Kelby Eilen, a 12 year old from Hampton, MN, has been racing quarter-midget cars for seven years and this year has been his biggest yet!
Racing has been a part of Kelby’s life since he went to his first race to “watch” his dad at 13 days old. He has grown up at the big race tracks across the midwest and at the age of 6 jumped into his own car and has never looked back.
Kelby’s home track is MQMRA-Little Elko Speedway in Elko, MN where he has won multiple championships throughout the years. This year he added the NASCAR Youth Series to his schedule which had him traveling across the country to places like Las Vegas, Talladega, Charlotte, and the Brickyard at Indianapolis Motor Speedway competing in quarter-midget races.
Kelby races four different cars in their respectable classes each race weekend and earned national championships in both the Senior Honda and Light World Formula divisions; an achievement that has made him speechless at times.
“It is pretty awesome,” stated Kelby when interviewed at the recent NASCAR Championship weekend in Phoenix, AZ. “It is crazy to think that my first NASCAR Youth season would be so amazing. It is definitely going to be hard to beat!”
Kelby stacked his first two wins in Indianapolis and followed it up with two more in Castle Rock, WA. Those wins, along with a handful of podium finishes, and a lot of hard work led him to the two championships as well as two more top five finishes in points with his other two cars.
When asked what his biggest challenge was Kelby stated “trying to get to know the tracks in a short amount of time and then racing your hardest against the best quarter-midget drivers in the country.”
Quarter-midgets are raced by kids ages 5-15 and classes are broken up by age and/or weight. Each national race will get 250 or more cars with the biggest race weekend being at the Brickyard in Indianapolis which will top 600 cars. Kelby’s hometrack will get between 50-60 cars each race weekend and is a great place for any kid interested in racing to start.
Kelby will celebrate his achievements in December at the NASCAR Youth Series banquet which will be held during the PRI Show in Indianapolis, Indiana.
