iRacer Profile – Kenny Humpe

Last week we introduced James Kirkham in this space, a successful SCCA racer who moved from Oregon to Charlotte to be in the midst of the motorsports business and give himself the best chance of furthering his career as a professional racer.  This week we bring you Kenny Humpe, who recently relocated to Charlotte from Ohio . . . do you sense a pattern developing?  Unlike Kirkham, Humpe moved to Charlotte to pursue his education, in this case a degree in mechanical engineering at UNC Charlotte.

A long-time iRacer, Humpe has raced and beat the best in the Impala Class A and Chevy Silverado.  And self-deprecating comments about his road racing skills notwithstanding, more than 40% of his nearly 200 wins in iRacing competition have come on tracks where the road goes left and right.

Q:      How long have you been sim racing?
A:     Started sim racing online 2003, that’s about the time when I started to realize how big the sim community really was, but the first sim I owned was Nascar Racing 1999, when I was around eight or nine years old.

Q:      What attracted you to iRacing?
A:     The people that were put in place and the amount resources that were backing them. With Mr. Henry’s resources and his initiative to make “this” into something bigger than it was, say three or four years ago, and knowing he had Dave K and other former NR2003 developers behind it, you really couldn’t lose with that combination. So far, I still think that holds true.

Q:     What are favorite iRacing cars/tracks?
A:     I’m a fan of the bigger, heavier cars, such as the Mustang, V8 Supercar and the NASCAR divisions. I’ve always liked short tracks, and my favorite road courses would be Infineon, VIR and Watkins Glen.

Q:     What do you like most about iRacing?
A:     I’d say the competition. Nowhere else can you race against the best of the best of both the sim world and real world. Also the structure of the entire thing is just top notch, easy to get started, get updates and to find races. I honestly can never see me going back to the old way of doing things (open servers). Everything is just neat and very user friendly.

Q:     How many hours a week do you spend on iRacing?
A:     Too many.

Q:     What are your favorite video games? Other hobbies?
A:     I like to hunt, and fish. I shoot trap and sporting clays every week. I also like to bowl, and I attempt to golf even though that doesn’t always go as planned haha.

Q:     What is your most memorable iRacing moment?
A:     Probably winning my first pro race at Chicagoland; beat out some pretty good racers to get it.

“The structure of (iRacing.com) is just top notch, easy to get started, get updates and to find races. I honestly can never see me going back to the old way of doing things (open servers). Everything is just neat and very user friendly.” — Kenny Humpe

Q:     What is the iRacing moment you’d love to forget?
A:     Anytime I enter a road race, I plan to just forget it ever happened.

Q:     What’s your favorite real world racing series?
A:     NASCAR

Q:     Name the title of the most recent book you read.
A:     Does my calculus book count? I don’t read many books if I don’t have to.

Q:     Name of your favorite movie/TV show.
A:     Sportscenter.

Q:     How many of your close friends are iRacing members?
A:     I’d say there are at least five.

Q:     What person, living or dead, do you most admire? Why?
A:     Probably my grandfather, just because he’s taught me a lot about life, how to live it, and to get what I can out of it. He’s always been there for me and always seems to know an answer to any question I have.

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