Riverhead’s young racing phenom has high hopes for future

At only 18 years old, Kyle Ellwood, a senior at Riverhead High School, is already making a name for himself by whipping his No. 71x Legend model race car around Riverhead Raceway each weekend, leaving competitors in the dust and winning, by a large margin at that.

The defending Legend Car Champion at Riverhead Raceway, Ellwood has started the 2013 season where he left off, leading the field in points after taking the checkered flag this past weekend.

Kyle led every lap in a “boring race” where nobody even threatened to pass him after he won the pole position.

“I overlapped up to 15th place car,” said Ellwood.

Ellwood has found instant success after gaining a sponsorship from Riverhead Building Supply before his championship run last year. Racing for the Goodale family, Kyle hasn’t finished outside the top five in any Legend’s division race.

He won last year’s Legend Car division at Riverhead Raceway by 74 points.

“I could have missed a race and a half and still won the championship,” said Ellwood.

Speaking of the sponsorship: “They didn’t really know I had too much skill at first, so they were like, ‘we’re going to put him in for fun,’ because my family is great friends with the Goodales. But then second week in, we were leading in points, and from there I won eight races all the way to the championship.

“They were blown away,” said Ellwood.

Racing is all about the money, Ellwood says. Most fund themselves at Riverhead Raceway, so to have someone pay for you to race takes a huge financial weight off your shoulders.

“I don’t abuse the system, but what we need, we get,” said Ellwood. “They are like my family.”

Although the Legend model needs little maintenence week-to-week, fresh tires and a fresh motor does wonders for the car.

“Every three to five weeks, we’re putting at least two new tires on,” Ellwood said. “Usually the right side of the car takes the most weight so most of the time you just need to replace the right side tires because the left front doesn’t even touch the ground.

“From my point of view, I would never change my left side tires, but they have the funding so we do,” he said.

Kyle may be sponsored, but that doesn’t relieve him from his daily car duties.

“I handle my car all by myself,” said Ellwood. “At the racetrack I have help, but during the week I’m at the shop every night working on the car.”

Daily maintenance is extremely important because “things get loose really easily with all the vibration, so I make sure everything is tight and doesn’t fall off.”

Before the sponsorship, Ellwood funded himself, often sacrificing on upgrades because of financial strains.

“It’s all about the equipment,” he said. “I can compete every week because they have the funds to really maintain the car.”

Riverhead Building Supply sponsors two other drivers, who use “pretty much the same car” in the Legend division.

Asked why his car always finishes near the top, Ellwood answered: “The driver makes the difference.”

Racing is nothing new to Kyle.

“I’ve been racing since I was five, so I have always had the racing in me,” said Ellwood. “And my Dad has raced all his life – he won the championship in 2007, so I was always watching him and following his footsteps.”

Ellwood raced go-karts at Riverhead Raceway since he was five years old. He continued to race the go-karts until an accident in which he broke his hand that took him away from the sport for three years, 2006-2008.

“I was scared to go back, the accident really turned me away from racing,” he said. “But I think my dad was the one who made me come back. I saw him win the championship in 2007 and I think that is what made me want to come back.”

Although Kyle wasn’t on his dad’s pit crew, the car was always at his house and just seeing it everyday made him want to race.
“I’ve been around racing for as long as I can remember so I don’t know what was going through my mind, taking those three years off,” he said.

Now, Ellwood is trying to start making moves in the Modified cars division, but needs more funding to really make noise.

“I’ve never won a race in the Modified,” he said. “Everyone’s goal at Riverhead Raceway is to race in the Modified division. I’ve just never had enough time and the right equipment to do that good.”

So why do you have success, disregarding equipment?

“My dad has always told me that I was really smooth,” said Ellwood. “Like I can make the same lap more than once and a lot of people can’t really do that. It’s about consistency when you’re out there.”

Another thing Ellwood believes separates him from the pack is car control: “I control the car. A lot of people have the car control them.”

And it’s the car control that must keep him off the wall.

“Knock on wood, I’ve never crashed this car since I started using it in 2012,” he said.

Besides winning a championship at Riverhead Raceway being his ultimate moment, Kyle pinpoints one race that really stood out as one of his best:

“It had to be when I won the Turkey Derby in New Jersey,” said Ellwood. “It’s the biggest event of the year for racing, for any style car. To win there means you really have some talent.”

Ellwood flashed back to the final laps of the race:

“I couldn’t believe it when I was driving – like, I’m really leading this race,” he said. “With two laps to go, I started celebrating a bit: like I am really going to win this race — I was going absolutely crazy!”

“Winning at Riverhead is one thing, but when you can go to other places and win, it really puts your success in perspective,” said Ellwood.

Before leaving the interview and driving away in his Ford F-250, I asked Kyle:

Do you ever get the urge to speed while you’re on public streets?

“Just one time,” he replied. “And I paid for it.”

“Got caught doing 100 in a 55 on the L.I.E,” said Ellwood. “Learned my lesson. I’ll keep my speeding for the racetrack.”