ATTICA, Ohio – Keith Kunz/Curb-Agajanian Motorsports will bring a two-car winged assault to the Buckeye State this weekend, racing with the Attica Fremont Championship Series.
In a rarity for the team that focuses primarily on USAC midget competition, KKM will roll out a pair of sprint cars and bolt the top wings on, fielding entries for young guns Buddy Kofoid and Daison Pursley at Attica Raceway Park and Fremont Speedway.
While Kofoid is no stranger to winged racing, having won the track championship at Fremont last year, this weekend’s action will mark Pursley’s first time in a sprint car.
The 15-year-old from Locust Grove, Okla., is hoping to soak in as much as he can from his more experienced teammate, in much the same way as he’s focused on learning in the USAC ranks this year.
“It kind of started about a week before now. Keith kind of mentioned it, and then suddenly everyone really wanted to do it and we started building the sprint cars,” Pursley recalled. “They wanted to see how the midget swing that we just did went before they put them together fully, but now we’re going sprint car racing for a weekend and it’s really exciting, particularly for me.
“I can’t thank Buddy enough for wanting to be in Keith’s car. He had a good opportunity to go race the (No.) 11n with Christopher (Bell), but I’m glad that he stayed here for a weekend to be my teammate and help me through some of this stuff. He’s had a lot of laps at Attica and Fremont from last year, so I’m excited to lean on his knowledge. We’re just going to try and make good laps and stay clean.”
For Kofoid, it will mark his first sprint car appearance since Cometic Gasket Ohio Sprint Speedweek, as well as his first race behind the wheel of a KKM sprint car since 2019.
While it wasn’t his initial plan – Kofoid was originally going to run his usual Ed Neumeister Racing ride as a teammate to Christopher Bell – the Penngrove, Calif., native is looking forward to working with KKM again on the winged side and guiding Pursley through his sprint car debut.
“We had the open weekend, obviously, and it started with there being a chance that I could run their sprint car, and then they ended up having time to finish building them and decided to race me and Daison as well,” said Kofoid. “They were pretty adamant about wanting me in the car for their first sprint car race this year, and to help Daison a little bit I was certainly willing to do that.
“We’re going to try some stuff and just try and get good as fast as we can,” he added. “If we can figure some stuff out pretty quickly, I think we’ll be good. Knowing those tracks like I do helps a lot as well.”
Kofoid finished second, first and fourth in his first three sprint car starts of Ohio Speedweek before a heat-race flip later led to a DNF in his most recent sprint car race at Wayne County Speedway on July 6.
Knowing he’s had speed has Kofoid confident, even if it comes with an adjustment to a different race car.
“There will be a little bit of a transition (between teams) because KKM runs a different chassis than the (No.) 11n. They run J&Js, whereas the 11n has a MAXIM (Chassis),” Kofoid noted. “I’ve run a J&J before, and there is a difference there … but it’s not insurmountable by any means. KKM has different shocks on their cars, too, with FKs where the Linders have Pros. … But I’ve run FKs before, quite a bit actually, and I liked that. So that won’t be too big of an adjustment. It’s mainly the different chassis that’s the change.
“Experience is always key; KKM has only been to Attica once or twice, and I don’t want to say they won’t have a handle on it, but the Linders have been going there forever and they’ve got something down pretty good at that place,” he added. “I know that their car has speed, but I think if we get the Kunz car close or we get a pretty good baseline and just work up from there, I think we’ll be pretty good.”
Pursley’s mindset will be different throughout the weekend. He’s worried about surviving and learning.
“The main thing for me is just to keep the car clean and not tear anything up; it’s a whole new deal for me,” Pursley explained. “I want to make both features, because that’s just more laps in the car and everything and to make the show would be pretty good, I feel like. But we know it won’t be easy. I know Attica doesn’t even have hot laps, basically; it’s just straight into qualifying. But we’ll do our best.
“As long as I can end the weekend better than what we start it, I’ll feel pretty good about the whole thing.”
The way Kofoid sees it, for both himself and Pursley, it’s a chance to dust off a different set of skills than either of them would use normally – considering their full-time status this season with KKM in the NOS Energy Drink USAC National Midget Series.
“It’s something that KKM doesn’t get to do very often, so any time they can roll out the winged cars, it’s a neat deal to be a part of,” he noted. “It lets us challenge ourselves in different ways than what the midgets do. I think it gets the fans excited to see them dip back into the sprint car world, as well.
“Everyone seems to enjoy it.”