Powell and Jaynes share family ties and deep love of AMX racing

In Sunday's AMX action at the Phillips County Fair, Chinook's Mike Powell ran a 1976 Pontiac Lemans.

He fell in love with the sport after experiencing it for the first time.

"I just so happened to be here and saw it eight years ago," said Mike Powell, owner of KnuckleBuster auto shop in Chinook. "So my son and I went home and built a couple."

Though his son would typically race along side him, Powell said his son wasn't at the fair because he was building derby cars for Glasgow's derby races, which happened yesterday.

Apparently the father-son duo are good drivers and mechanics due to the fact that Mike finishes in the top three at many AMX events. He even won an event about three years ago.

"We run right up there in the top three, if we don't break," he said. "If we can stay on the track, we're good."

Knowing that at any given moment something can go wrong with his vehicle, he continues to race for the love of it.

"It's fun. You get out for the whole day and get to do 18 through 20 laps," Powell said. "It's a fun time for everybody. You get out there and do a little bumpin' and holler at each other and have fun."

A couple of years ago, Mike rolled his car at a turn. That was an incident that racers still poke at him about.

"They're giving me a hard time about rolling in the corner," he said jokingly. "I've been on my top twice over here."

In addition to AMX racing, Powell also participated in the tractor pull.

He made a full pull that went about 310 feet.

He ran his big block 1936 Chevy in the pull.

In addition to tractor pulls and AMX, Powell and his family participate in drag-races and demolition derbies.

"It started out when all of my kids were in high school," he said. "Eight kids worked in my shop and started this and we've been going ever since.

Powell likes working on cars from the 70's and 80's, but also works on farming equipment.

"We keep everybody going on the farm in the summer and winter," he said.

The Jaynes family has also been racing in AMX races for the last few years.

While Jamie Jaynes was having a great night at the fair, even winning his first heat, older brother Brett Jaynes was not.

"It went horrible," Brett told the PCN. "My car was running very bad. We hadn't figured it out yet but we're going to trash that motor and restart. My brother had fun though."

Though Jaynes believes he will be done reconstructing his car by Octobers AMX event, he has no idea what engine they will mount inside.

"We don't have an idea yet," he said. "We have enough and we can try different ones out but we have no idea."

Though they don't know what engine they will use, one thing is for sure. It will be fast with Jaynes motivated to compete in Lewistown, a track known for their fast racers.

"Those guys are fast-track and I want to be fast also," he said.

His early 70's Firebird on a Camaro Body numbered 268 was built by Brett and his grandfather, Bill Jaynes, who was quite the racer a few years ago. He still races every once and a while.

Out of a father, uncle, another uncle, a few cousins and grandfather, Brett (22) and brother Jamie (18) are the only ones who still race consistently. Soon they will be joined by their youngest brother, David, when he is eligible to race.

Though racing can often be a family affair, Brett remembers loving the sport of racing at a young age.

"I just always remember since kindergarten, if it wasn't out at my ranch working on cars, I was watching race cars on T.V., he said." I've always liked cars since day one."

Though his vehicle wasn't working properly, he loves the sport and knows that mechanical issues goes hand in hand with racing Bump n Run.

"I love racing and when there's other cars and you are allowed to create contact and there's jumps and that difficulty, it drives me, I love that."

Known for his competitive nature, Brett was an all-around athlete at Dodson High School. He was a part of the 2011 team that made it to divisionals for the third time in the school's history.

Jaynes won the B Main at the fair a few years ago and he knows what it will take to win in the future.

"It's going to take some work," he said. "I have a lot of work to do."

As far as inspiring drivers go, Jaynes didn't mention Earnhardt, Busch or Stewart. Jaynes' heroes are closer to home.

"I'd have to say my dad (Rob) and my uncle (Russell), they worked together for years," said Jaynes. "I've heard stories about when he would pull to a track and when people would see his car and be like 'dammit, that guy is here again,'" he said.

He went on to say, his father has cases and cases of trophies.

That is definitely something to shoot for.