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Crew Fuels Run For Tibben’s 4th Straight Adams County Modified Division Title

NASCAR Sprint Cup Series driver Jimmie Johnson and Iowa NASCAR dirt Modified driver Jeremy Tibben share an impressive common thread. Each won their fourth consecutive NASCAR championship in 2009. Each knows that seemingly “making it look easy” is actually very hard work.

Tibben, 33, of Stanton, Iowa, won his fourth straight Poet Biorefining Modified division championship on the half-mile dirt oval of Adams County Speedway in Corning, Iowa.

For Tibben, wife Amy and their children Kami, 8 and Kywin, 5, just being at the .500-mile black clay track each week brought a sense of normalcy and calm through a devastating family issue.

On opening night of the 2009 season, son Kywin, then four, felt ill at the track.

“During our first race last year, Kywin had a stomach ache. Amy took him to the medical crew at the track,” Jeremy Tibben said. “They said he needed to go to the hospital for evaluation right away. The track officials told me Kywin was sick and we left for the hospital immediately.

“When we got there, we quickly found out he didn’t have what we thought might be appendicitis. He had a Wilms Tumor on his right kidney.”

About 500 children, mostly before age five, are diagnosed with a cancerous Wilms Tumor each year. It is a serious form of cancer that is treated with removal of the affected kidney and a regiment of radiation and chemotherapy. The illness has an 85 percent survival rate.

Kywin was transferred by ambulance to Children’s Hospital and Medical Center in Omaha, Neb., where surgery was performed that Monday to remove the kidney. He remained hospitalized during recovery for about three weeks and began chemotherapy and radiation treatments.

“The tumor was very large,” Tibben said. “I couldn’t believe something that large came out of a 36-pound little boy.

“At first I said we were done racing for the year. But the crew said they would do anything I needed if I wanted to race.

“Amy and I talked with the doctor about racing, and he encouraged us to do it if Kywin liked it. It would give him something to look forward to on the weekends. That’s also part of the reason I continued to race.

“If Kywin would have had any problems during the weekend, we would not have raced.”

The only stipulation for Kywin in returning to the track was that he would watch the races from the family car with his mom, sister and friends. The car shielded him from the racing environment as well as potential cold and flu germs in the grandstands.

Kywin, now five, is now getting clean bills of health during check-ups every three months. The cancer is in remission.

The boy has also been back in the grandstands as well. Thanks to the Make-A-Wish and Give Kids the World foundations, Kywin went to Walt Disney World and SeaWorld in Orlando in February. The family made a side trip to Daytona International Speedway to see the Gatorade Duels, where Kywin got to see his favorite driver, Kasey Kahne, win one of the races.

Tibben’s fourth consecutive track championship ties him with Dan Mueller, who won the four track titles before Tibben’s string. The two have been going head-to-head, week-after-week for five years at Adams County Speedway. The Poet Biorefining Modified division is the track’s second division behind its Late Models.

His dad, Rick, helped him get started racing by funding a dirt Modified car. Five years ago, Tibben formed his own team, attracted sponsors and got all new equipment. Tibben wasn’t sure he had the talent to be a race car driver, and the only way to find out was to get the equipment on par with Mueller and other regular winners.

He acquired a Kelly Shryock-built chassis, a J.D. Wyman Motorsports-built Ford engine and enlisted the help of Bob Harris of Bob Harris’ Race Tech Workshops as coach and consultant.

The moves helped him finish second to Mueller by a slim margin for the 2005 track championship, followed by the four-year championship string.

“Dan’s a really good driver and that’s what makes winning the championship more special,” Tibben said. “He’s consistent and he’s only aggressive when he has to be.”

Tibben gives his crew full credit for his most recent track championship.

“More than any year before 2009, the crew got us through the season,” he said. “I didn’t have much time to help in the first months of the season and I had always been there (in the past). They did a great job and kept me in contention. We were able to focus in about August and finish the season strong.”

Members of the Tibben Racing team include Matt Wiechman, his mom Gloria and her husband Jud Requist, Jeremy Houck, Rick Tibben, Tami Houck, Roger Tibben, Sue Botts and friend and role model Jim Roach.

Sponsors include Agri-Solutions Inc., JD Wyman Motorsports, Bob Harris’ Race Tech Workshops, Goddard Cattle Company, Five Star Trucking, Chris Shamblan’s Lucky Dog, Culver’s, Quiznos, Porter Septic Service, Super Bowl Sports Car & Grill, Skyrocket Chassis, Bates Garage, Northland Oil, Cutting Edge Sign Company and Samerin Inc.

Tibben is director of marketing and human resources for Agri-Solutions Inc., an agricultural liquid fertilizer company based in Red Oak, Iowa.