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KENNY
BERNSTEIN "King of Speed"
COMPETITIONPLUS.COM reviews the latest book by
Bill Stephens with Kenny Bernstein
by Susan Wade
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The young girl lectured her
co-worker: "You know what the race driver Kenny Bernstein used
to do? When he owned a restaurant chain and he interviewed somebody
for a management position, he used to walk him to his car in the parking
lot and glance inside that person's car to see if it was clean or if
it was a mess. He figured he could tell how that person would treat
his things by the way that person treated his own things. So little
details do matter!"
She was right. Bernstein used to do that when he owned the 20-unit Chelsea
Street Pubs chain.
If anyone wants to know what makes the drag-racing legend tick, he should
start with a copy of "Kenny Bernstein . . . King of Speed"
(Sports Publishing LLC, $24.95). Bill Stephens has chronicled the drag-racing
legend's career -- on the quarter-mile and in the business world --
beginning, appropriately, with his childhood in the West Texas oil-cotton-cattle
kaleidoscope that is Lubbock.
The photos of young Kenny, with that trademark grin he passed along
to son Brandon, are priceless. But so are the values that he learned
from father, Bert, and his late mother, Pat, as well as the support
for his love of racing he received from his mom's folks, Dewey and Nanna
Bagley.
So it's true what John Force wrote about Bernstein in the book's preface:
"Can Kenny be aggravating? Yeah, if you can't handle the truth,
Kenny can be aggravating. But if you watched and listened, it was like
a free education."
Somebody paid for Brandon's college education at Texas A&M University,
but the 128-page book also takes a peek at the second-generation racer's
on-the-job career preparation and how he literally learned from the
School of Hard Knocks.
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d v e r t i s e m e n t
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Readers will see Kenny the child, Kenny the young racer, Kenny the
businessman, Kenny the father -- and of course, Kenny, the King of Speed.
Photographer Richard Shute of Auto Imagery captured what television
did not: an image of the Gainesville Raceway scoreboard flashing evidence
of Bernstein's famous 301.70-mile-an-hour run in 1992. Bernstein adds
his insight on that pass that gave him the nickname that has stuck,
even when drivers are pushing the 335-mph barrier.
The 12" x 8" hardback book contains more than statistics from
the sport's beloved public-address announcer/number-cruncher/historian/raconteur
and Bob-of-all-trades, Bob Frey. It is enlivened by photos from longtime
professionals Gary Nastase and Les Welch and the shooters at National
Dragster.
Learn about leadership, Bernstein's longstanding relationship with Anheuser-Busch
and its Budweiser brand, the dynamics between Kenny and his crew members.
It's common knowledge Bernstein landed the Budweiser sponsorship (and
ushered drag racing into America's boardrooms) by parking his equipment
in front of the brewery and generating excitement. But scour the pages
and find out what driver he beat to win his first NHRA national event
after he loaded his gear back up and hauled it down to Baton Rouge to
race. Get the scoop on why Bernstein, a meticulous and careful planner,
scrambled to arrange his marriage at the county courthouse to longtime
sweetheart Sheryl Johnson. Find out what he has to say about why he
switched from the Funny Car class, how he handled being a father to
young Brandon, and how he feels about change and retiring twice.
It's a fast read, this trip down Kenny Bernstein's Memory Lane. But
at the end, it'll seem almost like one of those passes down the quarter-mile:
engaging and over with too quickly.
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