Although he now lives in Thunder Bay, multi-time Emo Speedway champion A.J. Kellar will make the trip back whenever he can if it means racing on what he considers his home track.
Kellar was the back-to-back lead competitor for WISSOTA Street Stock races on the Emo Speedway in 2025 and 2024 and won his first championship in the class in 2016. Street Stock is one of the three WISSOTA classes available to race at the Emo Speedway this season, along with the Midwest Mods and Modifieds classes.
“I don’t even know if I’m breathing half the time when I’m racing,” Kellar said. “There’s just so many things going through your mind, so many emotions happening that it totally takes you over. You can really see how dedicated people are to the sport. It’s not just a hobby for a lot of people, including myself. It’s more of a lifestyle.”
The racing lifestyle started for Kellar during his upbringing in Devlin, Ont. “When I was about nine years old, it would have been my dad’s friend, Danny Ray. He approached us and asked if I wanted to race a go-kart because he had an extra,” Kellar said.
“That weekend, I went out, and I raced that go-kart and had a blast. I raced it for the remainder of the year. The following year, we bought our own and ran it all the time. Emo and International Falls had a track, so we were out like two nights a week. When I was old enough to get into a street stock at 14, I made that jump.”
The lifestyle has followed him into adulthood, taking up most of Kellar’s time outside of work.
“Every night I’m in the garage working on the car,” he said. “I’ve got a couple buddies into racing now, and it’s pretty much my whole life.”
“The last couple of years, I’ve lived in Thunder Bay, so I race Thunder City Speedway weekly. Then, as long as work allows, I usually make the trek to Emo every weekend to see my friends, family and support the track. It’s my home track, I’ve been racing on it since I was 14.”
Although they go toe-to-toe—or bumper-to-bumper—with one another on the track, Kellar explained the close nature of the racing community when the racers are out of the driver’s seat.
“On the track, obviously your competitors, but behind the scenes everybody drinks beers with each other and shoots the shit,” he said. “It’s like a big family. It’s really cool to be a part of that every weekend.”
“It doesn’t really matter where you go. You go down into the states, and people that don’t even know you, they’ll go out of their way to help you if you need a part. They’ll do what they’ve got to do to help you get back on the track.”
This season, Kellar is racing with a new car. Based on a 1980s Monte Carlo frame, it’s painted a bright blue and orange that makes him stand out in the dirt cloud on the track. He drove it for its debut at the Emo Speedway opening weekend on May 15-16, where he started the season in second place.
