01/26/2025
Last weekend Kenny was inducted into the OSTPA Hall of Fame. I am attaching what was read at the banquet along with a video of some pictures over the past 27 years. Congrats, Kenny! 🖤❤️🧡💚
This year’s OSTPA Hall of Fame Inductee’s involvement in the Pulling world has taken many forms throughout the years. A fan, a track worker, he’s worked on sleds, a puller, a crew chief, a board member and most recently a promoter. As a fan, his love of pulling started at an early age when his parents took him to his first pull at the Preble County Fair around the age of 3. The Enderle and the National Farm Machinery Show became yearly trips that fostered his desire to one day become a puller. And through friendships and surrounding himself with people who also loved the sport as much as he did, he would indeed become a puller and as mentioned before even more.
Around age 12 Kenny Lucas would get his first chance to make a trip down a pulling track. Family friends, Ed & Karen Epperson, took Kenny along to events that they put on including the local county fair where Kenny would work at running the pull back tractor or scraper tractors. During this time, he also helped run the ATV sled and finally got to pull an ATV himself. Through this friendship Kenny met Chris Koogler who ran his Four-Wheel Drive truck, Fantasy. Many nights, when he wasn’t busy on the family farm, he would head to pulls and assist Chris with the truck.
In College Kenny would meet another couple who had a big impact on his involvement with pulling. As a student in the Fluid Power program at ATI, Kenny’s instructor was approached by Mike and Karen Stimmel to enlist some of the student’s assistance in designing a hydraulic system on Track Boss 3. The idea, drawn up on a napkin at a local fast food operation by Kenny and his classmates Glenn Schall and Mark Jones, would become only the second system on a pulling sled at that time. The guys would travel to events for several years after that assisting with the Track Boss 3 and eventually Kenny also assisted Dave Hager with the original hydraulics on the Old Ironsides Sled. During this time Chris allowed Kenny to make a few passes down the track in the Fantasy and in 1998 Kenny drove the truck at multiple OSTPA events earning the Rookie of the Year title.
That next year the opportunity to purchase the Fantasy truck came up and Kenny, along with Carl and Dawn O’Dell jumped at the chance and well, as we know that was the beginning of a partnership that carries through to this day. The next few years are a blur for the team as jumping in with both feet is an understatement! A new Cherry Black paint job was debuted, Carl was voted Rookie of the Year in 1999, Kenny secured the first win with OSTPA in 2000 along with sharing Puller of the Year recognition with Carl. In the early 2000’s between OSTPA, NTPA and Mid South Pulls, the team would attend 40+ events each summer traveling as far south as Alabama, west to Missouri and North to Wisconsin. With that many hooks, and working full time jobs, there were many late nights and new skills learned! On one particular late night Jim, Kenny’s Dad, came down to the shop in the wee hours to see what had broke on the truck. He found Carl under the Fantasy sanding on the crank with some sand paper. He shook his head at the guys and told them they needed a C&C Machine for that kind of repair, to which Carl promptly replied “We have one (while pointing to each of his biceps) C. and C.”
In 2002 Kenny would begin his time as full time Crew Chief as the team decided that one driver would be beneficial at achieving better results. Dawn would handle the throttle, Carl would focus on track spotting and Kenny would handle the tune up. The team would spend hours analyzing videos of the class. What were guys like John, Mike, Steve, Ryan and Dave doing that kept them so competitive? This was the driving force of the early 2000’s as Kenny kept learning and improving the performance of the truck. Different motor configurations, increased horsepower, changing to a fiberglass body and always working at finding the best tune up for the truck and driver. Finally settling in and finding that sweet spot with a Bob Miner set up when Dawn was able to secure the first OSTPA Championship for the Fantasy Team in 2010!
The next couple years the team expanded in size in both humans and trucks. If the hauler was going down the road half empty why not build another truck?? The team along with help from Barker Machine and Fab, and lots of long days in the shop had Dirt Donkey on the track for it’s debut season with OSTPA in 2012. Kenny quickly, or maybe not so quickly, learned that 2 trucks built extremely similar DO NOT perform the same on the track! But Fantasy and Kenny still came out on top that summer with another Championship season. And since the trailer was now full, the O’Dells decided why not fill the hauler? And along came Carlie in 2013, whose appearance may have produced even more adjustments for this team than another pulling truck. Attending her first pull at 2 weeks old she quickly learned how to win Uncle Kenny over (milkshakes are key) and is always by her Dad’s side when it comes to track spotting, quick to share where she thinks they should make their run on the tracks and honestly, she is normally right!
The team worked hard at finding the correct tune up for Dirt Donkey for the next couple years and it paid off with a Championship for Carl and Dirt Donkey in 2015 and Fantasy and Kenny ended up right behind them with a second place finish. That same year Kenny began his tenure with the OSTPA board as Vice President and in 2016 Meghan and Charity joined the team! And that must have been Kenny’s lucky charm as he kicked off a long run of Championships for the Fantasy from 2016-2019!! Charity and Meghan quickly became the go to for moving the trucks around in the pits, getting everyone to the line in proper order and keeping the trucks looking great! That fall J.D. was born, and Carlie quickly realized that headphones weren’t just needed on the track, but also in the hauler when J.D. was fighting sleep! She didn’t hold it against him though as they have become the best pulling buddies and are the future of the team! J.D. has become Kenny’s side kick when it comes to crew chief responsibilities and does an amazing job at checking for a “damn clean filter”.
During this same time Kenny served as President of OSTPA. Many hours spent on the phone making decisions that he believed were best of the organization as a whole. Knowing the success of the organization relied on a well-run event with sportsmanship and efficiency.
Never afraid of a challenge the team added a third vehicle to the team midway into the 2022 season with the 2-Timin’ Two Wheel Drive truck owned by Petro Motorsports. From how to load it, steer it, tow it, tune it, it was all a new challenge. That next summer Randy Fishbaugh joined the team driving Dirt Donkey at some of the events which was a huge help as it allowed the guys time to focus on 2-Timin. And with Carl at the wheel, Kenny crew chiefing and the rest of the team working behind them, they were able to secure the 2023 Championship for 2-Timin’ in it’s first full year of competition!
Looking back over 40+ years of involvement in the sport, 26 years with OSTPA, thousands of miles, hundreds of events, many motor configurations, 9 championships in 2 classes with 3 vehicles, a team of 3 that grew to 7. Whether it is as a fan, crew chief, puller or board member, it is no doubt through every level of involvement that Kenny’s dedication and passion for pulling is undeniable and inspiring. Team Fantasy and OSTPA are proud to induct this year’s Hall of Fame Inductee, Kenny Lucas.
