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Tim changed direction, going car racing. He had raced cars for years on the New York modified circuit, but now he tried his luck by racing in the NASCAR Goodies Dash Series. After wining four races at Charlotte and three at Pocono, he finally got a break in the Busch Series racing a car for Derrick Cope. This led to a contract with Robbie Reiser, but with mixed results. He set a qualifying lap record at Atlanta (Ga.) on the old track that still stands, but had a bad crash at Bristol (Tenn.) that resulted in two herniated discs in his back, a hospital stay and the end of his stock car career.
Next Tim got into a business making ¾-size stock cars powered by 700cc SX Yamaha engines. He built more than 50 cars and ran a full series on tracks in upstate New York. The cars were as fast as some stock car classes and very popular. After 4 years he decided his heart was not in being a promoter, and sold the program to a Canadian who is still running it.
Tim wanted to get back into snowmobile racing. His son Brett was racing junior snocross classes. As soon as Tim returned to the industry, opportunities came. He made a deal to run the Team Industries WSA program during 2001. But, the season didn’t start well as Shaun Crapo broke his leg and Curtis Crapo blew out his knee, so Tim recruited new talent.
One of the new drivers was Levi LeVallee. This was a development period for Polaris, but slowly its effort resulted in steady improvements. In the meantime Polaris consolidated its efforts in Wausau and Tim moved down from the Team Headquarters in Bagly, Minn., and took over as team manager at Hentges Racing.
Unfortunately Levi blew out his knee at the first round in Duluth and Tim brought T.J. Gulla to the team in 2004. This turned out to be a successful combination and Gulla ended up bringing three overall point championships to Hentges and Polaris. He won 440 stock, 600 stock and 600 mod. Tim’s son Bret won 440 stock and 800 mod races in Semi Pro, before moving up to Pro. In his first year as a Pro, Bret was Rookie of the Year and won the last three Pro races in the Mod Class.
2009 was a stellar year with Gulla winning the championship, Bret finishing second overall and Levi finishing third. Both Gulla and Bret decided to retire after the season, but Tim had new talent in place. The big sensation in 2012 was Kody Kamm who won the Semi Pro Championship, and caused a stir by winning his first Pro race at the season finale in Lake Geneva, Wis.
When I talked with Tim for this story he was busy building 10 Mod sleds for the season. The Hentges effort includes Kody Kamm and Justin Broberg who placed 6th in points last season while racing for Warnert Racing. Tim also is building sleds for Ross Martin and Mike Bauer on the Judnik Team, plus Swedish racer Johan Lidman who is racing for Sportech.
Plus he is building engines for Levi LeVallee’s effort. Each driver gets two sleds.With two fabricators working for Tim out of his Orchard Park shop he is at 55, and still testing all the mods himself.
With two years left on his Hentges contract, full Polaris factory support and several young eager drivers, Tim is optimistic about his future in racing. He has been a championship winning racer and sled maker, promoter and now factory team manager. There is no place he would rather be than at a snowmobile racetrack coaching his team to success.