Like a lot of the younger generation of racers today, Kyle Rizzoli literally grew up in the sport, shadowing his parents, Jim and Kay, as they travelled the west coast racing an alcohol dragster amongst other things. In fact, young Kyle’s first trip at the age of six-weeks old to the drags was the final day of the famous Orange County International Raceway on October 30, 1983. The elder Rizzoli has been a multi-time division champion along with a JEGS All Star champion, currently a tuning consultant for a number of A/Fuel dragsters. Needless to say, Kyle has been an integral part of the sport since birth.
Not only is his rise through the sport been part of his life, his younger age brings about some unique thoughts and aspects of sportsman drag racing.
With a younger sister Karen, Kyle and his sister graduated up through the ranks of Jr. Dragsters and together learned somewhat of the intricacies of bracket racing. During that period, there weren’t many instances where the Rizzoli offspring weren’t with their parents. In the early ‘90s, Jim decided to stop racing the alcohol car and focus on the juniors. “I always like to say that my sister is really the better racer than I am,” says Kyle laughingly, “and if you look at our records against one another, she was always crushing me.”