How bad do you want to race? How much do you want it? Are you willing to endure long hours of work, endless road miles, and weeks of loneliness while recovering from injuries? Can you take it if it means physical pain, disfiguring injuries, and the loss of mobility?

Racing is tough. Being successful as a driver requires profound sacrifice and determination. How do we know this? From the awe-inspiring examples of people who showed us everything we need to know about desire, and dedication, and perseverance.

One of the most vivid examples of those redeeming qualities left us on Feb. 27 when Lee Kunzman passed away in Indianapolis at age 80. Kunzman had an extraordinary racing career, despite hardships that are difficult to comprehend. He overcame grievous injuries—not once, but twice—to ultimately force his unyielding will on the sport he loved. The racing gods were not kind to Lee; but he refused to allow hardship to steal his dream of being “a racer’s racer.”

If you race, or if you love the sport of racing, you should know about Lee Kunzman. In the course of your career you will likely be tried and tested, requiring you to look within yourself and decide if success in racing is really what you want. And when hardship comes, you will discover that greatness is reserved only for those with the will to overcome every obstacle.

A handsome kid from Guttenberg, Iowa, Kunzman burst onto the racing scene in 1967, winning Rookie of the Year honors with the IMCA sprint car division. He quickly moved up to USAC and continued to impress. He got his first start in Indy cars at Phoenix in late 1969; everybody was buzzing about this Iowa kid, and by every appearance he was destined for greatness.

“I usually went after it right away,” he told me some years later. “I was the rabbit. I still feel that way, but sometimes I didn’t use the best brain power. But I wanted to win. I wanted to be a race driver’s race driver. I thought if you won a lot of races and went fast, that’s what you’re supposed to do.”

Lady luck intervened. Like the impact of a femme fatale in classic film noir, it was all bad. June 5, 1970, and the USAC sprint cars were at the brand new I-70 Speedway near Kansas City. During a heat race Kunzman’s throttle stuck wide open, and he ramped over the outside wall and through the fencing, tearing a hole in the fuel tank. Soaring high into the air, Kunzman’s car struck a mercury vapor light on a pole outside the track, igniting the fuel.

As the demolished car came to rest in the parking lot, Kunzman fought to free himself. He couldn’t figure out why his hands wouldn’t work properly as tried to unlatch his belts; in fact, both arms, his wrist, his neck, and several vertebra were broken. After several excruciating moments Kunzman finally escaped the inferno. In addition to his broken bones he suffered severe burns, including on his face. For the rest of his days, the handsome boy from Guttenberg would endure double-takes from people when he went out in public.

For two months Kunzman recovered in a Kansas City hospital. Less than six months later he climbed back into a race car for the first time at a USAC midget race at Tri-County Speedway in Cincinnati. Fighting fatigue and the pain of his mending injuries, Kunzman outdueled Jerry McClung and Larry Rice to win the 40-lap feature.

 Lee Kunzman at Salem Speedway Oct. 3, 1971. (John Mahoney photo courtesy of the National Sprint Car Hall of Fame.)

 

Kunzman was back, in a big way. The next couple of seasons provided a glimpse of his greatness; he was a winner in USAC and qualified for the Indianapolis 500 in ’72 and ’73.

If Kunzman’s life was a Hollywood movie, they would have ran the final credits at that point, in front of adoring crowds who cheered Kunzman’s inspiring determination. But there was more to come—good and bad.

In December 1973 Kunzman traveled to California for an Indy car tire testing session at Ontario Motor Speedway, a sweeping 2.5-mile oval. A wing mount apparently failed while Kunzman was flirting with 200-mph, sending him head-on into the wall.

His injuries were beyond significant: A brain injury, broken eye socket, injuries to his eye, several broken bones, and paralysis and loss of feeling on his left side. His recovery was measured not in months, but years; it began with an uninterrupted six-month hospitalization.

Was that enough to finish off the dreams of Lee Kunzman? It was not.

After months of rehabilitation, he returned to the cockpit in 1975. He eventually posted the best finish of his Indy car career in 1979 when he ran second to Johnny Rutherford at Atlanta. He made the field at Indy twice more, in 1977 and 1979, before calling it quits after the 1980 season.

“The second injury, at Ontario, was much more difficult to overcome than the first,” he said in 1998. “The first injury created appearance problems, but I could overcome that. The second was very difficult. No matter how strong my goals were, a brain injury is very hard to overcome.

“There were many, many surgeries in both cases. It was almost like surgery and recovery had become a way of life. Eventually I got back about 80 percent of function in my left side. Which is damn good, coming back from zero. I was happy with that.”

Kunzman shifted his focus in a new direction in 1981, working for Longhorn Racing. He eventually moved to Hemelgarn Racing, where as a Team Manager he won the Indianapolis 500 in 1996 and the INDYCAR Series championship in 2000, both with Buddy Lazier behind the wheel.

In 2006 Kunzman was inducted into the National Sprint Car Hall of Fame.

For a generation of racers, Kunzman’s courage and determination were the definition of commitment and tenacity. His dreams were to win races—which he did—but he ultimately won something much more important: he won the respect of his peers. Mention Lee Kunzman to anyone with experience in open wheel racing in the era of the late 20th century, and you’ll see the nodding of the head and a comment along the lines of, “Kunzman…now there was a helluva racer.”

Lee Kunzman dreamed of becoming “a race driver’s race driver.” Mission accomplished.

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