E AST O REGONIAN
LIFESTYLES
WEEKEND, JUNE 8, 2019
HERMISTON’S
FIRST FAMILY OF
RACING
Bill Kik drives his Kik-Along sand drag
racer in Salt Lake City circa 1980.
By ANTONIO SIERRA
East Oregonian
H
Charlie Kik, right, congratulates racer Ken Hamilton, left, after Hamilton broke the track record on
Sept. 17, 1967. Also photographed is Bill Jones.
ERMISTON — As with so many days on
the track, Bill Kik and his family were rac-
ing against time.
The family had assembled at the Kik
compound north of Hermiston to take pic-
tures for this story, but the dark clouds gathering above the prop-
erty portended another late spring rainstorm.
The photo shoot averted disaster and Bill retired to his house,
where he went over old pictures that helped tell the story of the
neighboring property: the Hermiston Raceway.
Charlie and Pat Kik had kept meticulous scrapbooks fi lled
with photos and newspaper clippings of the local racing scene
and the development of the race track, and as their son Bill leafed
through their pages, memories and old names started to come
back to him.
Bill’s passion for racing was handed down from his parents,
who developed the Hermiston race track after watching an auto
race in Pilot Rock and envisioning the possibilities by their prop-
erty just off of Highway 395, where Bill and his family still reside.
The track opened on April 30, 1967, as The Umatilla Speed-
way and it quickly built renown.
Bill said a TV crew from the Tri-Cities was on hand when
Sheridan Dietz, a racer from Pendleton, got into a vicious crash.
The collision briefl y appeared in the opening montage of “ABC’s
Wide World of Sports” before the program’s switch to color
caused the producers to cut the footage out of the intro.
Bill added that stunt performer Evel Knievel stayed at the
Kiks’ property when he performed in Eastern Oregon, and driver
Tom Sneva raced in Hermiston before going on to win the Indi-
anapolis 500 in 1983.
But in the early years of race track, there was one person audi-
ences never saw participate in competitions: Bill Kik.
Although he participated in obstacle racing, sand drag rac-
ing, and hill climbs, Bill said his dad wouldn’t let him race on the
track because he thought it was too dangerous.
He dropped racing as a hobby in the 1980s as he and his wife
Bonnie raised their three daughters — Teena, Desirae, and Chel-
sea — and he worked his day job at Sanitary Disposal.
But Bill caught the racing bug in 2010 when he won a race
track raffl e that garnered him a legends car, a race car with a
replica body shell powered by a motorcycle motor.
It’s a bad, bad disease,” he said. “It takes you hook, line, and
sinker.”
Bill not only got himself hooked, but spread his rekindled pas-
sion to his daughters, sons-in-law, and grandchildren.
The track has long since passed out of the Kiks’ ownership
and its name has changed multiple times.
Bill said he helps out at the Hermiston Speedway where he
can, but he and his family race at the track about a dozen times
per year.
At 63 years old, Bill is sometimes asked when he’ll hang up
his fi re suit, but he has no plans at this point.
“Not ’til he’s done having fun,” Bonnie said.
The Kik Family racers are, from left, Linkin Zamudio, 10, Jose Zamudio, Ray Whitbeck, Neena Kik, Bill
Kik, Jose “Pickles” Medina, 14, Justus Zamudio, 13, and Brody Whitbeck, 10.
A decal on the back of Linkin Zamudio’s Inex Bandelero race car is
a testament to family.
Staff photos by E.J. Harris