Toronto, On – They say it’s next to impossible to balance a post-secondary degree and the busy and very event-filled life of a race car driver. Well, Dalton Kellett, a 18 year-old Stouffville, Ontario native, proved the skeptics wrong at the 2012 USF2000 Winterfest. After competing in the complete Winterfest schedule, which took place at the world-famous Sebring International Raceway and Palm Beach International Raceway, Kellett’s race continued – rushing all the way back home Sunday night to write his Queen’s University Calculus mid-term exam the following day.
“My flight was originally supposed to leave West Palm at 9:45pm, which would’ve put me in Toronto around midnight. My flight was delayed until 1:30am which put me in Toronto at 4:30am. I caught the 7:00am train to Kingston, Ontario – where my school is located – and wrote my exam. I was extremely tired but I knew that this is what it’s going to take for me to become a race car driver and it had to be done. I’ll also end up having an Engineering degree in Physics in the bargain,” Kellett explains.
If this doesn’t show you the commitment and passion Kellett has for both school and the racing world maybe this will help. When he got his mark back for the exam, Kellett was very pleased to see his hard work had paid off, earning a perfect score on his exam. “I was so happy to see my mark of 100%. I hope this proves to my team, my teachers and my sponsors that school will not hold me back from becoming an educated and successful race car driver. I hope up-and-coming young drivers will look at what I’m doing and follow in my footsteps. It is possible to do what I’m doing – you just need to be committed and focus on your goals.” Kellett is also bilingual in both of Canada’s national languages – English and French.
Winterfest, too, earned Kellett top marks. He consistently showed good speeds throughout, finishing 11th in points overall and was constantly in the Top Ten. This performance at Winterfest together with some good quality test days, finds Kellett finding more and more time for the track as he grows more comfortable in his new office: the Pabst Racing Services USF2000 Championship car for the 2012 season.
“I really feel I’ve made a lot of progress over the past few months. Pabst racing and I are getting along very well and complement each other in a great way. We all work hard on progressing forward when we’re at the track and I feel really confident that the more time we spend together, the faster we’ll get to ‘the pointy end’ of the field,” Kellett stated.
With the 2012 season just around the corner – kicking off at Sebring International Raceway on March 18th (a support race for the 12 hours of the Sebring ALMS race), Kellett is very excited to see the start of the season.
“I’ve had a good amount of track time at Sebring, so I’m looking forward to getting back to the historic track. I think we have a great chance to start the season off on a high note. We showed great speed on the last race at Sebring and, with the test days I’ve just had, I feel very comfortable with the high speed demands of Sebring.”
Keep an eye on the K-line Insulators USA Inc.-sponsored Pabst Racing services car #5 this year in the USF2000 Championship. You can stay in touch at www.DaltonKellett.com or follow Dalton Kellett on twitter at: @Dalton_Kellett. If you have any questions on how Dalton can benefit your company or would like to speak to Dalton contact Darryl Timmers at Darryl@DaltonKellett.com.