“I was about 12, 13 years old,” Bobby Davis Jr. shares, remembering the first time he met Woodruff. “My father had a race car, a sprint car, and Sammy Swindell was driving it at the time. And we ended up out in California at Sacramento, where they had the West Capital speedway. And, Jimmy Boyd was driving Kenny Woodruff‘s car. And Jimmy Boyd and Woodruff, they was winning everything at that time, and they was really fast.
“So, all the guys would sneak me in the pits, either in the trucks or whatever, to get me in the pits cause I was too young. So, of course I got caught at the race track, and Mr. (John) Padjen, he owned the race track there at West Capital, and he was a great owner. Great promoter! That‘s how I got to know him at that time, too. So, he let me stay in the pits as long as I didn‘t go anywhere else, just stay by the truck and trailer. So, long story short, Jimmy Boyd was leading the feature and he had a right rear flat tire. So, he comes flying back into the pits and Kenny‘s pit area was two or three down from where we were parked.
“So, I ran out there and I was helping Kenny change the right rear tire, and we got it changed and everything, they pushed him back off and he got back out there and everything. So, we‘re walking back to the trailer. I said, ‘Hey Kenny, nice to meet ya.‘ I said, ‘Man, I wanna drive your race car someday!‘ He said, ‘OK.‘
“So, we just hit it off. Ya know, we hit it off and I hung out with him at the races and stuff. And, like I said, I was only like 12, 13 years old, but he was good to me from day one. And, I‘ll be darned, we got together in 1984 with the Gambler house car. And, every time I drove for him it was wonderful. You know, I had a great time with him. We won a lot of races together. We‘d go anywhere and race. I mean we‘d be somewhere and we‘d drive a thousand miles to go race.”
Davis raced for Kenny in the Gambler house car in both 1984 and ‘85, and then again in 1988 and ‘89 in Beverly and Casey Luna‘s sprinter. Among their accomplishments together were the 1989 World of Outlaws championship and the Kings Royal the same year.
In 1999 a relatively young Donny Schatz was working hard to develop a sprint car racing career. That year, he‘d earned a ninth-place finish in the Knoxville Nationals and, in time for the 2000 Nationals, the Schatz family team hired Woodruff as their new crew chief.
“He expects the best out of you every time you hit the race track,” Donny shares. “You know, he doesn‘t have any problem giving you criticism. He didn‘t care if my dad owned the car, he didn‘t care if I owned the car. That definitely wasn‘t going to overshadow what was going to come out of his mouth or the way he felt. So, you know, it‘s an eye-opener when you‘re racing with him in that sense. But, you know, most people didn‘t get that opportunity. I did. I enjoyed every second of it.”
Schatz and Woodruff claimed 15 WoO feature wins together and earned the checkers at the 2002 Historical Big One.
Brad Doty admits that Woodruff‘s image almost kept him from accepting the offer to drive for him. “Well, he definitely had a reputation as rough and gruff, and basically just didn‘t like drivers, it seemed,” he shares with a laugh. “And, I‘d had a couple mechanics that were similar, let‘s say. So, when I had the opportunity…Bobby Davis had been driving the 18 car, and it was owned by Quentin Bammer; it was the Gambler house car. And when the opportunity came up that I might have a shot at it, I‘ll be honest, on one hand, I was kind of scared to death. Cause I‘d already been through, like I said, a couple mechanics that were pretty hardcore, and the reputation Woodruff had put those guys to shame.
“So, I debated and I actually talked to Ron Shuman. And Ron Shuman was a guy who, even Gary Stanton said, before he even took his helmet off, he knew exactly what his percentage was of the winnings of what position he finished in, how much money he was owed. And so, he definitely did it as a business, treated it as a business. And so, I‘ll never forget Ron Shuman said to me, ‘Doty, you‘ve gotta take it. Even if you only last a couple months, look at the money you‘re gonna make in that time. You know it‘s a fast car and it wins races.‘ And, he was right.”
It was in 2004, when a tiny, 19-year-old young girl named Natalie Sather took on Kenny as crew chief, that many questioned how Woodruff‘s gruff ways would mesh with a teenage girl being on the receiving end of his blunt exchanges…including Natalie. “You know, I‘ll never forget,” Sather shares today. “I had heard of Kenny before I started working with him, and my mom and I snuck to a race track at Cedar Lake, Wisconsin, actually. And, at the time, I know he was working with a driver he didn‘t see eye-to-eye with that will remain anonymous,” she says with a laugh. “They had gotten into an altercation and — whatever it was, something had happened on the track — they were disagreeing; let‘s just say it that way. And I am standing there with my mom and about had tears in my eyes thinking — pardon my language — holy sh*t, I‘m gonna work with this guy? Like, oh my God, what am I getting myself into?” The two went on to race together for five years, and Sather refers to him today as a second grandfather.
Woodruff was born in Fort Dodge, Iowa. As a teenager, he spent a brief time behind the wheel of a stock car before taking over the wrenches on his brother‘s race car. At age 19, he relocated to California, where he found work in a factory and repaired street cars as a side-business. He found his true calling at nearby West Capital Raceway, where he became infatuated with the supermodified division, and later sprint cars.
Woodruff became a sprint car owner and began building a reputation on the west coast as a meticulous mechanic with good equipment. In addition, he made the trip back to his native Iowa each year for the Knoxville Nationals.