Lance Cline

It all started for me on July 3rd 1963. My mom was sitting right up there in the grandstands like every week but this time she was in labor with me. She refused to tell my dad until he was done racing and then she delivered me July 4th 1963 with racing in my blood.

I grew up like most of the kids at the race track in front of the concessions at turn one catching flying mud during hot laps and qualifying.
As I got older my favorite driver besides my dad was Keith Brown. I started making models with exact roll cage copies of each one. I built a model of Keith’s car and my dad’s and my favorite car at the time the mustang II of Sal Belleci and many more.
I always wanted to build race cars and as soon as I started driving it was obvious that my skill set was building not driving.
When I finally got the chance in 1993 after marrying Shauna, I jumped right in. The first to trust me was Kent Bickford then Lori Brown, Walter Haas, Bob Newberry all in my garage at home so it was time to open Cline Racing Supply.
I was able to build cars for my friend since 5th grade Tom Flanary, Jason Mincey, David Rosa, just too many to list.
I started the 4-banger class by building the first 6 cars and writing the rules and then was asked to build the first trucks to get that division started.
I never counted how many but once I started modifieds I had the awesome experience of being an owner and having Dennis “Foot in it” Furia drive for me, Then Brian Curran won a championship in one of my cars, and the dream came true and I was able to build real race cars for Keith Brown. And all this was done with a whole lot of mentoring from Jerry Hetrick who loved to hang out at the shop.
After selling the shop in 2005 I agreed to be the head official for the 2006 season. Not sure that went as well as I hoped. Be nice to those guys, it’s a tough job.
A lot of great memories but none better then building cars for my dad and winning a $500 to win race in his car.
Looking back, my dreams would never have happened without Ron and Lori Brown who both went above and beyond to get me through this experience and John Soares who taught me how to support my family with a racing business and of course my wife who maned the track side sales for all those years.