Kunert sees successful start to racing career
By KEVIN DRULEY
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kdruley@kcchronicle.com
Cartoon character cutouts still restrict Austin Kunert from going on some rides.
Not even his parents interfere when the 9-year-old takes them himself.
It’s been a year since Kunert began go-kart racing and discovered instant success regardless of surface or season. He brought fall and winter series titles at Chicago Indoor Racing home to Batavia before surging to the points lead this summer in his outdoor debut at Grundy Speedway in Morris.
Hundreds of hurdles remain before he fulfills his ultimate goal of competing on the NASCAR circuit, but his dad can vouch for Kunert’s determination.
“The questions are serious and there’s not even a quiver in the voice,” Mike Kunert said. “It’s just, ‘When?’”
Austin Kunert doesn’t care for the guy who should excite him the most. On Sunday, Joey Logano, 19, became the youngest NASCAR driver to win a Sprint Cup race with a rain-shortened victory at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.
The same Logano who is just 10 years Kunert’s senior also bumped Kunert’s idol, Kyle Busch, from sure victory at a different race. Those memories and others flood back to Kunert, who credits watching racing on TV for his interest above all else.
“Sometimes they crash, sometimes they run out of gas, and then there’s sometimes like in 2003 when Bobby Labonte caught on fire,” he said.
Racing is much milder at CIR in Addison and Buffalo Grove, although the open-wheel, facility-owned karts drivers use do not feature roll cages. A computer determines starts for heat races, and the top finishers go on to features from there.
Kunert won 11 out of 28 races in the fall series in the entry-level Group 4 division, then moved on to Group 3 in the winter. The competition tightened along with the points standings, but Kunert prevailed with the trophy after winning three of four races on the series’ last day.
“It has really been fun and thrilling,” said Kunert, who will be a fourth grader this fall at Hoover Wood Elementary.
A tighter track at CIR helped Kunert get the feel of maneuvering through close spaces while learning how to hold off karts trying to pass him. A handful of drivers have tried since the outdoor season began at Grundy in May, but so far Kunert has kept them at bay, winning four of five features in his division on the 3/8-mile asphalt track.
With Mike Kunert and wife Lonnie at the helm of Kunert Racing, the family has taken the lead in keeping Kunert’s trailer and outdoor kart in top shape. Kunert’s kart number, 29, honors his second-favorite driver, Kevin Harvick.
Busch’s No. 18 was taken.
Kunert would rather have Busch’s autograph anyway, and he hopes to get it when NASCAR comes to Chicagoland Speedway in Joliet next weekend. Meeting his idol could cap a pretty remarkable week, as Kunert is set to compete for a large prize Sunday as part of the Grundy County Fair.
“The trophy is taller than me,” he said, “and I really badly want to win it.”
With the 4-foot-2 Kunert, it might not be a tall order.
