KELLY MCDONALD RACE CAR DRIVER

    A Colorado native, Kelly grew up in the northeastern side of the state, 
steadily growing a passion for cars and racing throughout his younger years. 
Kelly and his dad, Mark, started a karting team within CJKC (now Colorado Karting Tour)
making him a first-generation driver. Racing karts ignited his passion for the 
inner workings of race vehicles and the development of his racecraft, leading to a 
pursuit of learning related to developing and manufacturing racing parts and vehicles. 

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    In 2018, Kelly graduated from Northeastern Junior College with an A.A.S. in Automotive Technology; this was not the end of his studies, though. In pursuit of narrowing down 
his interests in the automotive space, he attended SAM Tech until 2020, receiving certificates for Automotive CNC Machining as well as EFI Calibration with 4.0 GPA. He pursued his own CNC business endeavor for a few years, and currently does carbon fiber layups and CNC trimming 
at AJ Hartman Aero in Virginia. 

    

  Kelly raced with NASA Rocky Mountain for eight full seasons in the highly competitive Spec Miata class, honing his skills and learning car control, setup, and sportsmanship. Between his NASA racing years and moving to Houston, Texas, he was introduced to different disciplines of racing including rallycross and hillclimb. in 2021, He took the step into hillclimb racing, driving
in the Temple Canyon and Monarch Hillclimbs, and doing events with Colorado Hillclimb Association thereafter in John Wells' year 2000 Pike's Peak winning Wells Coyote. 

    

     After getting hooked on Hillclimb, Kelly has his eyes set on Hillclimbs such as Pike's Peak, 
Mt. Washington, and the SCCA Appalachian hillclimb series schedule after moving to Virginia. Learning about race cars has always been a big part of his career and life, but his true passion is raw driving experiences unlike any other. He is currently developing a 2002 Stohr 01D Prototype in hopes of racing full time.