Kevin Kalkhoven, a leader in IndyCar reunification, dies at 77

Kevin Kalkhoven, a key player in the reunification of the NTT IndyCar Series, died Tuesday morning. He was 77.

His death was announced in a tweet from Cosworth, where Kalkhoven served as chairman of the board in one of many leadership roles he took in the racing industry. The venture capitalist also co-founded the Champ Car World Series with Gerald Forsythe and Paul Gentilozzi after purchasing the assets of the Championship Auto Racing Teams (CART) circuit.

Four years later, Kalkhoven was instrumental in hammering out a deal with former Indianapolis Motor Speedway CEO Tony George for IndyCar to absorb Champ Car. The February 2008 merger ended a bitter civil war in major-league open-wheel racing that had lasted since the mid-1990s.

“Motorsports has lost one of its true leaders,” Indianapolis Motor Speedway owner Roger Penske said in a release. “Kevin Kalkhoven had a great passion for open-wheel racing, and his vision and support helped guide the sport through some turbulent times. As a leader of the Champ Car World Series, Cosworth Engineering and the KV Racing Technology team, Kevin had an incredible impact on IndyCar. Our thoughts are with the Kalkhoven family and Kevin’s many friends and colleagues that are coping with his loss.”

Kalkhoven’s racing teams also fielded cars for more than a decade. Tony Kanaan won the 2013 Indianapolis 500 in a No. 11 Dallara-Chevrolet co-owned by Kalkhoven and CART champion Jimmy Vasser.

“Kevin Kalkhoven lived life to the absolute fullest,” Vasser said in a release. “He showed how life was to be lived. He was a great partner and dear friend. I will always miss his mischievous smile and uproarious laughter. Rest In Peace Dear Friend.”

Kalkhoven’s teams – known as PK Racing, PKV Racing and KV Racing Technology – also fielded cars for Vasser Vasser, Will Power, Cristiano da Matta, Paul Tracy and Sebastien Bourdais while earning seven victories from 2003-16.

Deeply saddened at the loss of Kevin Kalkhoven. An Indy 500 winner, owner of ChampCar, Cosworth and the Long Beach Grand Prix, Kevin was a major force in motorsport but also a great colleague and friend, whose business success was mirrored by his generosity to great causes.

— Zak Brown (@ZBrownCEO) January 4, 2022

Kalkhoven, a native of Adelaide, Australia, also was a co-owner of the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach.

“The entire Grand Prix Association of Long Beach family is saddened to hear of the passing of our co-owner Kevin Kalkhoven,” said Jim Michaelian, the president and CEO of the Grand Prix Association of Long Beach. “He has provided strong support and visionary leadership over the past 16 years and his contributions to our company as well as to the racing community will be sorely missed. Our condolences go out to his wife Kimm and all of the Kalkhoven family in these difficult times. RIP, Kevin.”

In a statement from the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Kalkhoven was remembered as an aviation enthusiast and a noted philanthropist who served on the board of directors of the Association of Hole in the Wall Camps, which benefits children with serious illness.

“I met Kevin in 2013, and we quickly developed a personal friendship and a lot of common ground in racing,” Penske Entertainment Corp. president and CEO Mark Miles said. “In many ways, winning that year’s Indianapolis 500 with Tony Kanaan must have been the highlight of his racing life. I’m sure he didn’t come back down to earth for many months. Kevin was a colorful, forceful personality who constantly brought new ideas to the table in an effort to grow the sport. I will miss him.”

Media and fan attention focused on a controversial run-in between Haiden Deegan and his Monster Energy Yamaha Star Racing teammate Jordon Smith during Round 10 of the Monster Energy Supercross race at Detroit, after which the 250 East points’ Hunter Lawrence defends the young rider in the postrace news conference.

Deegan took the early lead in Heat 1 of the round, but the mood swiftly changed when he became embroiled in a spirited battle with teammate Smith.

On Lap 3, Smith caught Deegan with a fast pass through the whoops. Smith briefly held the lead heading into a bowl turn but Deegan had the inside line and threw a block pass. In the next few turns, the action heated up until Smith eventually ran into the back of Deegan’s Yamaha and crashed.

One of the highlights of the battle seemed to include a moment when Deegan waited on Smith in order to throw a second block pass, adding fuel to the controversy.

After his initial crash, Smith fell to seventh on the next lap. He would crash twice more during the event, ultimately finishing four laps off the pace in 20th.

The topic was inevitably part of the postrace news conference.

“It was good racing; it was fun,” Deegan said at about the 27-minute mark in the video above. “I just had some fun doing it.”

Smith had more trouble in the Last Chance Qualifier. He stalled his bike in heavy traffic, worked his way into a battle for fourth with the checkers in sight, but crashed a few yards shy of the finish line and was credited with seventh. Smith earned zero points and fell to sixth in the standings.

Lawrence defends Deegan — *Jordon Smith failed to make the Detroit Supercross Main and fell to sixth in the points. – Feld Motor Sports*

“I think he’s like fifth in points,” Deegan said. “He’s a little out of it. Beside that it was good, I don’t know. I wasn’t really paying attention.”

Deegan jokingly deflected an earlier question with the response that he wasn’t paying attention during the incident.

“He’s my teammate, but he’s a veteran, he’s been in this sport for a while,” Deegan said. “I was up there just battling. I want to win as much as everybody else. It doesn’t matter if it’s a heat race or a main; I just want to win. I was just trying to push that.”

As Deegan and Smith battled, Jeremy Martin took the lead. Deegan finished second in the heat and backed up his performance with a solid third-place showing in the main, which was his second podium finish in a short six-race career. Deegan’s first podium was earned at Daytona, just two rounds ago.

But as Deegan struggled to find something meaningful to say, unsurprisingly for a 17-year-old rider who was not scheduled to run the full 250 schedule this year, it was the championship leader Lawrence who came to his defense.

“I just want to point something out, which kind of amazes me,” Lawrence said during the conference. “So many of the people on social media, where everyone puts their expertise in, are saying the racing back in the ’80s, the early 90s, when me were men. They’re always talking about how gnarly it was and then anytime a block pass or something happens now, everyone cries about it.

“That’s just a little bit interesting. Pick one. You want the gnarly block passes from 10 years ago and then you get it, everyone makes a big song and dance about it.”

Pressed further, Lawrence defended not only the pass but the decision-making process that gets employed lap after lap in a Supercross race.

“It’s easy to point the finger,” Lawrence said. “We’re out there making decisions in a split millisecond. People have all month to pay their phone bill and they still can’t do that on time.

“We’re making decisions at such a fast reaction [time with] adrenaline. … I’m not just saying it for me or Haiden. I speak for all the guys. No one is perfect and we’re under a microscope out there. The media is really quick to point a finger when someone makes a mistake.”

The media is required to hold athletes accountable for their actions. They are also required to tell the complete story.

Kevin Kalkhoven, winning Indy 500 team owner and Champ Car co-founder, dies

Hunter Lawrence defends Haiden Deegan after controversial block pass at Detroit

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