Sikeston teen faring well in race career

Hunter Scherenberg

SIKESTON - "Gentlemen, start your engines."

When you hear those four words you instantly think of NASCAR. When Hunter Schuerenberg hears those words, he does too, in a different light.

Schuerenberg, 17, of Sikeston, has made his summer-home in Indianapolis to further his racing career, and thus far is fairing very well.

Earlier this season, Schuerenberg spent his weekend racing dirt-track sprint cars at a feature event in Haubstadt, Ind., winning the event and taking home the $10,000 prize.

"The Tri-State Speedway race is probably one of the top-five non-wing sprint car races on the circuit," Schuerenberg says. "There's two races that pay out $30,000 and there's three that pay out $10,000."

Sikeston 17-year-old Hunter Schuerenber spent his weekends this past summer in Indianapolis.

Schuerenberg added, "Its got to be the biggest win I've ever had. It's going to be good to have that win on my resume in the future."

Schuerenberg counted his whole season a success, racking up four overall wins for the year so far.

"In racing you don't really have a record," he said. " You just try to win as many races as you can. To me that's all that matters."

After the Hoosier Sprint Nationals win, at the Tri-State Speedway, Schuerenberg was asked to race for Keith Kunz Motor Sports for a weekend, but the race was rained out.

"(Keith) Kunz has a high profile team," Schuerenberg said. "There's a lot of people that pay to race with them, and pay to use their cars. It was a pretty big honor to be asked to run with them but it got rained out."

Schuerenberg recently quit his position with R & B Motorsports to run with JJ Yeley's team. Yeley, a NASCAR driver, (the No. 18 Interstate car) is taking full ownership of the team at the end of the season. Currently his father runs the team.

"It's an honor to run with JJ's team," Schuerenberg said. "My ultimate goal is to get to the NASCAR Nextel Cup series someday."

Schuerenberg attributes his success to his belief in God.

"God's blessed me with the opportunity," he said. "He keeps showing where to go and what to do next. It's all up to Him."

Schuerenberg says that is family and friends are supportive of what he does for a living, though he says his friends are still in the dark of all he does.

"They don't really know what it's like," he said. "But they do think it's cool that I get to race cars for a job!"

Schuerenberg says his plans for next season are still up in the air, but that a move back to Indianapolis after the school year is almost a given.

He added that if racing didn't work out as planned, he would remain in the racing business, either on the business or mechanical side of things.

He laughed, adding, "Who knows what all I will get into!"

Schuerenberg will finish up this season with the Yeley team which has a few races to go. He'll be traveling to California, Florida, and throughout Indiana to complete the season.