CONCORD, NC (April 30, 2026) – Pete Willoughby is known among most people as the right-hand man to Keith Kunz in forming the most successful dirt Midget program of the modern era.
Before that, he was once an Indiana racer trying to make it into the big leagues of dirt Late Models.
Born and raised in Columbus, IN, Willoughby spent his childhood visiting tracks to watch his dad compete in the division. After graduating high school in 1976, he purchased his first Late Model and began competing around his “Hoosier State” home.
“My dad ran dirt Late Models when I was growing up as a kid,” Willoughby said. “As soon as I got out of high school, I got myself one and started racing local-type races like Brownstown, Putnamville, Lincoln Park, Haubstadt, Mount Vernon, because most of it was all close by.”
During the majority of Willoughby’s time racing in the division, he competed in the peak era of wedge-designed Late Models. While they were easier to drive compared to today’s Super Late Models, the costs of maintaining them became unreasonably high, resulting in dwindling car counts across the area.
“The body rules were all over the map, but not so much tires, though,” Willoughby said. “(Bob Memmer) was the one that really stepped in with the standardized rules that everyone agreed to and gave it a try. A typical night at Brownstown was about 40 Late Models. It was dying away, and it went down to about 20, maybe 30 cars if you were lucky. Most of the locals jumped on board with it pretty quick.
“The traveling guys like the Moyers and Jeff Purvis didn’t jump on it quite so quick. They kind of went to pick their own places where they could still get away with what they wanted. But it wasn’t too long before everyone started settling down. The first UMP-sanctioned race was at Brownstown in 1984, and I won that night, so that was my claim to fame.”
Willoughby owns a prominent dirt Late Model victory on his resumé: the 1982 Herald & Review 100 at Macon Speedway. Before the DIRTcar Summer Nationals formed the race into an annual crown jewel event, Willoughby’s victory in the second running at the 1/5-mile Illinois bullring rewarded him with a $2,000 payday and two watermelons.
“We were able to sneak over to Macon to run the Herald because it was always on Thursday,” Willoughby said. “We ran pretty good that year, but that was just one of our nights. We had Quick Time, started on the Pole, and I remember Russ Petro was dominating the season. I remember going down one straightaway, looking across to the other side, and seeing Russ running in second. It was a lot of fun, I remember we won $2,000 and two watermelons. We were over in farm country, and Russ got about $1,000 and three cantaloupes.”
When funds and equipment started to run thin for Willoughby, he decided to hang up his helmet in 1984 and end his involvement in Late Model racing completely.
“In ‘84, it was time to go buy a couple of motors and spend some money,” Willoughby said. “I ran a few races, and I thought my family sacrificed enough for me. I wasn’t going to get anywhere, and I didn’t know there was a way to get anywhere. So, I decided to quit cold turkey and build a new house for my family. I didn’t go to Brownstown, I never went and watched any Late Models.”
To fill the void, he began constructing go-karts to keep a form of racing activity near his Indiana stable. When ESPN’s Thursday Night Thunder rose to popularity by highlighting drivers in the lower ranks of motorsports, dirt Midgets became Willoughby’s new passion.
“A few years later, we ended up with a foster son, and I was looking for a way to control him,” Willoughby said. “So, I went and bought a couple go-karts. He was pretty good at that, but before long, I had a company that built go-karts. I met a kid that I wanted to help get him along because at the time, Thursday Night Thunder was a big deal. I bought a couple of Midgets for him, and it wasn’t long until he got hurt. While he was recuperating, I got bored and hired Jason Leffler.”
While Leffler drove in select USAC races during 1996, Willoughby searched for more day-to-day help on the cars while he focused on his primary job at his parents’ trucking business. The man who stepped up to the plate was a Springfield, IL native named Keith Kunz.
“I told John Godfrey from Stealth (Chassis) that I needed help,” Willoughby said. “I just need to go do my job and let somebody else take care of the cars and know what they’re doing. John pointed me to Keith, who was living in California at the time. So, I hired Keith, and he moved over (to Columbus) at the end of ‘96. From 1997 to 2000, he and I raced together under my name.”
“LEFturn” won three consecutive USAC National Midget championships from 1997 to 1999 before stepping into NASCAR at the turn of the new millennium. Before the 2000 season, the family trucking company folded, forcing Willoughby to turn ownership over to Kunz, creating Keith Kunz Motorsports (KKM).
“In 2000, my parents’ trucking company went bankrupt, so I was out of a job,” Willoughby said. “Keith said, ‘What are we going to do?’ I said, ‘Well, we got a couple Midgets and a Sprint Car. We’re fast. Let’s just go race till we can’t race anymore.’
“Jay Drake was driving for us at the time, and the first weekend, we won $17,000 at Terre Haute. It just kept going on and on, and at the end of the season, somebody asked us if we could take care of his daughter’s car. Well, when the trucking company closed, I transferred everything over to Keith’s name because I was going to get dragged into it. So that’s when Keith Kunz Motorsports was born.”
With Kunz at the helm, Willoughby remained as CEO and used his position to recruit potential drivers to join the team. Amongst the countless names that have made stints with KKM are the late Bryan Clauson, NASCAR Cup Series stars Kyle Larson and Christopher Bell, and Winged Sprint Car standouts Michael (Buddy) Kofoid, Spencer Bayston, Rico Abreu, and Tanner Thorson.
In the decade, Jade Avedisian won the 2023 Xtreme Outlaw Midgets presented by Toyota title before moving into the ARCA ranks, and 2025 National Midget champions Jacob Denney (Xtreme, POWRi) and Cannon McIntosh (USAC) have transferred into USAC non-wing competition for 2026. While KKM helps springboard their drivers up the ladder, they focus less on teaching and more on elevating what drivers already possess.
“Keith and I are believers in that we can’t teach a guy how to be a race car driver,” Willoughby said. “Like Jacob (Denney), we haven’t taught him anything. He just needed to go to a place where he had Keith Kunz’s knowledge, then he could start to show what he actually could do.
“I think we’ve had over 200 drivers over the years, and we can tell them what not to do. We can say, ‘Hey, here’s what you did right and what was wrong, what you should and shouldn’t have done.’ But as far as teaching them, they’ve either developed it by the time they get to us or they haven’t. We get credit for developing them, but teaching them is something I don’t think we can do.”
Willoughby’s secret to finding talent for KKM is simple: how do they steer the car, and what do they do when the car loses front-end traction?
“If they’ve got speed, it definitely speeds up that process,” Willoughby said. “But at that point, you start watching their hands. It’s hard to see it, so you watch the left front wheel to see what it’s doing. If it’s not a lot of movement, you know they’ve got some good hands. Then, I want to see them run over the berm. At the Chili Bowl, if they miss it on the bottom, where are the wheels when the thing comes back down? Are they behind the car? Are they ahead of the car?
“Christopher (Bell) was always out ahead of the car. He knew when it came down and where he needed the wheels to be pointed before they touched the ground. That’s when I knew he was gonna be pretty special. It’s a little similar to Jacob (Denney). I wasn’t the one that found Jacob, but I knew he was fast.”
Though Willoughby has left his Late Model past in the rear-view mirror, he cherishes the time spent behind the wheel and the experiences that shaped his handling of KKM, including helping drivers with special talents.
“We used to race around Charlestown (Indiana) a good bit,” Willoughby said. “Mark Martin had just gotten out of NASCAR and was trying to work his way back up to there. The promoter called me and said, ‘Hey, would you consider letting Mark in your car one night? We’ll start him from the tail one lap down and let him race.
“We did that, and Mark ended up winning the Feature from basically a lap behind, and that was pretty cool. Mark would call occasionally about wanting to go to other places, and I couldn’t always go. But, I think that woke me up to thinking, ‘Pete, you’re not good enough to be a driver.’ But, I enjoyed what we were able to do for him and what we accomplished.”
Willoughby will continue serving his keystone role with KKM as the Xtreme Outlaw Midgets return in 2026 for the Ironman 55 at I-55 Federated Auto Parts Raceway Park on Aug. 7-8. The 40th anniversary of the DIRTcar Summer Nationals will begin at Brownstown Bullring on Tuesday, June 9.
Pete Willoughby: From Dirt Late Models to Keith Kunz’s Inseparable Partner
CONCORD, NC (April 30, 2026) – Pete Willoughby is known among most people as the right-hand man to Keith Kunz in forming the most successful dirt Midget program of the modern era.
Before that, he was once an Indiana racer trying to make it into the big leagues of dirt Late Models.
Born and raised in Columbus, IN, Willoughby spent his childhood visiting tracks to watch his dad compete in the division. After graduating high school in 1976, he purchased his first Late Model and began competing around his “Hoosier State” home.
“My dad ran dirt Late Models when I was growing up as a kid,” Willoughby said. “As soon as I got out of high school, I got myself one and started racing local-type races like Brownstown, Putnamville, Lincoln Park, Haubstadt, Mount Vernon, because most of it was all close by.”
During the majority of Willoughby’s time racing in the division, he competed in the peak era of wedge-designed Late Models. While they were easier to drive compared to today’s Super Late Models, the costs of maintaining them became unreasonably high, resulting in dwindling car counts across the area.
“The body rules were all over the map, but not so much tires, though,” Willoughby said. “(Bob Memmer) was the one that really stepped in with the standardized rules that everyone agreed to and gave it a try. A typical night at Brownstown was about 40 Late Models. It was dying away, and it went down to about 20, maybe 30 cars if you were lucky. Most of the locals jumped on board with it pretty quick.
“The traveling guys like the Moyers and Jeff Purvis didn’t jump on it quite so quick. They kind of went to pick their own places where they could still get away with what they wanted. But it wasn’t too long before everyone started settling down. The first UMP-sanctioned race was at Brownstown in 1984, and I won that night, so that was my claim to fame.”
Willoughby owns a prominent dirt Late Model victory on his resumé: the 1982 Herald & Review 100 at Macon Speedway. Before the DIRTcar Summer Nationals formed the race into an annual crown jewel event, Willoughby’s victory in the second running at the 1/5-mile Illinois bullring rewarded him with a $2,000 payday and two watermelons.
“We were able to sneak over to Macon to run the Herald because it was always on Thursday,” Willoughby said. “We ran pretty good that year, but that was just one of our nights. We had Quick Time, started on the Pole, and I remember Russ Petro was dominating the season. I remember going down one straightaway, looking across to the other side, and seeing Russ running in second. It was a lot of fun, I remember we won $2,000 and two watermelons. We were over in farm country, and Russ got about $1,000 and three cantaloupes.”
When funds and equipment started to run thin for Willoughby, he decided to hang up his helmet in 1984 and end his involvement in Late Model racing completely.
“In ‘84, it was time to go buy a couple of motors and spend some money,” Willoughby said. “I ran a few races, and I thought my family sacrificed enough for me. I wasn’t going to get anywhere, and I didn’t know there was a way to get anywhere. So, I decided to quit cold turkey and build a new house for my family. I didn’t go to Brownstown, I never went and watched any Late Models.”
To fill the void, he began constructing go-karts to keep a form of racing activity near his Indiana stable. When ESPN’s Thursday Night Thunder rose to popularity by highlighting drivers in the lower ranks of motorsports, dirt Midgets became Willoughby’s new passion.
“A few years later, we ended up with a foster son, and I was looking for a way to control him,” Willoughby said. “So, I went and bought a couple go-karts. He was pretty good at that, but before long, I had a company that built go-karts. I met a kid that I wanted to help get him along because at the time, Thursday Night Thunder was a big deal. I bought a couple of Midgets for him, and it wasn’t long until he got hurt. While he was recuperating, I got bored and hired Jason Leffler.”
While Leffler drove in select USAC races during 1996, Willoughby searched for more day-to-day help on the cars while he focused on his primary job at his parents’ trucking business. The man who stepped up to the plate was a Springfield, IL native named Keith Kunz.
“I told John Godfrey from Stealth (Chassis) that I needed help,” Willoughby said. “I just need to go do my job and let somebody else take care of the cars and know what they’re doing. John pointed me to Keith, who was living in California at the time. So, I hired Keith, and he moved over (to Columbus) at the end of ‘96. From 1997 to 2000, he and I raced together under my name.”
“LEFturn” won three consecutive USAC National Midget championships from 1997 to 1999 before stepping into NASCAR at the turn of the new millennium. Before the 2000 season, the family trucking company folded, forcing Willoughby to turn ownership over to Kunz, creating Keith Kunz Motorsports (KKM).
“In 2000, my parents’ trucking company went bankrupt, so I was out of a job,” Willoughby said. “Keith said, ‘What are we going to do?’ I said, ‘Well, we got a couple Midgets and a Sprint Car. We’re fast. Let’s just go race till we can’t race anymore.’
“Jay Drake was driving for us at the time, and the first weekend, we won $17,000 at Terre Haute. It just kept going on and on, and at the end of the season, somebody asked us if we could take care of his daughter’s car. Well, when the trucking company closed, I transferred everything over to Keith’s name because I was going to get dragged into it. So that’s when Keith Kunz Motorsports was born.”
With Kunz at the helm, Willoughby remained as CEO and used his position to recruit potential drivers to join the team. Amongst the countless names that have made stints with KKM are the late Bryan Clauson, NASCAR Cup Series stars Kyle Larson and Christopher Bell, and Winged Sprint Car standouts Michael (Buddy) Kofoid, Spencer Bayston, Rico Abreu, and Tanner Thorson.
In the decade, Jade Avedisian won the 2023 Xtreme Outlaw Midgets presented by Toyota title before moving into the ARCA ranks, and 2025 National Midget champions Jacob Denney (Xtreme, POWRi) and Cannon McIntosh (USAC) have transferred into USAC non-wing competition for 2026. While KKM helps springboard their drivers up the ladder, they focus less on teaching and more on elevating what drivers already possess.
“Keith and I are believers in that we can’t teach a guy how to be a race car driver,” Willoughby said. “Like Jacob (Denney), we haven’t taught him anything. He just needed to go to a place where he had Keith Kunz’s knowledge, then he could start to show what he actually could do.
“I think we’ve had over 200 drivers over the years, and we can tell them what not to do. We can say, ‘Hey, here’s what you did right and what was wrong, what you should and shouldn’t have done.’ But as far as teaching them, they’ve either developed it by the time they get to us or they haven’t. We get credit for developing them, but teaching them is something I don’t think we can do.”
Willoughby’s secret to finding talent for KKM is simple: how do they steer the car, and what do they do when the car loses front-end traction?
“If they’ve got speed, it definitely speeds up that process,” Willoughby said. “But at that point, you start watching their hands. It’s hard to see it, so you watch the left front wheel to see what it’s doing. If it’s not a lot of movement, you know they’ve got some good hands. Then, I want to see them run over the berm. At the Chili Bowl, if they miss it on the bottom, where are the wheels when the thing comes back down? Are they behind the car? Are they ahead of the car?
“Christopher (Bell) was always out ahead of the car. He knew when it came down and where he needed the wheels to be pointed before they touched the ground. That’s when I knew he was gonna be pretty special. It’s a little similar to Jacob (Denney). I wasn’t the one that found Jacob, but I knew he was fast.”
Though Willoughby has left his Late Model past in the rear-view mirror, he cherishes the time spent behind the wheel and the experiences that shaped his handling of KKM, including helping drivers with special talents.
“We used to race around Charlestown (Indiana) a good bit,” Willoughby said. “Mark Martin had just gotten out of NASCAR and was trying to work his way back up to there. The promoter called me and said, ‘Hey, would you consider letting Mark in your car one night? We’ll start him from the tail one lap down and let him race.
“We did that, and Mark ended up winning the Feature from basically a lap behind, and that was pretty cool. Mark would call occasionally about wanting to go to other places, and I couldn’t always go. But, I think that woke me up to thinking, ‘Pete, you’re not good enough to be a driver.’ But, I enjoyed what we were able to do for him and what we accomplished.”
Willoughby will continue serving his keystone role with KKM as the Xtreme Outlaw Midgets return in 2026 for the Ironman 55 at I-55 Federated Auto Parts Raceway Park on Aug. 7-8. The 40th anniversary of the DIRTcar Summer Nationals will begin at Brownstown Bullring on Tuesday, June 9.
How can you watch every lap of the Xtreme Outlaw Midgets and Summer Nationals? Live on DIRTVision.