TRIBUTE |
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Kyle Seipel |
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1971 – 2021 By Kelly Wade |
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Kyle Seipel was that guy . He was that guy everyone had a story about , the one everyone wanted to know , talk to , laugh with , and learn from . Kyle Seipel was that guy , and when cancer so cruelly took his life on June 21 , 2021 , drag racing was left with a Grand Canyon-sized hole in its heart . Kyle was just 50 years old , and the terrible ache within the community is just a shadow of what his family , including wife Dana , children Sydney and Hudson , and parents Ted and Georgia are left with . By the time I was so fortunate to join this drag racing community in 2007 , Kyle had already earned a bucket of NHRA trophies and championships , like , a really big bucket . He claimed
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divisional and national event victories in Super Street , Super Gas , Super Comp , Stock , Super Stock , and Top Dragster ; he won a dozen ET Finals ; and he was a 10-time division champion . Everyone knew him , and nobody in their right mind wanted to race him .
Kyle , known affectionately as “ Big Nasty ” within the racing community , proved he could drive the heck out of a race car and win in anything , but another area where he really excelled was as a track manager and promoter . In 2010 , he and Peter Biondo conceptualized and executed a little thing called the Spring Fling Bracket Races .
Although the first rendition of the event did not produce exceedingly pleasing results , the two continued to fine-tune their race as thoughtfully as doting parents raising a child . The Spring Fling
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Bracket Races are now eagerly anticipated , wellattended , and incredibly fun events that set the bar ridiculously high , and that has had so much to do with the gentlemen running the show .
The closest I got to knowing Kyle on a personal level was through an interview I did with his mom , Georgia , in 2010 for DragRaceCentral . com . I remember that Georgia was smiling when she told me , “ It was pretty cool when Kyle won his first national event in Seattle ,” and then we got to discussing what it was like when Kyle was little . I wanted to know if it was challenging to balance her own racing ( Georgia drove for about a decade , until Kyle was 16 ) while supporting her racing husband , Ted , and also keeping an eye on her son at the dragstrip .
I ’ m going to close this with Georgia ’ s response
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to that question , because when I went back and read her story after reading of Kyle ’ s passing , I just felt like her reply perfectly summarized the formative years of a person who made an incredibly positive impact in the racing community , a guy who looked out for folks and was a friend to everyone , a man who was an incredible racer and a respected leader .
“ It was easy bringing Kyle along to the races ,” Georgia told me . “ He always enjoyed it , and the racers treated him really well . There were a bunch of built-in babysitters there , and it was a big family . He had a lot of people watching over him .”
I have a feeling he ’ s returning the favor . Rest easy , Kyle Seipel .
This story was originally published on Win- LightNews . com . DI
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PHOTOGRAPHS BY BRYAN EPPS , JOHN DIBARTOLOMEO AND BOB JOHNSON |