Although Kelsey is the longest competing woman in Formula Drift, the top professional drifting organization in the US, she didn’t discover drifting, or any motorsport, until she was 18 years old.
Kelsey somehow convinced her parents that a 1997 Nissan 240sx would be a good first car before heading to the University of Florida to earn a degree, but she frequently visited home for drift events at Orlando Speed World. While earning her English degree and battling a recent diagnosis of Sjogren’s Syndrome, an incurable autoimmune disease, Kelsey’s love for drifting grew, along with her skills. She started competing in competitions in 2011 but at the time, had never considered it as a career.
Kelsey earned her professional Formula Drift license when she placed 2nd overall in a local ProAm series, and she began competing in Formula Drift Pro 2 (now known as ProSpec) in 2015. She was the first woman to do so.
Kelsey qualified for top 16 competition in her very first Formula Drift competition with her ProAm-level car, however, she quickly realized that 500 horsepower would not be competitive. For the 2016 season, she and her team built an S14 powered by a supercharged Ford 5.0 Aluminator, which was the first of its kind and is the only Ford-swapped Nissan in the entirety of Formula Drift. After years of R&D, Kelsey and her team have the chassis dialed in, with a new 5.2L engine, and are more competitive than ever.
