BY DENIS BROWN
Correspondent

MIGUEL JUAREZ staff Lakewood’s Kyle Frankman is on the fast track to success as he continues to do well in racing at the age of 17. It’s just another weekend in the Frankman household, just another normal weekend.

While most 17-year-old boys are out playing baseball or basketball at the park, or going to see the newest movie, Kyle Frankman is not. No, Frankman is not like most teenage boys. Instead, Frankman is racing cars in Pennsylvania or Delaware.

Frankman is currently enrolled at Lakewood High School, where he is a member of both the football and wrestling teams, and has a family history full of racing. The link starts with his grandfather, Ed Frankman. He owned a race car at Wall Stadium and competed there. The love for owning a race car carried over to his son, Rich.

Rich Frankman, Kyle’s dad, loved the idea of racing, but chose to give the gift to his son.

On Christmas morning, when Kyle Frankman was 7, he found a race car (a Quarter Midget) sitting in the driveway.

After graduating from a novice school, Kyle began racing at Wall Township Speedway (then Wall Stadium), in his green No. 13 race car.

“I started racing and progressed farther and farther,” Kyle Frankman said. “I went from two to three wins a year when I first began, to 18 in one year.”

In his second year at Wall, Kyle raced a new car — a red, white and blue No. 76 Quarter Midget, modeled after a Street Stock that his father owned.

The result was even more success.

“I had a lot of top-fives, but not a lot of wins,” Kyle said.

The following year, in 1997, Rich Frankman discovered a new manufacturer that was not being used in New Jersey yet, so he purchased one of the new cars — called a Bulrider Racer — and began taking his son to different tracks, to give him added experience behind the wheel.

“I started traveling and getting a lot more seat time,” Kyle said. “My father and I started traveling up and down the East Coast, and as far out west as Ohio.”

While traveling, Kyle won his first national title with the Junior Sprint Cars of America, winning in the Light B Division.

Then, in 1998, came the highlight of Kyle’s career. Racing in the Eastern Grand Nationals, Kyle was involved in a wreck in which his car flipped early in the race, did several cartwheels before hitting the wall, flipping over the wall and landing right-side up.

“I was in fourth place when another car hit mine in a vulnerable place,” Kyle said.

So why was this a highlight?

“After changing a few tires and bending some rods partially straight, the car was ready to go, all before the race resumed.”

Once it did, Kyle raced from last place to second place in a matter of 10 laps, leaving Frankman about three car lengths from the leader when the checkered flag fell.

“I finished second but everyone said I was the class of the field,” Kyle said. “That race had all the best drivers from everywhere in it, from as far as California.”

In 2000, Kyle graduated to the Senior Honda Division at Wall Stadium and won the track championship.

“That was an extremely hard class to race in because there were so many cars and everyone’s engine is exactly the same,” he said. “That was a grueling season. That kind of racing is all about the driver.”

Then, in 2002, Kyle began racing a Bandelero car at Wall, and won five races with eight top-five finishes en route to another track championship.

That’s what led to Kyle making another big switch.

“Last year my father and I decided we wanted to try something different,” he said. “We decided to get a race car that could race on a dirt track. Although I had never raced on dirt before, we though it would lead to better experience.”

The Frankmans headed to Borgers Speedway in Saylorsburg, Pa., where Kyle won his first race in his sixth attempt, fittingly enough, on Father’s Day.

“I raced at that track for about 10 races in a 16-car rookie class,” Kyle said. “At the end of the season I had four top-five finishes and two other top-10s.

Currently, Kyle is racing an RTS Microspring, which he said are modeled after the World of Outlaws cars, in Newcastle, Del.

“I get up to about 112 miles per hour in this car, so it’s pretty fast,” he said.

Kyle has successfully progressed from racing in midgets to racing on dirt now.

Each new level of competition brings its own set of difficulties and adjustments that need to be made, but Frankman has learned how to deal with these issues from his dad.

“One of the biggest things my dad has taught me is patience,” Kyle Frankman said. “It is the biggest key to anything in life. If things do not go my way, there is always next week or next time.”

His dad does more than teach Kyle life lessons; Rich Frankman is also the crew chief. It was Rich Frankman’s dream to have Kyle racing, and both of them have given up a lot to be here now.

“I learned how to sacrifice a lot of things,” Kyle Frankman said. “My family has had to sacrifice as well. I have had days of hard work and missed family get-togethers, but they are my biggest fans.”

But the good outweighs the bad for Kyle Frankman.

“I have been able to travel and meet different people,” he said. “I have been exposed to so many different kinds of people and how they act.”

These are the kind of special experiences that can only be brought by living out a dream.

“After all the hours I have put in, and after you win, it is the greatest feeling,” he said.

Kyle got a chance to meet his idol, Dale Earnhardt Sr., a couple of times. For a racing fan, that is an experience of a lifetime. Kyle Frankman remembers that day as much as any other day in his life.

But Kyle hopes to have even more memorable experiences as he continues his racing career.

“I’d love to be able to make a living out of racing, but more importantly, I just want to have fun and be able to do this my whole life,” he said.

He credits his sponsors — Dix Auto Body in Lakewood, C&T Lawn Sprinklers in Howell and Anderson Performance in Delaware — with helping him compete at such a high level.

In addition to the support he receives from his immediate family, Kyle has the admiration and encouragement of his grandfather. It is a special bond, Kyle Frankman said.

“My grandfather is at every race,” he said. “He always makes me feel good, no matter how well I do.”

Apparently, Ed Frankman lit the flame, paving the way for his grandson to add fuel to the fire.

— Doug McKenzie contributed to this story