The smell of exhaust fumes fills the air and the roar of modified engines and four-wheel drive trucks are lined up as far as the eye can see.

For one Ohio State student, this is heaven.

Brandon Kinzer, a senior in agricultural construction systems management, has been fascinated with motorsports his entire life.

In fourth grade, a time when most children are still mastering the complexities of a seat belt, this Greenfield, Ohio, native built his first model engine for a science fair project.

Fourteen years have passed since his science fair days, but Kinzer’s interest in all things mechanical has continued to grow.

When his uncle Bobby’s tractor pulls ignited Kinzer’s curiosity of engines and their capabilities, his father, Dan Kinzer, was there to teach his son everything he knew.

“He has a very keen mechanical mind; Brandon is very smart mechanically. As a little kid he always wanted to tear it apart, see how it worked,” Dan Kinzer said.

Brandon Kinzer said his curiosity was not easily satisfied.

“Anything a vehicle entails, I had to learn, I had to know, and I had to do,” Kinzer said.

When Kinzer was 14, his uncle died in a truck accident. His uncle’s devotion to pulling left an impression on Kinzer that fueled his desire to leave his own tread marks on the pulling track.

“Around that time, I started to get a serious itch. Before, I always loved it (motor sports), but was too young to do anything with it,” Kinzer said.

Using his uncle’s leftover tractor parts, Kinzer dreamed of building his own seven-engine unlimited modified pulling tractor. As a teenager with a limited cash flow, however, he turned his focus to the more affordable truck world and began to get his hands dirty.

After purchasing a $450, 1969 flatbed, Kinzer said, “It was all downhill from there. I wanted to make it better, more powerful, stronger, faster.”

As Kinzer researched and learned more about performance competition, his mind raced with the endless possibilities.

“If he sets his mind to doing something, he will get it done,” Dan Kinzer said.

As a senior in high school, Kinzer purchased a 1974 three-quarter ton international four-wheel drive truck. A week and a half later, after days of necessary custom fabrication and replacing its motor with one from an old pulling tractor of his uncle’s that provided 600 horsepower, he was racing it at the county fair.

Then his gears really started turning.

Kinzer’s latest undertaking began last year with the modification of his 1978 Ford F350. In two-and-a-half weeks he turned it from a $500 junkyard find into a serious pulling competitor, earning second place out of 28 trucks at the 2002 Highland County Fair.

Success came with minimal sleep as he rebuilt the engine and suspension, installed a new rear axle, custom built a new hitch and rebuilt the entire inside of the cab.

Despite the endless hours spent in the garage, Kinzer said he would have it no other way.

“Someone who does all the work themselves gets more pride and respect from others compared with somebody who spends, spends, spends and has other people do all the work for them,” Kinzer said.

Kinzer gladly shares his knowledge and experience in the truck world with others.

“If I needed something engineered for a truck or (help) to figure out why it does this or does that, he’d be there to help,” said Ronnie Hall, Kinzer’s long-time friend. “He’s full of ideas.”

When it comes time for competition, however, it is every man for himself, Hall said.

“He’s there to win and I’m there to win. We’re friendly face-to-face, but we’re at each other’s throats,” Hall said.

The thrill of competition is clearly visible through the determined look in Kinzer’s eyes.

“He doesn’t like to lose. Brandon will do whatever he has to do to beat everybody,” said Evan Davis, a junior in agricultural construction systems management.

Kinzer’s determination has paid off, though, because success frequently comes his way. In the past two seasons, tractor pull competitions throughout southern Ohio have regularly awarded him top honors.

Despite the strong competition between Kinzer, Hall and Davis, in 2000 they started a club out of Highland County called Finishing Touch’s 4×4 Club. Members of the club regularly compete with their four-wheel drive trucks and are known throughout the community for the pulls they put on each year.

“We’re just a group of kids, but we’re in charge of our rules and the sanctioning body of our pulls,” Kinzer said.

With more than 100 trucks present, the group’s 2003 Highland County Fair pull drew participation numbers in the top 10 in the northeastern United States, Kinzer said.

Truck classes range from everyday stock pickups with 250 horsepower to those containing such high-tech gadgetry as power programmers and twin turbo diesel engines and upwards of 1500 horsepower.

Kinzer’s interest in motor sports doesn’t seem to be dying off. His goals include starting a high-end custom four-wheel drive off-road shop and tailoring his business to truck pulling.

“My passion for motorsports every day gets bigger,” Kinzer said. “I eat, breathe and sleep figuring out how to make trucks pull better. To get anything back, you’ve got to put in a lot of time and effort. That’s what the sport is about. That’s where the passion comes in.”