Kyle Weatherman

Kyle Weatherman (born August 28, 1997) is a professional race car driver currently competing in the ARCA Racing Series. He was born in Wentzville, Missouri, where he was first exposed to racing by his father, Daryn,and family friend Brian Maine, at the age of eight years old. The elder Weatherman took Kyle and his younger son, Clayton (who was six years old at the time), to a go-kart shop just to look around. They left after a major purchase of go-karts and tires. The very next weekend, they started racing - an experience that led to both Kyle and Clayton becoming professional drivers.

Around the same time, another family was getting started in the sport as well. As Daryn Weatherman was passing his passion for racing down to Kyle and his younger brother, Clayton, they met and quickly became friends with Gary Stray and his sons, Keegan and Charlie. Both Daryn Weatherman and Gary Stray shared the philosophy that if the boys were going to drive competitively, they should know everything about how to care for and maintain the vehicles. At eight years old, Kyle became well-versed in how to clean the go-karts, change out the gears, and keep the go-karts running at their peaks. To this day, Kyle still works in the shop and spends a lot of time working side-by-side with his crew team.

Bandolero Racing

At age eight, Kyle moved up to Bandolero racing. Bandoleros are small, easy to handle vehicles that are a great way for a young driver to transition from go-karts to Legends cars. Bandoleros can surpass speeds of 50 m.p.h., but they do not accelerate quickly. They have left-foot braking and no clutch system. Kyle spent four years racing Bandoleros. Those four years were a key time in his development as a driver, helping him become observant and teaching him how to make educated decisions on the track and in the shop while prepping his vehicle for race day. He won the national championship in bandolero racing .

Legends Racing

At age 12, Kyle moved to the Legends Series, where he raced Legends cars through age 15. Vehicles used in the Legends Series are smaller-scale replicas of cars from the 1930s and 1940s. Weatherman contested in a handful of late model races and dirt modified in IMCA 4WD. At 12 years old, competed in the Legends Million Dollar Race. He finished fifth in that race. That year, Kyle was the only 12 year-old competing, making him the youngest driver on the track. He won the Legends National Championship at Las Vegas Motor Speedway and became the youngest driver up until that point to claim victory in that race .

At the same time Kyle was highly involved in Legends Racing, he raced IMCA Sport Modified cars in Texas with Michael Harper as his crew chief .

ARCA Racing

When Kyle was 15, he made the move to ARCA. At his inaugural race in ARCA in 2013, Weatherman started 7th and finished 4th with Michael Harper again acting as his crew chief .He garnered another 4th-place finish at Winchester and rounded out the 2013 season with back-to-back runner-up finishes at Iowa and Salem.

In 2014, Kyle participated in eight races in the ARCA Series, scoring a 4th-place finish at the Federated Auto Parts 200 held at Berlin Raceway in Marne, Michigan . Weatherman racked up six top-ten finishes in just eight starts. That same year, he also became a development driver for Roush Fenway Racing driver development program.^[1]

2015 brought Weatherman accolades from within the ARCA world as he was named Rookie of the Year, won the Calypso Lemonade Short-Track Championship and The Bill France Four Crown Award. He started the year out with two consecutive 5th-place finishes at Mobile and Nashville and then cruised on to five 2nd-place finishes at Salem, Iowa, Springfield, DuQuoin, and Kansas. He scored a 1st-place finish in New Jersey at the ARCA 150 presented by Unique Pretzels. That race was Kyle's first road course event and he ran among the leaders, even leading the pack for 12 laps and clinching the victory after having faced significant challenges including his car stalling on pit road and a lap battle where his car went off the track temporarily. During the 2015 season, Weatherman claimed 13 top ten performances in 15 starts and won three Menards Pole Awards.^[2]

Thus far in the 2016 season, Weatherman has claimed two 3rd-place finishes in Daytona and Toledo and finished in Wisconsin as the runner-up just behind Josh Williams. After Wisconsin, Kyle found himself third in national championship standings. He ran the first eight races of the 2016 season with Lira Motorsports and then joined forces with Mason Mitchell Motorsports for the Montgomery Ward Father's Day 200 at Madison International Speedway. Weatherman was dominant on the track, leading for 109 of the 200 laps in that race. . He ended up competing in 15 of 20 events to finish seventh in points; he had seven Top 5 and nine Top 10 finishes.^[3]

Personal life

Kyle is the oldest child of Daryn and Lori Weatherman. He has a younger brother, Clayton, and sister, Kerstyn, who are twins. Clayton also races competitively. Weatherman was born and raised in Wentzville, Missouri, where he lived until he was 17. He then moved to Concord, North Carolina, and lived with Chris Buescher, who drives the #34 car in the Sprint Cup Series and is the reigning Xfinity champion. Weatherman's mother, Lori, moved to Concord to be with her son and Weatherman now lives with her during the racing season while the rest of the family is back in Missouri.

References