Montelo Racing - Home of Team Montelo

Joey Montelo - "Sega Dreams"

in his own words

Quite a bit of time ago, about 4 years back, my dad started to autocross with different racing groups like Sports Car Club of America (SCCA). Autocrossing is driving solo on a course set up by cones. The objective is to get the fastest time without hitting any of the cones with the car.

Joey dreaming of his first Corvette (6)

Joey suited up for autocross (8)

Eventually he wanted my brothers and I to start racing a go-kart on these courses. My brothers, Anthony and Michael, thought that having a go-kart would be awesome, seeing as both of them loved cars at the time. I thought this would be cool as well because this could be our first driving experience.

We started that same year, Anthony and I, driving on the same autocross courses as our dad. That was how I got into racing a go-kart. Later that year, my mom started to race our dad's older Corvette, but the second year she learned how to drive the new, Corvette Z06.

Joey in his first kart (8)

Joey autocrossing (8)

The same year our mom started racing the new car all of us started racing at official indoor and outdoor karting tracks with other karters. Only that year was Michael allowed to race at the indoor track, because there they had their own karts for people to race. The next year was when my brother Michael started go-karting outdoors. This was when things started to get a bit chaotic with driver changes.

Since there were three people driving the same kart, switching drivers and numbers was tough. Eventually us getting all our own personal karts solved this problem.

Joey taking home a trophy (9)

Joey autocrossing (9)

Over the years of karting, I have met other friends who are also karters. In autocross, with almost 300 people competing, I almost always get in the top 20. That shows that I have gained a lot of experience since I started 4 years ago. On the outdoor kart tracks with other karters I've got 4th place out of 12 racers. Racing indoor has also been challenging and fun.

Racing a go-kart is a pretty big part of my life. Of course, there are other things I like to do other than racing a go-kart. One of my hobbies is playing videogames, and they're not all racing videogames. Some sports I like to play are tennis, baseball, and soccer.

Joey 2nd to big brother Anthony at the Naperville Grand Prix (9)

Joey explains carbo-loading (9)

During school hours, I like to hangout and talk with my friends. I also like roller coasters a lot, but we usually go only once a year to an amusement park. There are a lot of other things I like to do than racing, but driving a go-kart sure is exciting.

- Joey Montelo, August 21, 2007