I have to say, my first time ever around Kelly Shryock was one I will not soon forget, because it was around the time I had gotten out of high school and just getting really started at the next level of dirt track racing. Oh, it was 1995 when all this began for me and I had been 19 for a few months, when I was getting my feet wet for the first time with what was call the usms at the time, when the series held one of their first races at Crawford County Speedway in Van Buren, AR. Furthermore, even though Kelly did not know me from Adam, it still did not stop me from spending a great deal of my free time there watching every move he and his team did throughout the two-night show. Oh and yes, I was in amazement of what I was seeing, and being able to be that close to someone, I had readied about in all the national racing magazine. Plus it didn’t hurt that I looked up to as a racing hero and it made it all the better that I was able to see my hero win that weekend was huge for me at the time. But I will not take anything away from the driver I was there helping that night as Greg Skaggs was fourth at the end of the A” main feature.

Although, the thing, which truly got me at the time, was that Kelly and crew spent the time to wash their cars before the main feature event. Yea I know this is not such a big thing to people now, but for me at the time, it was new to me. The site of seeing Kelly and his crew jump in to action just to wash the cars was just really odd to me at the time. Oh and yes, it is one of my favorite memories from those early days. Even though later I noticed Kelly pacing by the car thinking aloud and then for no reason he runs into the trailer to grab a spring and tools to make an adjustment to the car, oh yes you guessed it the crew was right there again to help with the changes. Yep I never saw anyone do something like until that night and yes, I was dumbfounded at the time.

However, this was the first of many races in which I was able to see Kelly race, and of course Kelly was still doing the same stuff, which I first saw him doing that first time I was introduced to the Skyrocket. And of course he was either winning or running closes to the lead the other times I got to see him race, and yes I do believe it had to do with something call the cream always rises to the top. Although my main thing is I just enjoyed watching him race and even though I have seen many great racecar drivers in my lifetime around racing, I still believe he is the best I have ever seen drive a racecar.

For me it is the way he makes his decisions on the racetrack, on where and how to pass other cars. However, I cannot forget the level of car control he has shown, which is simply amazing to me every time I watch him race. However, it was not until 2002, before I got my biggest surprise out of Kelly, which came at my first race working with the Skyrocket. The Usmts raced at Thunder Valley Speedway in Fayetteville, Arkansas in the spring of that year, and I was again on the road going to another big racing event. I was walking around the pits talking to the people I knew and just happen to come across Kelly changing an engine. However, I had no clue at the time why he was changing the engine, I did noticed that the crew which I normally seen with him was nowhere in sight. Well after the normal hello and what not, and I believe I remember asking about why the crew was not there, I recall I just began to help him change the engine. Of course, it was after the famous look I normally got then of I ask an unneeded question. (LoL) Nevertheless, anyways I was there getting to help one of my racing hero’s. Oh and well you would be correct if you said he won that night, although the thing, which got me at the time, is he came up to me as I went to look over the car like I would normally do any other time and shook my hand and told me thanks for helping me out. Oh yes this was where the WOW factor came to me.

Well anyways we get past the pictures and what not, then as I was just standing around the pit area talking to people I knew here comes Kelly making a B-line right at me once again, and well the next thing is I was giving him my contact information. What I was thinking, so he could call me when he was back down around this part of the country again, and even though he has never called me after that, I finally was able to give the Skyrocket a big surprise. I think I surprised a lot of people as I drove all the way to the Usmts race event at Slayton, MN in 2002, boy that was a long drive, but it was fun for me nonetheless. However, the first night with Kelly Skyrocket at the Murray County Speedway in Slayton, MN did not go, as any of us would have liked. The next night we made a stop at Deer Creek Speedway, in Spring Valley, MN where things went much better for the Skyrocket where he was able to pick up the win in the main feature race; and the best thing for me was the whole crew was there. The final night of my first trip up to MN found us at the Kasson Speedway on the Dodge County Fairgrounds in Kasson, MN and things started off well, and continued to go very well all the way through to the main event time and as he came out of turn four he got drove up into the wall. Oh and most of the time this would spell the end of the night and pretty much look that way to me. But with that amazing crew he was able to get back onto the track, and come away with a top ten finish, which again showed how amazing Skyrocket and his crew is to me, because at one point in the race he was going for the lead, and ended up with mud in the inside of the wheel, which made him think he had a flat tire. Gotta love dirt track racing!

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