John Kazmierski and K & K Racing

By Robin  Ervin

Many karters know K&K Racing as a builder of great microstock chassis and Briggs engines but K & K engines and chassis have seen victory lane an untold number of times and owner John Kazmierski has forgot how many championships his shop has helped drivers win. Over the years K&K has won titles in Snowmobile racing, Chainsaw competitions, Drag Racing, ATV Racing and every class of kart racing. K&K has won features at tracks big and small all over the continental US and Canada.

Kazmierski grew up on a farm and by age 12 years he was learn how to weld, fix broke machines and tune engines. Kazmierski said, " My father always told me you break it, you got to fix it and I broke a lot of stuff on that farm. ha ha" He went on to Cornell college and graduate with a degree in Agricultural Engineering, which teaches a person how to be a good farmer.

However, Kazmierski had a love of racing and a gift for understanding airflow in both engines and as they relate to moving vehicles. Kazmierski holds three patents pertaining to aerodynamic expansion joints for large fossil fuel plants and some of the components he helped design, while working for a company that made components for NASA, are still used in the space shuttle today.

Kazmierski and Bob Komer formed K&K Racing in 1964. They bought out a kart shop that was housed inside Berger's cycle shop for $300. A few years later Komer wanted to pursue other interests so Kazmierski bought him out and has run the shop him self since.

He started building chassis and engines for all types of sprint and laydown karts and achieved almost immediate success. His first team drivers were himself and his wife Doris.  Kazmierski broke an F1 track record at Louden NH in the 70's when it was known as Bryer Motorsports Park. Says Kazmierski " I was driving one of my twin-engine laydown (chassis) there and as I came down pit road after my run I saw everyone lined up along the pit road just cheering and clapping and I didn't know why. Someone came over to me as I was taking my helmet off and said ' do you know what you just did', I told them I didn't. That's when I found out I had broke the track record. I did the course in 1'09" and the record was 1' 13". That was pretty neat"

 He won many championships before leaving the cockpit to concentrate as a team owner/builder.  Notable drivers such as Lake Speed, Chip Slocum and Bruce Driver have driven for K & K racing before making a name for them.

When Pinebrook Speedway opened he started building microstock chassis as well.  It was then that he started fielding a three-driver team while continuing to supply 2 and 4 stroke engines and various chassis to his customers.  During this timeframe he also built a portable wind tunnel, capable of simulating 180 MPH winds on the radar dome, to test his karts while he was away from the shop that is still in use today. Over the years K&K's engines, chassis and Microstock team drivers continued to dominate the local racing scene.

Today, K&K Racing continues to support the 2 and 4 cycle racing community by building and servicing championship caliber chassis and engines. John Kazmierski can be reached at his Trenton NJ shop at 609 882 8927.