KLEMME, Iowa – The Wyman family, previously of Laveen, Ariz., a suburban area of metropolitan Phoenix, might still be residents of the Grand Canyon state if Tom Wyman had not decided to race his flat kart at an event in Prescott, Ariz.
That race eight years ago eventually led the family to move to a much different world, from a metropolitan area of more than five million to Klemme, Iowa, with a population of slightly more than 400.
Tom Wyman was introduced to racing by his father, who was a drag racer before racing on dirt at Manzanita. His dad eventually retired from racing so Tom Wyman raced dirt bikes and go karts until his father got tired of working on small engines. They got a modified and at age 17 Tom Wyman was racing at Manzanita.
“I raced around Arizona for years, on and off,” explained Wyman, “and tried to get T.J. (his son) in a quarter midget at age four but he didn’t really want to race. Several years later I went to kart racing with some buddies of mine to Prescott Valley and there were some kids racing quarter midgets. T.J. ran around with some of the kids which led to his asking if he could try a quarter midget.
“We got a quarter midget and from there went into some outlaw kart racing and as soon as he was 14 put him a sport mod. He ran that for about a year and a half until we decided to move up to an A mod and he has been racing that ever since.”
Now T.J. Wyman was racing regularly, but Arizona only had a few tracks with most racing only on weekends. That meant the next phase in the family’s future soon became a reality.
“We knew that Iowa was the place to be in terms of dirt track racing,” Wyman said. “You can race almost seven days a week if you wanted to.”
T.J., now age 18, was named IMCA rookie of the year at both Canyon Speedway Park and the soon to be closed Arizona Speedway during his short sport mod stint. He also was named rookie of the year his first year in a modified at the Canyon quarter-mile.
But the son who did not want to race 14 years ago and took several years to change his stance, now wanted to race as much as possible. If the goal is to race multiple times a week, a great place to accomplish that is in Iowa. The Hawkeye State has three tracks that race regularly on Wednesday plus a fourth that is sometimes races on Wednesday, one on Thursday, and of course many on the weekend. Racing five nights a week is an option without considering any midweek specials.
Tom Wyman had an automotive shop in Arizona and now works at Winnebago in Forest City. The shop and home in Laveen were sold and last September the family officially became residents of Klemme, Iowa, having bought a house that a friend of his mother owned and wanted to sell. His wife, Nikki, daughter Bailey, 15, and younger son, Jake, 9, have made it through their first Iowa winter, a huge difference than winter in Laveen.
A huge plus is everyone is glad they moved to Iowa.
As to the motivation to move, Wyman simply answered, “T.J.”
“Now if T.J. is going to have some sort of career in racing, the Midwest is the place to be and I found Iowa has the most dirt tracks,” Wyman said. “We’re his (T.J.’s) number one supporters and we are going to back him 100%. The whole motivation behind this deal was to bring TJ here and let him live his dream. We are a small time, low budget, father and son team who are trying to race just as much as we can, get as much experience for TJ as we can, and trying to do the best than we can with what we have.
“With racing over the years, we have so many family memories, meeting new friends that now we call family, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.”