About

It all started when…

Founded in 1988 by Florida based brothers David & Jeff Stone, the very first race KMR competed in was the IMSA Firestone Firehawk race at Road Atlanta in 1989 and won! It was enough encouragement to lead the KMM group on into the future and establish themselves as a successful, and often dominant force, in any series of racing they chose to participate in.

1990 – 1992 IMSA FIRESTONE FIREHAWK ENDURANCE SERIES

With the 1989 win at Road Atlanta as fuel for encouragement to forge ahead, David, Rich and the all-volunteer team moved into their future of road racing. It was a more than full-time affair. During this time, David’s younger brother Jeff came on board as a fly-in crewmember. Jeff and David have been at each others side through thick and thin, ups and downs ever since.

Some of the early drivers that led to the successes of the KMM team, aside from Rich himself, were Bob Strange, Jeff Purner, Paul Tosi, Bobby Akin, Nick Ham, James Weaver, Price Cobb, Maro Baldi and numerous others.

KMM won the 1990 Firehawk Championship with Rich and Jeff Purner driving. It was an outstanding first year full-time in road racing. In 1991 KMM finished a disappointing 2nd in the Championship, missing first place by just a few points to the Charlie Cook led team of drivers: Mark Sandridge and Joe Varde, whom had moved from their stalwart Chevy Camaros of previous years to, what else, a Porsche 944 S2. After KMM won in 1990 with their home brewed Porsche 944 S2’s, the Porsche factory built just 7 special S2’s that became known as the “Super 7” based on the details of the KMM built S2….but that also is another story.

Having come so close to a repeat championship in 91’, David and Rich knew some changes had to be made internally. The entire KMM effort was solely run and based out of Madison from that point on. It was a complete shake up and for the better. 1992 was a stellar season, winning 8 of 10 races that year and finishing second in the other two. KMM would have won nine of those races except for a mistake by David that he has never forgotten. He let an infraction by the other team at a Sebring race go, due to a friendship involved with that team. Friends are friends, but on the track it’s a different story. Lesson learned.

1993 – Bridgestone SuperCar Series

By the time 1993 was rolling around, Porsche AG and PMNA had taken notice of the KMM group. In the previous couple of seasons, Porsche had given some sporadic help in ways of parts and technology to KMM, however this year would be another step up. Porsche wanted KMM to be sort of a back up to the older more established Brumos Racing team of Jacksonville, Florida, who would be running Hans Stuck and Hurley Haywood in a pair of 911 Turbo’s. With such a great year in 1992 for KMM and driver Nick Ham, Porsche supplied two 911 Turbo’s to KMM. What could go wrong? Well, that too is another story. It was the worst year in KMM history. We crashed out of 8 of 10 races that year and crashed on the way to those two in testing. We can only smile about it today, but it was nothing to smile about at the time.

1994 – SCCA World Challenge Pro Racing

What a great year. Fortunately, Porsche did not hold the 1993 SuperCar season against us, and to this day 1994 was the last fully supported Porsche Factory deal a team has had the benefit of. Porsche supplied two 911 Turbo’s and all the special parts you could ask for, not to mention an undisclosed, but substantial amount of cash. It was not going to be an easy year. All the factories had special teams there, Corvette, Nissan, BMW, etc. At the same time, Brumos was going to be running two Porsches in the IMSA Series. The concept was for our cars and the Brumos cars to match in every way possible for interchangeability in time of crisis.

It was game on and the Stone Brothers went to work. They built the new chassis’ in house at KMM, then one cold morning in January 1994, Jeff and David loaded up and headed for sunny Santa Ana, California, home of Porsche Motorsports……it felt like we were going to the fatherland. The idea was for the two Brumos cars, which were already there, and the two KMM cars to match up in every detail. We spent about 3-4 weeks there, experienced the massive LA earthquake of ’94 and made a lot of great memories while doing so.

1994 started out with a bang. After countless long days and miles on the road, our first race of the season was to be the Miami Grand Prix, what a great venue that was!

As racing seems to always be, time was short and we had zero track time on the cars. Fortunately Alwin Springer, then boss of PMNA, had long-time connections with the INDY car crowd who always held their winter testing in Sebring, so they let us join them. Did I say 1994 started out with a bang? What I meant was, a crash. We could not have been happier with our new driver line up. Our first driver of choice was Le Mans Winner, and big car, big power prototype driver, Price Cobb! Price was big time and I am happy to say that some years later Price and his wife Charissa Cobb joined KMM and Charissa is still with us today. Their dedication to KMM and the Stone Brothers has been appreciated more than they will ever know. We are happy to call them friends and have been on many adventures together over the years. Now back to the story.

While Price was “our” pick of drivers, since Porsche was our benefactor, they made the choice of driver for the second car. Enter Mauro Baldi, F1 driver, Le Mans winner, etc. Sounded good to us. Sebring first lap: old hairpin turn, crash into the tires. Brand new car in route to first race, FUBAR. We had what was known as the (top-secret)  “Goodyear Box” in the car. Today it would be more commonly known as a Racing ABS brake ECU.

Unfortunately for all involved, Mauro had never driven anything with ABS brakes, so when he got into the brakes at the hairpin and the brakes did what ABS brakes do, he was startled and by the time he got it figured out, it was too late, here comes the tire wall. OK, so we put that car aside, finished the day in the other car and then spent the rest of the day and night rebuilding the car until we had to leave for Miami around 3:00 a.m. with just enough time to make the line up for parking.

In spite of all the work, blood and sweat and there was blood, but that is another story also, we won the Miami Grand Prix in a torrential down pour.

It was party time at Shula’s Steak house!  They actually kept the place open just for us. David and Jeff’s names are still on the wall there for having eaten the giant steak they have for a challenge…. trust me it was no challenge at this point. Oh yes, we also won the 1994 World Challenge Championship and Price Cobb was the first American driver and KMM the first American team, to win the coveted Porsche Cup.

1995 – A New era for KMM

1995 led to big changes for KMM. The Porsche factory was gearing up for the new Porsche AG operated GT1 Program so that meant no more factory funding or support for independent teams.

We do take pride however in being chosen by Porsche to handle the logistics for the Factory Porsche AG teams GT1 racing in 1997 for Sebring and Laguna Seca. It was a great time and epic road trip from Florida to California.

Time to turn KMR into a business. Fortunately , several years of success, coverage by the automotive press,  and  numerous magazine articles, and the advent of Porsche Club racing led to the new concept of “Arrive and Drive” racing.

Pioneering the concept where amateur racers with the resources to own Porsche cars for the track, but not the time, expertise or inclination to maintain or modify them, could sign up for a full service, red carpet driving experience and also allow them to experience all the famous tracks around the US. They could now bring the families, do side trips to wine country in California, shopping and nights of fun in Vegas, sun and beaches in Florida, have private track days with famous race car drivers as their personal coaches, food catering, the works. It saved many a marriage I assure you.

Fast forward to current and KMR has moved from its somewhat humble beginnings to a an 80,000 square foot facility in Madison complete with in house engine shop, carbon fiber area, interior & graphics department, along with our large custom project and racing divisions.

Home to over 100 working projects, primarily Porsche focused, the company is under the ownership of Founder Jeff Stone, along with husband and wife team Andy Kilcoyne (engineer & designer) and Victoria Thomas (finance).

If you have a crazy automotive dream, or just want to see what KMR is all about, we invite you to stop in for a personal tour at 5105 West Clayton Road, Madison Wisconsin.

We invite you to return to to this site to stay on top of Kelly-Moss Racing as we continue to make history in the future. Your loyalty as fans and customers is greatly appreciated.

Live your dream.