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On a beautiful sunny southern California morning Kenton Gray headed to Irwindale Speedway to take the first step toward achieving a life long and childhood dream by becoming an officially licensed & qualified NASCAR racecar driver.

He arrived early to the Performance Race Training Center, quickly completed all of the registration and release of liability forms and headed out to the garage to get acquainted with the 450hp stock car he was about to climb into. I could tell from his expression that he was excited, nervous, and determined all at the same time. The cars we all lined up to go out onto the track and Kenton had picked out the car he wanted to drive. It was the number 12 Super cuts car. He had about 20 minutes before the classroom portion of the course started. He spent that time starring into the cockpit of the car daydreaming about racing.

Twenty minutes passed quickly and it was time to start learning the theory of stock car racing & driving a Super Late model stock car out on the ½ mile oval of the nicest short track in the country.

While in the class-room Kenton was amazed about home much he still new about racing from his younger days and how much of the driving skills he still had that applied to stock car racing. He felt right at home and his grin was from ear to ear. Not an uncommon sight amongst the other students in the class. The instructor covered all of the basics; the race line, throttle control, braking, basic chassis set-up lingo, the rules of the on the on track session we were about to have, the radios, flags, the performance of the cars, tires and traction and much more. Kenton was eating it up, every bit.

Finally, the time had come to get suited up & head out to the cars for the 40-lap track session. There were a total of six cars on the track at one time. Kenton climbed into the car, bucked his harness and fired the car up just in time for the instructor to yell for him to shut the car off. “Not yet” he yelled. You could tell Kenton was rearing to go. “It seemed like an eternity sitting there waiting for the go ahead to start the cars, even though it probably was only a few minutes.” “ It was like having an opened Christmas present in your lap and not being able to play with it” said Kenton afterwards.

The time had come. “Even though this was a school car and a performance race training class, being in the car, all suited up with the harness pulled tight all around me, the rumble and vibration of the motor, the feel of the steering wheel, the throttle pedal and that wonderful race fuel smell that I had loved from the first time smelled it as a kid, I felt like I hadn’t missed a beat in my racing career.” “This is what I live for, this is Me.” said Kenton.

The instructor called over the radio for the drivers to put the cars in gear and follow the instructor out onto the track for the first 20 of the 40 lap session. The class had two yellow flag laps before the green flag dropped.

Kenton was the fourth car back behind the instructor and as the green flag dropped you could hear the engine wine as he pressed the throttle to the floor coming out of turn 4 heading across the start finish line. That was it, the beginning again. Just like the first time he drove a kart when he was a kid, he was right at home, comfortable and ready for what lies ahead. An old career revisited. Picking up where he left off as a teenager after so many years of racing sprint karts around the northwest circuit with his family and dreaming of someday being on top racing with his hero’s he had watched on TV growing up.

Kenton finished the 40 laps and couldn’t believe how fast they went by. He said, “these things are awesome, they have so much power, I just barely pushed on the throttle and the thing launched down the straightaway. Man I was just starting to get the hang of it when I heard the instructor come on the radio and say 1 lap to go. AHHH! I don’t want to stop.” He was all smiles and talking a mile a minute.

Now that he qualified for his NASCAR racing license Kenton will begin practicing and testing a super late model stock car and hopefully enter in a few select races this summer and fall around his current racing schedule racing Legends cars.

Stay tuned for more great excitement and headlines from Kenton Gray and the Freedom Motorsports camp.

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