As sport mod driver Cale Kanke waits in line to head onto the track to practice for the Bristol Dirt Nationals, he wears a black cowboy hat. Don’t take it to signify him as the bad guy in the pits. Instead, it honors his father, M.K. Kanke. M.K., who incidentally started his career on dirt, earned his winning reputation racing pavement late models. His record includes 22 NASCAR Southwest Series wins, 1998 NASCAR Southwest Series runner-up in points, and the 2009 Spears SRL Southwest Tour Series championship.
“My dad always wore [the cowboy hat],” Cale, 29, said. “He used to have a pack station when he was [younger]. I was in ag, FFA, and all of that when growing up, so I always liked [the hat] and kept [the tradition] up.”
While his father is best known for his pavement prowess, Cale races quite a bit on dirt these days. He steers sport mods at dirt tracks near his Frazier Park, California, home.
“I grew up running the asphalt,” said Cale. “I’ve always wanted to race Bristol — it’s a bucket list kind of deal. I started running dirt about 10 years ago, so we had a car to make it happen.”
Cale enjoys racing both surfaces, however. Case-in-point: his racing plans for this upcoming weekend.
“We are running the main event here [at Bristol] on Friday,” Cale said. “Then, we’re driving to Nashville [Tennessee], and we fly out at 5 a.m. Saturday morning [to Bakersfield, California].
“Then, we’re going to run the Southwest Tour race [at Kern County Raceway Park in Bakersfield, California].
“We land at 10:30 a.m., which is the [time of the] first practice, so we’re going to miss that. We’re just showing up, qualifying, and racing. We have a pretty good car there, so we’re excited.”
At Kern County, limited practice on the super-fast, banked half-mile should feel familiar to Cale Kanke. After, all, he spent a week at Bristol experiencing just that, except only on dirt.
The Outside Groove Executive Editor has covered motorsports since 2000. His many awards include the 2019 Eastern Motorsport Press Association (EMPA) Jim Hunter Writer of the Year and the 2013 Russ Catlin Award for Excellence in Motorsports Journalism.
