If you’ve been to an INEX national event or the Cook Out Summer Shootout, chances are you’ve met John Kelly. His love of racing started when his family started attending races at the New London Waterford Speedbowl. A former racer and a forever car lover, John now proudly serves on INEX’s safety crew and its tire specialist.

 

Hometown: Gales Ferry, Connecticut

Division: INEX Technical Inspector

Number: 60

Team: INEX Racing Series

 

1. How did you get your start in racing?

I got my start in racing working as a crew member for people at the [New London] Waterford Speedbowl up in Connecticut. That was my home track as well as my first track. My parents started bringing me when I was young, probably seven or eight, and were just watching as fans. We were not a racing family, we just liked watching it.  I wanted to race, so throughout high school, I started building my own Mini Stock Mustang. By the time I graduated from high school, I had built it and started racing.  I had been working on friends' cars and people that we had met at the track since I was 14. I was 19 or 20 when I first started racing. 

2. What was your first experience as a tech inspector?

It was probably right around 2005 at the Waterford Speedbowl. I had stopped racing for a couple of years, and through my connections at the track, just knowing officials and being friends with them. Most of the officials were all old racers and some of them raced with. Being an auto body guy, I had painted some of their cars back in the day. They were looking for officials, so I started teching the Wednesday night divisions at the Speedbowl. I went back and raced for a few more years, and after I raced for a couple of more years, I got asked to tech a Legend Car race. I had never teched or looked at a Legend Car. They raced at Waterford Speedbowl, but it wasn’t even of interest mine. I was focused on Mini Stocks because that was the division that I was racing in, and I then went back and teched kind of across the board, a couple of divisions, helped out the main inspectors by working as an assistant.

3. Have you ever driven a race car and competed yourself?

Yes. Stock. The experience is different. I’ve gotten the chance to drive a couple of different kinds of cars; not necessarily in competition. But I had a lot of fun in the Mini Stocks. It's a challenging division, but it is certainly a beginner division. 

4. What are some of the changes you’ve witnessed during your involvement in racing?

I have witnessed lots of changes. Since I’ve been involved in racing in the 1990s, it has changed so much. Back then, especially at Waterford Speedbowl, at the end of the night, all the crews, all the teams would gather together and hang out or share stories of racing. It would be all the divisions; we had several divisions at our track, and you would get five or six of each division. You’d just hang out in the parking lot, hang out with your friends, and get to meet other crew members and other people. That's stopped. That's gone away.

You don’t see that anymore. You don’t see the after-race get-togethers anymore. It’s what makes the track feel like family. Nowadays, a lot of people just leave and go home. They don’t hang out.

5. What is your favorite track?

Thompson Speedway Motorsports Park. When we raced Mini Stocks, they had the outlaw race at the end of the year at the World Series. A staple event. It was the season finale, and everybody in New England would come to it. It would be people from all over. You might even get some from New Jersey, New York, and that race was always a blast.  You’d race with people you’ve never seen before, you’d race against cars that were close to yours, there weren't many rules in it, as long as you had a four-cylinder and 14-inch tires, you were good to go. That made that track the [most fun] that I’ve raced at.

6. What is your favorite racing memory?

Winning at the Waterford Speedbowl when I was racing with the Northeast Mini Stock Tour. I had just built a new car that season, we tested it out mid-season, and at the end of the year we won. It was one of the best highlights because I had not won at Waterford. I won a championship at Waterford in 2006 in the Wednesday night division. I didn’t win a single race, but I won the championship. It's in the record books that way, I am one of three or four people who have done that there. Being able to go there and win was something else. All my friends, all my family were there. It's your home track. You go and race a couple of hours away, not all your family and friends come to watch that race. But that day everyone was there. It was a good day.

7. When not at the race track, what hobbies do you have?

I like to go camping and anything to do with cars. I restore cars for a living, so I go to car shows. I go to Pigeon Forge for the rod runs, I go to Myrtle Beach for the big car show down there. Usually if I’m not at a race track, I am at some sort of car function or I am camping. I’ve bowled in a league before. 

8. What is the favorite street car you ever worked on for a customer?

A 65 GTO.

9. Being from Connecticut, what is the best seafood dish you’d recommend?

Maine Lobster rolls hands down.

10. If you could live anywhere, where would you live?

I did it. I like North Carolina. I moved to North Carolina from Connecticut. When I moved here, I just quit my job and left. I wanted to get out of Connecticut and working for INEX and doing a little bit of traveling down here, I really like North Carolina and the Charlotte area.

11. What was your favorite experience working with NASCAR?

When I started with NASCAR, I started with the Whelen Modified Tour and I was with them for five years. I went over and worked for [NASCAR] Cup, Truck and Xfinity as an inspector for five races. I really liked that. That was enjoyable. It’s an experience not a lot of people can say that went a did that. I thoroughly enjoyed doing it.

12. Can you describe what it is like to wear a fire suit all day on the quad in the middle of the Florida sun?

Wrap yourself in Saran Wrap and start running on a treadmill. It depends on how hot and humid it is and it depends on how bad the racers are. You can be out there on the hottest day and the quads not hot because you’re not using it all the time and you’re not hot running out on to the track trying to sweep up messes and get cars taken care of. But when it’s a busy day out there, it makes it worse. There is no time for breaks. It can make it challenging.

13. You spend a lot of spare time at the race track with INEX. What motivates you to be continuously involved with Legend Cars and Bandoleros?

I love racing. When I stopped driving, there was a nice avenue to go to work as an official and still be able to go to the race track. That comes with perks. You get a chance to come to the race track for free and nine times out of ten I get to watch most of the racing. I don’t know if I would enjoy being a fan and not knowing anybody. Being an official, you get to know everybody, you get to make some great friends over the years and you get a chance to see those friends. It kind of reminds me of back home when I started racing. Racing was one big family. 

When you work as an official, all the competitors are your family. It is not the easiest job depending on your position, it can be some long hours, but that's what makes it enjoyable. I’ve been [at INEX] for ten years. When I sit in my house on the weekends and watch the race on TV and I look at the ticker on the left-hand side, I see how many names that I know in each respected race that I watch, whether its ARCA, Trucks, Xfinity or even Cup.  I’ve known some of those people for a while now and it’s great to see their success.