2004-04-04

It's great to be back on the track!

Freedom Racing showed up in style at Irwindale Speedway April 3rd and 4th for the season opening of the King Taco Legend Series. Top qualifying times made Kenton Gray's entrance into the series a real attention-grabber for both fans and fellow drivers.

Kenton has a history that could easily be yet another of so many "hero" stories where adversity fails to stop a champion from finding his way to glory.

It was just after the very last race with the Dianetics Motorcycle Racing Team ending the 2001 season, under the leadership of Kent, which finished the team in the top 5 of the Pro National Formula USA Racing Series that the 9-11 tragedy struck.

This horrific event, which had affected so very many, was also the day of tragedy for Kent and the team’s future plans.

"9-11 caused our title sponsor for 2002 to become very concerned about continuing support of sports entertainment at that time. It pretty much blocked any forward motion toward moving the team into the 2002 season."

With the loss that so many felt, and with the economy on a similar downturn, Kent turned his attention back to basics and set out to rebuild his business and re-invent the team so that he could return to racing.

Kenton's business, "Hollywood Signworks ( www.hollywoodsignworks.com ) became the center of his attention, and after two years of building it up, he realized he was "in a rut." His dreams were about racing and driving a stock car in the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series; NASCAR’s elite racing division.

The next part of this story really only does happen in storybooks, but the events that began to unfold seem only too typical for this group.

Kenton heard about an “arrive and drive” program at Irwindale speedway where you can basically show up pay $50.00 and drive a race car. Kenton called the Performance Race Training center to find out what type of race cars could he drive? He was told they were “Legends cars.” Kenton had never heard of them and was unaware that these cars have been the training ground for many of today’s top drivers including Dale Earnhardt Jr. Kenton said, “Great! If it worked for them it can work for me.”

He went to the class and immediately felt at home. He drove the car well & was complemented on his smoothness by the driving instructor. The class instructor took Kenton aside & asked him what he was doing racing wise & what his future plans were. Kenton explained his goal of getting to Nextel Cup & being a championship-winning driver. The instructor highly recommended that Kenton seriously consider Legends cars as a starting point to getting back into the game.

Kenton agreed & set off to find himself a car he could win with.

Almost completely by accident and after two months of searching, Kent found an ad for a Legend Car for sale on the Internet. It was all the way across the country in North Carolina, but it was the exact configuration he'd been looking for and had been driven by a championship winning driver and the car itself had won many features and a championship.

Of all the places he could have found a car he finds one in the heart of NASCAR country and owned by a family immersed in NASCAR racing. The family built and owned Concord Motor Speedway where many top drives got there start including the late Dale Earnhardt, Sterling Marlin, Bobby Labonte and many others. They have family working with current top Nextel Cup teams and have industrial property that is the current home of the Target Chip Ganassi motor building program. This facility builds motors for all three Chip Ganassi teams; Casey Mears, Sterlin Marlin and Jamie McMurry who each compete in NASCAR’s Nextel Cup series.

Kenton was given a tour of the facility and right there and then realized this is home and this is where he needed to be to reach his goals.

Completely on a shoestring budget, and with only 10 days until the opening Legend race at Irwindale Speedway, Kenton flew back to NC, purchased the car and drove it back to LA in a U-Haul.

Not only did he make it back in time for the first race but, was the fastest in afternoon practice and qualified on the outside pole out of a 32-car field! This was the first time he'd been on the track as a driver in many years, and he was out performing nearly every car in the field!

Kenton is off to a great start and we a very pleased with his results, his “Refuse to Lose” attitude and unwavering drive toward accomplishing his goals.

Be sure to follow Kenton Gray. You will not be disappointed

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