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Around the Oval
Gates, Kutson taing a left
Kurtis J. WOod/sports@qvpr.com
Glenn Knutson and Riley Gates moved up to the more powerful Thunder Cars at the Wenatchee Valley Super Oval.
by kurtis j. wood
sports@qvpr.com
Riley Gates is out to make a name for himself, while his friend and fellow 16-year-old race car driver Glenn Knutson is trying to get out from his brother’s shadow.
The two Quincy High School juniors made the leap from four-cylinder Youth Hornets to eight-cylinder Thunder Cars at the Wenatchee Valley Super Oval this season.
It was an upgrade of more than just raw horsepower. They are testing their skills on the quarter-mile oval with drivers boasting nearly 40 years of racing experience at the WVSO.
“They’ve done a good job,” 39-year veteran Tom Wentz said. “The new guys come and talk to me. The most important thing I tell them is to keep looking ahead. I don’t mind being in there racing with them.”
Wentz, who has raced B-Modifieds, Late Models and Super Stocks, recorded the fast time last week. He clocked in at 15.766 seconds.
“I have fun with the guys. We have a good group. We’re all friends after the race,” he said. “This is one of the finest tracks in the Northwest and a premier pit area.”
The young bucks are up to the challenge of Wentz and the rest of the Thunder Car drivers. With just four of the 11 races in the books, there is still plenty of racing left. The next green flag drops this Saturday night. Two weeks ago, Knutson’s best time was 16.038, while Gates clocked in at 16.092.
For Gates, the biggest obstacle he faced was not the others drivers, but his mom's approval. Unlike Knutson, who comes from a family of racers, Gates is forging a new path.
“My dad went along with it pretty well, but my mom...I had to convince her. After a while she knew that it was just something that was going to happen, because I got so into racing,” he said. “My grandmother took some convincing. When I asked my dad first, he said it was fine, but I had to get it past mom and grandma. I was talking about it ever since I was 11 or 12 years old and I started racing when I was 14 so (I got approval) sometime between then.”
The racing seed was planted straight from the Knutson household. The two befriended each other in the fifth grade and since then, racing has been a bond the two can share. Knutson’s two older brothers are racers, as well as his father. This led to the young Knutson starting his racing career under the power of a Briggs & Stratton.
“We went to Pangborn Kart track up by the airport,” he said. “(The karts) are probably an inch off the ground and I started with a Briggs & Stratton engine and I got up to a Yamaha KT100 engine my last year. We probably went 70-80 miles per hour on the road course.
“It was more fun (than a Hornet), but we needed to get stepped up to this class (Thunder Cars). I did kart for four or five years. I won a few, but there wasn’t much competition. There weren’t many karts in my class.”
The next step was taking Gates and racing in the Youth Hornet class for the past two years. The new four-cyclinder class was a step toward the big cars, but a step down for Knutson in the fun-to-drive category. But for Gates, it was his first ever time behind the wheel.
“For me it was fun, because I didn’t know anything else,” Gates said.
Between the two of them, they raced five different Hornet cars. Knutson started with a Volkswagon Scirocco and settled into a 1989 Honda Civic, while Gates' first car was a Hyundai Excel, followed by a Honda Civic and finally he settled into a1987 Honda Prelude.
The two put the mandatory two years under their belts and quickly traded up to the eight-cylinder Thunder Cars. Under the guidance of Michael Knutson, they are quickly learning more about racing.
“The biggest thing they're learning is how to incorporate their driving style into the car - how to adapt to things they can't change," Michael said. They are learning how to deal with different drivers and they are learning about the rear wheel drive of the car."
This may be a big speed bump in their learning curve, as they are two 16-year-olds, along with one other new driver, complete rookies in a class of veteran drivers.
"Every single one of those guys have been racing as long as they've been alive," Michael said.
On the first night, Glenn Knutson was circling the track and got bumped in the back by another driver. It took all of a few minutes for him to get his first on track lesson.
“Another driver talked to me when I was not looking in my mirror, when we didn’t know what the car would do. He was beside me and I didn’t give him any room, so he tapped my back bumper, so he let me know he was there. Then he came up to me said he wasn’t mad at me, but he just wanted me to know he as there,” he said. “They want to help me out.”
As friends, the two have had friendly wagers and last year to end the Hornet season, Gates lost and had to pay up.
“We have had bets before on the side and he won last year. I ended up washing his car. I haven’t made any bets after that. When I stay quiet I do better. When I start to talk I don’t do quite as well,” he said.
So all bets are off and the two hit the oval this Saturday night.
"I expect them to win a race this year," Michael said. "There is no doubt they can win a race. They just need to step up."
