TMCP #220: Kevin Wesley: Muscle Car Endurance Racing Guru!

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Kevin Wesley and the famous valiant, running the 1997 One Lap event. Image: Mopar Action Magazine

This weeks interview is with Information Technology and Software Support entrepreneur Kevin Wesley. He also has an interesting and successful hobby of racing Mopars in just about any event you can imagine, with a specialty in endurance racing events!

Just out of high school, Kevin started racing very simple cars that many times were not even his. His entry into racing literally came from a “right time at the right place” type of moment as the people from Mopar Action magazine were utilizing the services of this shop he was working in just out of high school. Long story short, they needed a sub to come alone with them to race a Plymouth Valiant. The race in question? One Lap of America! He had never raced, much less driven a rear wheel drive car fast around a track. Just like Cole Trickle (ala Days of Thunder) he had a knack for it, came in sixth place, and his friends kept taking him to the track for more races. Even more impressive is that the frighteningly stock Valiant he drove was keeping up with the likes of Mark Stielow’s ultra high tech Camaro’s!

In the early days Kevin would attend schools to learn more about driving but after a while he noticed he was not getting his moneys worth. During one training session it was pointed out that he was being used as a demonstrator. The instructors would tell him to do something and then when he did it, they would show the other students what he did and tell them to repeat it. Kevin told me that during one of his driver training classes he lapped the instructors group in his fathers LHS, after which he was sternly told that he was driving too fast. He grew tired of spending money and not learning, so he became an instructor himself.

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Kevin’s ultra cool ’76 Dart under construction at Hotchkis Performance East.

Kevin has been involved with many kinds of racing and has some great plans for future races. Endurance races in particular are his favorite, and he is presently having a really amazing ’76 Dart built at Hotchkis Performance East to use in future competitions. His personal cars have also been featured in many magazines including Mopar Action, Popular Hot Rodding, Hot Rod magazine and others. All of this coverage gets him noticed as a hot shoe, but he still has to work at getting sponsors to support some of his vehicles and racing. Kevin contacted me with thoughts regarding Sponsorship Fastlane and I was able to pick his brain regarding his experiences with and without sponsorship in racing.

You can email Kevin at Kevin@lehmanwesley.com or follow him on Twitter @klwesley . You can check out this great articles featuring Kevin including this one via Elana’s blog at Hot Rod magazine of Kevin lapping a 2014 Viper at Sonoma.

Thanks for the great interview Kevin

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This interview sponsored by our pals at National Parts Depot – your premier source for muscle car restoration parts!

National-Parts-Depot

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