Kenny Brightbill
Although he scored 441 victories at 41 different tracks during his long and illustrious racing career, Kenny Brightbill is most noted for his dominating performances at the Reading Fairgrounds.
Between his first Reading victory April 17, 1970 and June 24, 1979, the next to last ever race at the famed speedway, Brightbill won 135 times! In that ten year period, there were 480 feature races (Remember, Reading ran twice weekly, Fridays and Sundays; opened early in the spring and ran later in the fall).
Brightbill’s Reading record: 135 wins, 303 top-five finishes, 352 top-tens, and four championships---1974, ’76, ’77, and ‘78!
But that’s not all, he won the Eastern States 200 in 1980, Super DIRT Week Syracuse 200 in 1988, four track championships and 43 victories at East Windsor, 37 wins at Susquehanna, 30 victories and two titles at Bridgeport, 29 wins at New Egypt, and the 1978 championship at Flemington.
He also went dirt late model racing, registering 13 victories. And even made six starts in NASCAR Winston Cup races, with a best finish of tenth.
What enamored fans to Kenny Brightbill was that for much of his career, he did things his way, not beholden to a track or sanctioning body, and preferring to build---rather than buy---his own cars his own way,
Welcome to the EMPA Hall of Fame “The Shillington Slingshot” Kenny Brightbill.
Between his first Reading victory April 17, 1970 and June 24, 1979, the next to last ever race at the famed speedway, Brightbill won 135 times! In that ten year period, there were 480 feature races (Remember, Reading ran twice weekly, Fridays and Sundays; opened early in the spring and ran later in the fall).
Brightbill’s Reading record: 135 wins, 303 top-five finishes, 352 top-tens, and four championships---1974, ’76, ’77, and ‘78!
But that’s not all, he won the Eastern States 200 in 1980, Super DIRT Week Syracuse 200 in 1988, four track championships and 43 victories at East Windsor, 37 wins at Susquehanna, 30 victories and two titles at Bridgeport, 29 wins at New Egypt, and the 1978 championship at Flemington.
He also went dirt late model racing, registering 13 victories. And even made six starts in NASCAR Winston Cup races, with a best finish of tenth.
What enamored fans to Kenny Brightbill was that for much of his career, he did things his way, not beholden to a track or sanctioning body, and preferring to build---rather than buy---his own cars his own way,
Welcome to the EMPA Hall of Fame “The Shillington Slingshot” Kenny Brightbill.
