KYLE SEIPEL
“I’m all about the percentages – my whole life
is basically about percentages – so I said, ‘what’s
the percentage chance this is anything serious?’”
Seipel remembers. “The ENT specialist said it’s a
one percent chance. So I’m thinking, ‘shoot, why
even have this done? It’s a complete waste of time.’
Long story short, they take that sample and two
days later I get a phone call from the doctor and
he says, ‘I hate to tell you this, but the biopsy came
back positive and you have squamous cell cancer.’”
Further scans and testing indicated the cancer
was limited to a small spot on Seipel’s tongue. He
scheduled a surgery to have the spot removed
after the Fall Fling at Bristol and the NHRA E.T.
Finals in Las Vegas. The issue wasn’t weighing
heavily on Seipel’s mind at this point, as the doc-
tors believed it would be cleared up with this
surgery. But during the surgery the doctors de-
termined the cancer wasn’t as straightforward
as they originally believed.
“The worst news was the cancer had traveled to
one of my lymph nodes, so they decided to remove
about 35-40 lymph nodes,” Seipel says. “They get
pretty aggressive when they see the cancer go that
direction. At that point, I was considered a stage
4 cancer patient.”
After Seipel’s body had time to recover from the
surgery, he began a series of chemo and radiation
treatments. He had three rounds of chemo every
two weeks within a 30-day period, then he had
to go in and get radiation every single day except
weekends. Seipel was bolted to the table “like a
Hannibal Lecter-type scenario” using a custom
mask to shoot the radiation at the specific area
being treated. “That was a pretty difficult time,”
Seipel casually admits.
Seipel had his last treatment January 23rd and
was back to racing in Super Stock at the NHRA
Arizona Nationals near Phoenix in late February.
He’s back to taking winner’s circle photos with the
Wednesday night grudge race winners at Sonoma
Raceway. The Fling races are doing better than ever,
with the Spring Fling Million offering a record
$375,000 payday to the winner and pre-entries for
the $500,000-to-win 10th anniversary Fall Fling
at Bristol selling out in mere minutes – at $1,850
per entry. “Everything is back to about as close
to normal as it can be at this point,” Seipel says.
Today, as the drag strip manager at Sonoma
Raceway and the co-promoter of the Spring Fling
and Fall Fling bracket races, Seipel has a busy day
ahead of him, one that will include crunching
numbers and reviewing notes from the recent
Spring Fling at GALOT Motorsports Park with
business partner and best friend Peter Biondo.
But first, Seipel has agreed to sit down for a
candid, extensive and emotional interview to dis-
cuss the highs and lows he’s experienced over the
last 12 months. The topics range from his cancer
battle to the many hats he wears as a drag racer,
race promoter and track manager.
As someone who does so many different things in racing,
whether it’s your personal racing, putting on the Fling
events or running a racetrack, how hard was it to know
you had to put all that on hold to fight this cancer battle?
It was hard, most definitely, but I had the support
of Peter, Emily (Biondo, Peter’s wife), everybody
involved with the Fling, and for that matter ev-
eryone at Sonoma was really cool about it. It was
100 percent super-hard. I’m very competitive, so
I’m able to put all my efforts on one thing and