Dirt
MX235 racer Vincent Franks
applies home-track knowledge
on national stage
By Brandon W. Mudd
O
ne of the great things about
being a long-time fan of motors-
ports—or of anything, for that mat-
ter—is the ability to say, “I remember
when he was just a kid running local tracks and
now look at him!” I’ve been able to see it in a
couple different racing disciplines and it’s pos-
sible I’m about to witness another.
Meet Vincent Franks. A 23-year-old from
Northwest Missouri, Franks made an impres-
sion on the straight-line world in March when he
runner-upped in the MX235 class at Memphis
International Raceway’s Outlaw Street Car Re-
union IV. His father, Mike, is the owner of US-36
Raceway in Osborn, Missouri. A former racer
himself, Mike was justifiably proud of his son.
“He’s pretty competitive in the Outlaw 235 class,”
Mike said. “We run him up at Memphis a couple
months ago and there was 30 pretty good hot
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rods there. He does pretty well. He’s a really good
boy, I’m really proud of him. He’s a good kid and
a pretty savvy racer, too. He’s learning from a lot
of people and I’m just really proud of him.”
In no small part due to literally growing up at
a drag strip and working with both his dad and
grandparents there, Vincent became pretty good.
He drove a ’65 Chevelle down US-36’s eighth-
mile asphalt track when he was 14 and at 16,
was racing the occasional bracket race when he
wasn’t working.
But it was around age 19 that Vincent began
racing competitively. At the former Kansas City
International Raceway, he ran the VAMP series,
seeing near-instant improvement. “They had a
series called VAMP racing that came up and they
had an 8.5 tire limited deal they run,” Vincent said.
“I was like ‘Wow, I’d really like to do that,’ so me
and Dad started building a car and just kind of
(got started) from there.”
While the younger Franks is no doubt a “have
race car, will travel” kind of racer, he still calls his
home track, well, home.
“I still race in our local series; it’s a lot more
restrictive rule set than when I go run Memphis
and Tulsa, that MX235 class,” he said. “We started
there and slowly started learning from people,
because we had never really messed with any
power adders like nitrous or anything before,
just all-motor stuff and that’s all Dad’s ever done.”
From that point on for Vincent, he absorbed
the sport, learning from anyone who could pro-
vide him with the information necessary to go
just a little faster. “Slowly learned from there.
A lot of people helped us along the way and we
slowly kept getting faster and faster. In the last
year, when we started running the radial stuff,
the 235 stuff, at Tulsa and the big radial tracks
where they have those huge races. We started
getting faster and faster.
“This last year, we went from running low 5s
to at Memphis, we made it to the finals in that
race which was huge because there were 30 cars
there, making a personal best of 4.79. Every year,
we just learn a little more and a little more and
try some new things out and just kept building.”
The family drag strip has been an obvious ben-
efit for Franks’ development as a race car driver.
Mike purchased the land in 1989 after literally
selling his house, race car, and boat to obtain the
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Home Schooled