V8Stockcar.com Series Rising Stars

There is some young blood in the V8 Series this year, they are fearless, fast and despite their youth, race savvy. Cameron Lawrence, who drives the #23 Regal Boats Chevy Impala has been on something of a tear lately. Cameron, from Windemere, Florida is nineteen years old and a business major at UCF. He recently has taken double wins at both Sebring and Homestead in the V8 GTA class. At the season ending SCCA Trans Am race at Road Atlanta, Cameron took third place in the TA2 class. It was his first race in the series and the first time ever racing at Road Atlanta. Road Atlanta, arguably the toughest road course in North America is not one that a driver shines at in his first attempt.

While relatively new to road racing, Cameron raced for years in quarter midgets where he was a race winning, top performer. Cameron and dad Jay spent last year racing an SCCA I.T.S. class Olds Achieva before purchasing the former race winning Jay Marshall GTA ride. The car was built and prepped by Florida Short track ace Mike Cope, who still handles those duties.

Cameron is currently in third place in the V8 GTA points with 129. Randy Walker leads with 144, and both will be on hand at Roebling Road for the SARRC Invitational Challenge, where Cameron hopes to make up ground before the season finale at the American Road Race of Champions at Road Atlanta. This young man has talent, drive, surprising racecraft for one so young, and a supportive family. Undoubtably, Cameron will be a force on the V8 Circuit.

Seventeen year old Bobby Kennedy, the son of veteran Grand Am, IMSA, ARCA and V8 Series competitor Squeak Kennedy is another young gun to keep an eye on.
Kennedy, a native of Daytona Beach, now lives in Brooksville, Florida and is a senior at Central High School. Dad, Squeak, a Daytona Beach auto dealer and veteran of thirty plus years in professional road racing with nineteen Rolex 24 starts has brought Bobby up through the ranks in racing. Starting out in quarter midgets, where he once won 23 events in a row, Bobby then moved to the short track FASCAR FastTrucks, then to SCCA showroom stock, where he won a Central Florida Region Championship last year. This year Bobby won his first V8 StockCar race, (V8 SPO class) at PBIR in his first attempt. Since then
Bobby has won four starts in SCCA club racing and set a new Daytona track record in a 2011 Camaro prepared by Bemco Fabrication. Bobby leads the Central Florida Region SCCA SPO class points with one race to go. Next up for Bobby is some Dirt racing at Volusia Speedway Park in the sportsman class. Bemco Fab has constructed the car for him which is a tube framed chassis with a stock Camaro front clip and a Chevy 602 crate motor for power. This is a very competitive class with outstanding drivers such as Nascar Nationwide driver Scott Lagasse Jr.

Both Cameron and Bobby are scheduled to compete at the American Road Race of Champions in November. There is no doubt that fans of big bore road racing will be hearing more from these two.