Timbo Mangum recently scored a victory in the Blue Ridge Outlaw Late Models at Carolina Speedway in Gastonia, North Carolina. However, even more amazing is the streak of wins he carries in the weekly lightning late model division at Carolina Speedway. That number stands at 15, and stretches back to 2019.
A racing veteran, Mangum started his career 29 years ago. Over the course of nearly three decades, he’s earned 21 track championships, and 385 documented feature victories since 2001. Mangum said he has far more feature wins prior to the turn of the millennium. He estimated his wins total nearing 500.
“I’ve had a few streaks, but nothing like [this] streak,” Mangum, 47, of Lancaster, South Carolina, said. “It’s a once-in-a-career accomplishment.”
Mangum said he doesn’t do anything special to explain his current hot streak.
“I work on the car all week,” said Mangum. “I change the oil, check the nuts and bolts, and get it to the racetrack. Then, I just get up on the wheel and drive.”
His car doesn’t feature any exotic either. It’s a 2016 chassis built by Swartz Race Cars. The lightning late model division permits built engines in addition to Chevrolet Performance 602 and 604 power plants. Mangum runs a 355-cid engine built by Maxie Robinson. Because he elected to race a built engine, he has to weigh 50 lb. more than a 604, and 150 lb. more than a 602.
The next time Mangum races will mark 100 features on the car. With it, he averages 25 races a year. Mangum also steers another ride in the super street/renegade division, where he won nine times last season.
“Because we’ve been so hard to beat, other racers have put up the money to protest our shocks and carburetor,” Mangum said. “We came up clean every time.”
Despite the long streak of wins, Timbo Mangum still finds a thrill in racing.
“I’m really excited for the next lightning late model race,” Mangum said. “I hope to keep on racing as long as I can.”
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.
