I happened upon the Kelly American Challenge series a couple of years ago and within one minute of the video I knew that I was a fan of what I was watching. Detroit malaise muscle wicked up to respectable levels, looking like what a stock car should, with highly skilled drivers and road courses. Yeah, I was all about it. The cars are right up my alley. I’ll take a great road course all day long. And as for the actual racing? What had started out as the Kelly Girl Series in 1977 proved to be a worthy successor to Trans Am and not as some second-best run before the main event IMSA race occurred. I buried myself into YouTube for months, soaking up scene after scene, and while many drivers stood out among the names…Paul Gentilozzi, Lyn St. James and Herb Adams, just to name a few…one name always popped up during the race, usually at the front of the pack: Gene Felton.

You couldn’t miss Felton and whatever car had #96 plastered on it. Name it, he drove it: Buick Skylark, Chevrolet Nova, Chevrolet Camaro. That was just in the “Kelly” series. Let’s never mind his drag racing wins in the late 1950s, his motorcycle racing wins when he was stationed in Japan with the Marines, his hillclimb adventures, or his IMSA GTO racing career of the 1980s. After a horrific crash at Riverside nearly did him in early, he raced but developed a love of restoring old racing machines, stock cars and such. During his halcyon days, Felton was the front of the pack. Not competing, winning. I’ve seen photographs of his trophy room, the man has accolades on every square inch. He’s one of IMSA’s winningest drivers. And he would poke around a race every now and then, checking out cars, checking out drivers.

Felton was as tenacious a driver as there ever was. And a damn good one too, one who didn’t need a boatload of sponsors or a team of engineers to earn those victories. He had a fast car, he had skill, and if you were going to beat him to the checkered flag you were going to earn your place, fighting with every pulse from your engine.