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Before things get crazy here at @PortRoyalSpdway today, I thought I’d explain who K&L Rumley Enterprises is for my new followers (
), that may not know the history of the team.. (1 of ?)
), that may not know the history of the team.. (1 of ?)
Back around 1956 Jimmy Rumley of Greensboro bought a racecar and asked his brothers Lee Roy and Buck to help turn wrenches on it. They raced at tracks such as Bowman-Gray Stadium and Greensboro fairgrounds
In the late 50’s Lee Roy went into the military. When he got out in 1961 he fielded his own car that Jimmy drove. At times Lee Roy had up to two cars throughout the 70’s and 80’s with various drivers, such as Ray Williams, GW Garringer, and Donald Tucker
In 1977 Lee Roy and wife Gaynell had their second child, @k_rumley (he has an older sister, Lisa). Once he was old enough, he immediately became a “crew guy” and spent every night working on the car with his dad and traveling every weekend throughout childhood.
The 80’s & 90’s the “6 car”, as we call it, primarily stayed in the Carolinas racing at tracks such as Metrolina, Cherokee, and 311. Drivers included Billy Hicks, Ray Tucker, and Benny Davis. K&L also had Bobby Allison drive in a NASCAR exhibition race
It wasn’t until the mid-90’s when the team started to travel outside the South to bigger race events. Including Pensboro and various places in the KY/OH valley
Kevin, with a knack for ingenuity from his dad, ultimately went to UNCC to complete his mechanical engineering degree. He worked as a lead engineer at Xceldyne/CV Products for 15 years, while still helping his dad evenings and weekends on the car. He even has a patent!
Some of the drivers in the 2000-2010’s included: Booper Bare, Petey Ivey, Randle Chupp, Jonathan Davenport (the 1st time), Steve Lucas, Chris Ferguson, and Steve Shaver. The team even fielded Brian Vicker’s “Prelude to the Dream” car at Eldora Speedway in 2009.
In late 2012 Kevin was hired at @LonghornChassis as a consultant to help redesign their chassis. This is a relationship that is still in place to this day. Longhorn is owned by the Labonte family.
2015 was the year most of you would know about. It was first time the team ever ran a full national schedule, where they racked up over $700,000 in winnngs and won the @lucasdirt championship, this of course was with @TheFast49 behind the wheel
In 2016 Lee Roy was inducted into the National Dirt Late Model Hall of Fame. After finishing 2nd in Lucas points, they decided to take a break. The 6 car was going to sit dormant for the foreseeable future. Also to be noted, they built all their own engines up until this point.
Following that, in 2017 Kevin founded Rumley Engineering: where he would provide Motorsports design engineer consulting and data acquisition analysis. In 2018 he rejoined Davenport, in the role of an engineer on the 49, where they won the @lucasdirt championship
After sitting idle for 2 years the “6 car” came out of retirement in 2019. In only the second week of racing they picked up a win at Volusia Speedway with driver Mike Marlar. Then, won the Atomic 100 and Firecracker 100 with Tim McCredie driving
Now, in 2020, the K&L Rumley team is finally hitting the track for the first time this season. Not only that, but are making history by being a part of Kyle Larson’s late model debut. To say the team is excited and honored about this opportunity is an understatement. Let’s race
