Catching Up With -- Kelly Collins

Richard Dunn

With his white cowboy hat and racetrack gear featuring GM

Goodwrench, you’d never guess that Kelly Collins grew up in Corona del

Mar.

But Collins, one of six factory drivers for Corvette, is not only

living a childhood dream of racing the world’s fastest cars, he’s rapidly

becoming a star.

Not here, of course, in the land of Land cruisers and beemers, but

across the Atlantic.

“There’s a lot more superstardom in Europe than the United States,” he

said. “Here, you’re just another guy at Starbucks.”

Around Newport Beach, Collins stays “low and avoids the radar,” but in

his weekend asphalt accelerations in the American Le Mans Series, he’s

pushing record speed.

Collins, 36, will race in what he calls “the biggest race in the

world” next weekend in France, the 24 Hours at Le Mans, in which he

recorded a podium finish last year in his debut in a Corvette C5-R by

taking third place.

A decade ago, Collins made the transition from off-road racing to road

racing, and, for the last five years, has raced sports cars.

“I had the competitive edge, and I knew how to race whatever it was,

but the hardest part was that I had to learn how to control race cars on

asphalt and slow down my aggressiveness and anxieties,” said Collins, who

went from racing Ultimate Buggies in the Nevada desert to Formula One

cars.

Collins, who has been with his current employer, General Motors, for

two years, following a three-year run with Porsche, was Dale Earnhardt’s

teammate in the racing legend’s second-to-last race in February at the

Rolex 24 at Daytona, along with Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Collins’ regular

Corvette teammate, Andy Pilgrim.

The team placed fourth as the late Earnhardt, who died in a NASCAR

crash later that month, made what would turn out to be his final podium

finish.

Collins, who has sprayed champagne with many a pit crew, joined Team

Corvette in 1999 at the Petit Le Mans, a race he won in 2000 in the GTS

Class as part of a banner year, after winning the Rolex 24 at Daytona and

the 24 Hours at Sebring in the GT Class in 1999.

In 1998, Collins scored his first GT Series win in the September

Sebring event and finished second in the Watkins Glen 6 Hours the same

year, racing for Porsche.

Collins emerged on the racing scene in the 1990 Barber Saab Pro

Series, then moved on to sedan competition. In 1993, he finished fifth in

the Sports Car sedan division points standings with a victory at Road

America, followed in 1994 with a sixth-place point ranking with a win at

Road Atlanta and a third-place ranking in 1995 with a win at Phoenix.

“Most people in the United States, they know about NASCAR and Indy

cars and drag racing, but not too much about sports cars,” said Collins,

who has also raced for BMW, Toyota and Honda.

Collins, who lives in Corona del Mar, grew up riding motorcycles in

the dirt, mostly in “drainage ditches” and in Yucca Valley, where his

mother lived.

“I was jumping bicycles and crashing as a kid,” Collins said.

“I still like dirt,” added Collins, who learned over the years that

motocross and off-road racing didn’t pay as well as road racing.

Collins, who graduated from CdM High in 1983, started racing when he

was 7, after watching his father, Joe, and his father’s friends tackle

the desert stretches on two wheels.

“They were my idols,” said Collins, who began racing off-road vehicles

at age 17.

Collins, who is single, had endured his share of bumps and bruises,

especially in dirt bike crashes, but said he figures to have another four

or five years on the Le Mans circuit, “then you never know, maybe I’ll

become a TV personality.”