Kenyon car, and then Mel's brother Don designed and built the namesake car in their shop in Lebanon. Two years later, they took over the program and presently conduct the series.

Kenyon once put Ryan Newman, seeking Raybestos Rookie of the Year honors in NASCAR Winston Cup this year, into one of his Kenyon cars in a race when Newman was 21. Newman finished third behind a 13-year-old winner and a 12-year-old runner-up.

A win at his age is special, Kenyon said, but added laconically, "So is just being able to roll the car on the trailer afterwards."

Don Kenyon, 67, is a Hoosier Tire dealer at the races but at times helps his brother, as does Brice. Brice went to New Zealand last year and returned a year later with a wife and a grandson - Darland (named after USAC ace driver Dave Darland) Justin Brice Kenyon. Brice Kenyon is looking toward joining the new Indy Racing Infiniti Pro Series.

Mel Kenyon drove in eight consecutive Indianapolis 500-Mile Races between 1966-73, scoring a best finish of third in 1968, two fourth-place finishes and a fifth place. Don Kenyon did most of the work on the Gerhardt cars Mel drove for Lindsey Hopkins.

"Then they got into carbon fiber and ground force, and it got beyond us," he said.

But now Kenyon still loves racing on short tracks, even if his hectic racing schedule began to slow down as the season headed toward September.

"School's started," he said.

Mel Kenyon has taken a lot of kids to school during the summer.


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