The 51Fifty Energy Drink Jr. Late Model Series at California’s Madera Speedway provides fertile ground for growing the sport by allowing kids to race solely against other kids in full-sized late models. School was in session for the racing youths when the junior late models’ youngest driver, 12-year-old Kasey Kleyn (pictured in the No. 1), came together with the division’s oldest, 17-year-old Cassidy Hinds, during the 70-lap feature. Kleyn’s car went airborne and landed on the car of Hinds.
Despite the appearance of the accident, the damage was mostly cosmetic. The track crew untangled the cars and both drivers restarted the race.
Hinds, of Arvada, Colorado, continued racing to finish ninth in the 18-car field.
“Cassidy has a great sense of humor,” her father, Mike Hinds, said. “She got on the radio and said she’s got a good view of the bottom of the other car’s engine.
Kleyn, who won the junior division feature at Idaho’s Meridian Speedway the week prior, had a right-front bearing problem appear midway through the race. His crew toiled to change the bearing, but lost nine laps doing so. The native of Quincy, Washington, finished 14th after returning to the race.
“When he doesn’t do well, Kasey is tough on himself,” his mother, Rhonda Kleyn, said. “As a mother, I feel his stress. I worry about the pressure he puts on himself, but I know how much racing means to him.”
Like Kleyn, Hinds is very conscientious of her performance — both at the track and in high school, where she’s entering her senior year with a 4.6 GPA.
“Cassidy is very detail-oriented — she is always thinking about what she has to do for school and for racing,” Mike Hinds said. “She’s outgoing and we bring her friends to the races. She wants to have a career as a top woman driver in NASCAR.”
Both drivers hope to continue their ascent through the ranks of pavement racing by honing their craft in the junior late model class.
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.
