Kurt Owens
Kurt Owens has long been considered one of the more talented racers in the east Tennessee area. And in 2015, the Newport native offered up further proof of that by having an impressive season in both the Modified Street and Four Cylinder classes all across the region.
In all, the older brother of Late Model star Jimmy Owens posted a double-digit number of wins on tracks such as Tazewell Speedway, Smoky Mountain Speedway, 411 Motor Speedway and Volunteer Speedway. And the longtime racer hopes to keep doing the thing he loves for many years to come.
“I did have a good year,” Owens declared in an interview with InsideDirtRacing.com. “We won 17 races all together, I think. This year has been the first year where we’ve had something that we could move around and run everywhere. I could have done that with my Four Cylinder, but for no more than those races pay, it wasn’t worth moving around very much.”
Maintaining two separate cars to race in two separate classes is not easy, but it is a labor of love for this driver.
“It takes quite a bit of work,” Owens explained as he stood beside his brother’s car in the Cleveland Speedway pit area. “The Four Cylinder car ain’t so bad because it’s a real good car and there’s not a whole lot of upkeep to it. You’ve just got to keep up on the motor on it, but as far as the rest of the car, you’ve just got to check over everything. Now the Modified Street car is a little more work, but it’s just like moving from the Modified Street up to one of these(Late Models) as far as the extra work goes.”
According to the veteran driver, going from one car to the other doesn’t require as much adjustment from the driver’s seat as might be expected. But one thing is constant with both cars in both classes.
Owens’ No. 14 Modified Street car
“They’re both real fun to drive,” Owens said. “The Four Cylinder car, you run it way harder than the Modified Street. Of course, it’s got way less motor. My driving style is probably not a whole lot different from one to the other because I run the heck out of both of them.”
Even with the success he enjoyed during the past season, Owens looks forward to some changes in the coming year. Perhaps even a new class will be in the driver’s near future.
Owens’ No. 7up Mini Stock
“We’re going to try to build us a new Modified Street car but we’re going to keep the old one because it still runs good,” Owens stated. “I’ve got some buddies who want to get a Late Model car, but I told them I didn’t know if I wanted to work on one as much as you have to work on one of them. Anything you want to do good in takes a lot of work, and if we get a Late Model car, it’s going to be that much more work so I don’t know what we’ll do.”
Fans at all the tracks on which Owens competed this past year will have the opportunity to watch him race in 2016.
“I might run a Late Model some, or it’s really a Sportsman car,” he explained. “But for the most part, we’ll probably do about the same thing we did this year. We just look to go to wherever it pays the most. We can run about anywhere, or at least where the rules fit our car.”
Most importantly, Kurt Owens just enjoys racing and he doesn’t plan on stopping anytime soon.
“Oh yeah, I plan to keep on racing as long as I can. I always say that we don’t have to win as long as we have fun doing it.”
Kurt Owens spent a lot of time in Victory Lane in 2015
