November 18, 2005
FAYETTEVILLE, GA - When Kenny Adams of Malabar, FL sat down to 
formulate his plans and goals for the 2005 O'Reilly United Sprint Car Series season in November of last year, he reached high. With the conclusion of the 2005 season, Adams can proudly proclaim, "Mission Accomplished."
Adams dominated the O'Reilly USCS season taking the National Championship, regional titles in the Carolina Thunder Tour, Southern Thunder Tour, and Mid-South Thunder Tour, and as an added bonus, his stepson Bryn Gohn swept the Rookie of the Year honors for the National, Asphalt Thunder, Carolina Thunder, Southern Thunder, and Mid-South Thunder Tours.
In the 51-race O'Reilly USCS National Tour, the only winged outlaw sprint car series that competes for points on both dirt and asphalt short tracks, Adams won 18 races with 41 top five finishes, 46 top ten finishes, two fast time honors, and $72, 440 in earnings. He won 16 races on the dirt, and two on the asphalt.
The Carolina Thunder Tour championship saw Adams post eight wins, and he finished in the top five in all 13 events. Adams won five Southern Thunder Tour races in route to that title with 13 top five finishes in 14 events. On the Mid-South Thunder Tour, Adams posted three wins with nine top five finishes in 12 starts.
Before the season began, Adams put together his winning team. The piece of the puzzle came together when the 1997 O'Reilly USCS National Champion Red Stauffer of Winter Park, FL retired as a driver to become Adams' crew chief.
"That was the hardest part of putting this team together," Adams said. 
"It really took some persuading to get Red to get out of the seat to concentrate on wrenching for us. It took us about half the season to really start communicating like we should, but after that, we really got on a roll. Red was also instrumental in convincing me to let Bryn run for Rookie of the Year."
Gohn had spent the last couple of seasons as the crew chief for his stepfather, learning about the race cars from the ground up. Last season, the 20-year-old climbed into a winged outlaw sprint car for the first time, and showed potential.
Gohn was ready to follow in the footsteps of his late father, Daryl Gohn, who was a winning sprint car driver in Pennsylvania before tragically losing his life in a race car.
"I wasn't sure if we wanted to race Bryn fulltime in 2005, but Red convinced me that it was time for Bryn," Adams said. "Red reminded me about how important it was to us early in our career to win a Rookie of the Year title."
The youngster did not disappoint his stepfather, or Stauffer. He posted a win in Fayetteville, NC in 2005, and finished fourth in the O'Reilly USCS National points, adding five top five finishes, 30 top ten finishes, and $22,700 in earnings after 51 races.
Gohn finished second to Adams in the Southern Thunder Tour points, third in the Carolina Thunder Tour points, and sixth in points in both the Mid-South Thunder and Asphalt Thunder Tours. Adams will now help his stepson use his 2005 success to embark on an effort to run the USAC Silver Crown series in 2006.
The 2005 O'Reilly USCS National Championship is the second for Adams, who also won the 2000 O'Reilly USCS national title. Adams says the two titles were quite different for many reasons.
"We really weren't going for the 2000 championship, but it worked out that way," Adams said. "I had never run a traveling series before 2000, and had basically run the same tracks every weekend in Pennsylvania. We learned a lot in 2000 about learning new tracks, and adapting to changing track conditions on the fly."
Adams said the toughest competition he had in 2000 was Stauffer, who was also his teammate. But after the 2000 season, the competition got stiffer with Terry Gray of Bartlett, TN joining the O'Reilly USCS tour, and winning the National championship over the next four seasons.
"We really had to step up our program with Terry running with us, and by this season, the competition really got tougher with all of these young guns like Danny Martin Jr., Matt Tiffany, and now Bryn coming on. The Mid-South region was also stacked with tough competition with guys like Mike Ward, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., and Ernie Ainsworth. Things really got tough on the asphalt this season with Kevin Swindell and the Reutimann's running with us."
Adams said his only disappointment this season was on the Asphalt Thunder Tour. Swindell, a 16-year-old third generation driver from Bartlett, TN took five wins, and the Zephyrhills, FL father and son team of Wayne Reutimann Sr. and Jr. took two wins apiece. Wayne Reutimann Jr. won the Asphalt Thunder Tour Championship ahead of Gray and Adams.
"We really struggled on the asphalt this season," Adams said. "But when you look at the talent we had to race against, I guess it wasn't really that bad, but we would have liked to have won more races."
Adams said he and Gohn still plan to compete with the O'Reilly USCS in 2006 when their schedule around the USAC Silver Crown series permits.
