Sep 26, 2008 4 min read

Kinsey has been racing some mode of transportation for the better part of his life. “I started out racing jalopies in the 50s. I went on to race stock cars, modifieds, and motorcycles,” Kinsey said.

“Next step I figured should be drag racing. So, when I heard they were bringing the drags to Waynesburg I traded for my truck.”

Kinsey is referring to his 1990 S-10 dragster, named “Black Magic.” It has a 350 V8 engine that is bored out and sports a subdued blue flame paint job by Randy Teaberry of T & A Auto in Carmichaels.

Kinsey began racing in Missouri and Kansas as a younger man.

“There was a race track 20 miles from my home in Missouri and I raced there every Sunday. When I moved to Hutchins [Kansas], I raced stock cars and mods there.”

Kinsey would find himself transferred to Chicago when he was in his 40s. His sons took an interest at that time in racing motocross so Kinsey decided he should learn about it as well. He bought bikes for the boys and one for himself and took up racing the bikes.

“By the time I quit that the boys were already gone from home and they weren’t racing anymore,” Kinsey said.

“I quit racing the bikes the summer I turned 50 because I thought I was too old for it.”

That was not until Kinsey had debuted on the amateur circuit locally, racing at High Point Raceway in Mt. Morris.

“Boy there is a turn out there that would scare anybody,” he said.

“There is this drop off that is like falling off of a cliff, you turn really quick here. I liked that track!”

As for the sons who gave up racing and what they think about their father still at it while approaching the three-quarters of a century mark, Kinsey said they love it.

“They are in their 50s now and they think it is great. They are glad this ‘old’ man isn’t getting ‘old,’ Kinsey said.

The last race that happened in Waynesburg the sons had both come up from their Texas homes to race in Waynesburg, but it was rained out.

Kinsey explained for the uninitiated that drivers get to take as many runs as they want.

His sons had planned to hop into “Black Magic” for some runs while they were at the Waynesburg Flashlight Drag Races.

“It is a challenge thing. I will come up to you and say ‘I want to race you’ and we will have a go at it,” Kinsey said. “If you have a close run you may go two or three times to see who the best is,” he said. “All you really get out of it is bragging rights.”

Kinsey said that the noise and the rush that you get from racing are what make him happy.

“It is nice to race somebody and not get a ticket. That is what the flashlights are all about, giving someone the opportunity to do that,” he said.

Kinsey’s drag racing was almost prematurely cut short when earlier this year he suffered a heart attack and had to receive a defibrillator.

“I didn’t care about him racing until he had his heart attack,” said Kinsey’s wife, Bonnie. “It was like whistling in the wind, though, to try and talk him out of it. I told him that I would go with whatever his doctor had to say and the doctor said he was fine.”

Glen said that the doctors gave him the green light to race.

“Everybody has a little bit of fear in them doing it but if you were really scared to death you wouldn’t do it,” he said.

As he revved up his engine he grinned and said, “My neighbors probably think I am a little bit crazy…and you know, they just might be right.”

Catch Kinsey at the next and final race for the 2008 Flashlight Drag Race season on Sunday, Sept. 28 at 12 p.m. at the Greene County Airport in Waynesburg.