Jam Profile with Jim Kelly

The 2016 season at Riverhead Raceway has set off a lot of new changes such as new owners in Eddie and Connie Partridge along with their nephew Tom Gatz, the new and updated fan areas that include concession stands, picnic tables, bathrooms and a place for bands to play as well as a new and improved staff to bring the fan and driver’s experiences to a new level.

Jam Profile is a new segment that LongIslandJam.com will be taking on for the 2016 season. This is where we will introduce some of the people behind the scenes of Riverhead Raceway that are a huge part of what goes on.

For the first segment of Jam Profile we talked to the new started at Riverhead Jim Kelly who has been apart of the Riverhead Raceway family for over fourteen years. In the beginning, Kelly was apart of the track crew that cleaned up debris and swept up speedy dry after an incident on the track. Over the years, he moved up the ladder from track crew then to being apart of the towing crew until eventually he became a track official.

Becoming a track official at Riverhead Raceway seemed to be the ideal job for Kelly; he enjoyed lining up the drivers at the start of the races and after cautions. However Kelly’s dream position was behind the starters stand. When the employee shuffle happened during the off season before 2016, the opportunity for Kelly to become the new starter became a reality. Now with the new season underway, Kelly is getting the job done as the man behind the flags.

Source: Bob Mack/LongIslandJam.com