
Picture: TheDailyJournal
A lot of young people are getting caught up in the great world of motorsports. One of them is 20 year old Kyle Gagliardi, who bought and prepped a New Edge Mustang to use for rallycross, which involves on and off track sections.
Kyle and his dad, Lenny, were approached by the park official Don Fauerbach and asked about joining the Driver’s Club. At this point he had never raced but took out his dad’s Subaru Impreza WRX STi. Kyle realized how good he was at road racing and as soon as he tried rallycross, he was addicted.
Just joining the world of competitive racing in 2009, he is somewhat new to the scene and is about to run his fifth rallycross race. Last time he competed, he took out a few veteran competitors and placed fifth with a car that wasn’t prepared at all, a Mazda Miata. A car in which he traded his old ’60 Chevy Impala for. In his first year of rallycross he competed on the same track as Travis Pastrana, Dave Mirra, and Tanner Faust, just in different classes.
“What I really love about rally is it’s just madness the entire time,” Kyle said. “The whole time you’re racing, you’re fighting a car that’s out of control and that’s how you stay in control.”
After the Miata and a gutted Ford Focus, he finally picked up a Ford Mustang to compete in when Rally America announced that they will be returning to New Jersey Motorsports in a year’s time. This time around the ‘Stang is prepped and ready to roll. He said he knows his chances of becoming a pro are slim, but it’s fun. He races on the side while going to school for business. You never know, the greats didn’t just come out of nowhere!