Experienced, fast, consistent, & helpful team driver with podium results

Bio

Clay Keel is a Plant City, Florida native, business owner, retired Army Reservist, and lifelong driving enthusiast. He leads Keel Farms and its affiliated companies, including Keel & Curley Winery, Keel Farms Agrarian Ciders, Six Stars Beverage, and The Osprey View wedding venue near Tampa. Clay brings a professional, infectiously positive, team-first mindset to racing. He is competitive,mechanically sympathetic, and focused on delivering clean, consistent results. In addition to his racing background, he has instructor experience with Skip Barber Racing School and The Motor Enclave in Tampa, where he has also provided high-performance thrill rides for guests. His experience spans everything from grassroots endurance cars to prototypes and high-performance street cars, giving him a strong blend of speed, adaptability, and judgment behind the wheel.

Experience

Clay is a multi-discipline driver with years of sports car racing experience, including sprint racing, endurance racing, prototype racing, and driver instruction. Since moving into cars in 2022, he has competed in SCCA B-Spec and IT classes, ChampCar, WRL, and the Prototype Sports Sprint Association, with multiple podiums and race wins at national events. Clay has endurance racing experience in a wide range of cars, from front-wheel-drive Acura Integra to BMW M3, with 20+ races across ChampCar and WRL. In 2024, he raced the Sebeco NP01 prototype in PSSA, earning multiple podiums. Known for fast, consistent laps and careful race-craft, Clay has delivered strong results while maintaining consistency and the highest care for equipment. He also has the ability to coach drivers if needed and diagnose car setups from behind the wheel.

Licenses

SCCA Full Comp, NASA Comp

History

Clay’s passion for driving started early on his family farm in Plant City, Florida, where he bought his first go-kart with money he earned working on the farm and drove it until it finally broke. Although he wanted to race as a child, he did not begin kart racing until age 17, when he competed for several years before stepping away from the sport. Roughly 20 years later, Clay returned to karting as an adult and progressed seriously through competitive kart racing, including shifter karts at the Florida state level, where he earned wins and podiums. In 2022, he transitioned into car racing after attending Team Stradale’s racing school in Joliet, Illinois, and later continued with advanced coaching from professional drivers including Michai Stephens and Dario Cangialosi.