When Kamren Gruber won his first IMCA SportMod feature at RPM Speedway in Hays, Kansas, beer flowed as if WWE Hall of Famer “Stone Cold” Steve Austin had celebrated. Once a serious wrestler himself, Gruber had considered professional wrestling as a career before racing caught his attention after high school.
“I chose racing over wrestling, but I still follow the WWE,” Gruber, 29, of Munjor, Kansas, said. “So, when I finally won, I celebrated the way Steve Austin would.”
Gruber double-fisted Bud Light Lemonade, crushing cans and guzzling their content in victory lane. The wild scene caught the attention of Budweiser, which sent Gruber some swag for his triumphant win.
The victory didn’t come easy, though. The Thursday before, Gruber swapped engines in his car. Gruber visited his grandfather’s house to pick up the power plant they had built together six years ago.
“We never put [the built engine] in the car,” said Gruber. “Everyone was running crate engines, so we bought a crate engine [and used it instead].
“I had problems with my first crate engine. I bought another [crate engine] with 120 nights on it, and it blew up. I was leading in points at Dodge City Raceway [Park, in Kansas]. I had to go back to the open motor — it was my only hope to stay on top of the points.”
Gruber wound up losing the points lead — he currently sits in second — but with that built engine he won at RPM Speedway. Kamren Gruber was the life of the party in victory lane and that spirit carries over to the pits.
“There is a big group, 20 racers, and we are all close friends that help each other out,” Gruber said. “After the races, it doesn’t matter who wins or loses, we all drink beer and have fun. We’re always the last to leave the track.”
Mike Adaskaveg has written hundreds of stories since the website’s inception. This year marks his 54th year of covering auto racing. Adaskaveg got his start working for track photographer Lloyd Burnham at Connecticut’s Stafford Motor Speedway in 1970. Since then, he’s been a columnist, writer, and photographer, in racing and in mainstream media, for several outlets, including the Journal Inquirer, Boston Herald, Stock Car Racing, and Speedway Illustrated. Among Adaskaveg’s many awards are the 1992 Eastern Motorsport Press Association (EMPA) Ace Lane Photographer of the Year and the 2019 National Motorsports Press Association (NMPA) George Cunningham Writer of the Year.
