Before Berlin, a huge announcement blew ARCA out of the water about a brand new team, led by Zachary Tinkle.
In this Seriously Fast Motorsports exclusive, we talk with brand new team owner Zachary Tinkle about his new team, Tinkle Family Racing, and the opportunities he has created with his new team.
Q: How exactly did this opportunity come to fruition? The last time we saw you was in March at Phoenix, and now we see you with your own team at Berlin. Can you tell us some of the processes of how you got to this moment, now 3 short months later?
For myself, it really came together around April, getting a car together and asking around. Empire Racing / Racing Resources invited us to hang with them at Talladega, and after that week, is where things really took off, and we really got this deal together with them to help us start our own ARCA operation
Q: I want to ask what the goal is for you as not only a driver, but as an owner. Long term, what do you expect from being an owner/driver? What do you want to take out of Berlin and any future races as the owner?
The goal for us is to run better, for this year, we plan on running only a select few races where funding allows, we don’t want to do things “half baked” we want to give our full effort every time we’re out there, and that was something I really felt was missing with some previous teams I worked with where things I felt could have been a lot better.
Q: I want to ask what the long-term plans for TFR may be. Will we see more races in 2026 besides Berlin, or is this a showcase for what you’ve built so far for 2027 and beyond?
Right now, we’re going to get through Berlin and see how it goes, and go from there. We have a bunch of “feelers” out there for 2027, but nothing concrete. As of now, we just have a single short track car, so right now we’re sticking to those and maximizing what we can. I’d like to get to the point where the #53 car is a quality, regular car, but that’s a point we’re going to build to.
Q: I wanna ask about you. What inspired you to become an owner and a driver?
A lot of it for me was a few reasons, the “pull factor” for me really was seeing guys like Andy Jankowiak, Willie Mullins, Tim Richmond & Sean Corr really be able to make the independent route work and still put up really good results, and in my opinion they’re all great inspirations & ambassadors to our sport and the kind of people this sport needs more of. The other reason was my thinking back to my late-model days of running my own team and owning my own equipment. We had 1 car and 1 motor, but we won 3 championships in one year as a family-run race team, and I got to thinking, “I did it back then, what’s stopping me from making it work at this level?” And that’s what I’m trying to do now.
Q: I want to ask about struggles. What struggles have you already seen in these short months? What struggles do you expect coming as an owner, especially in a division such as ARCA?
Paperwork! hahahaha – but, jokes aside, honestly, I’m really happy with how things have gone so far.
Tinkle Family Racing is on Twitter at @TFR_ARCA and on Instagram at @tinklefamilyracing. If you want to support the team and see their progress, give them a follow and support the team. Their first race is in Berlin, on June 20th, on Fox Sports 2.
Image via Zachary Tinkle X
