KINETICS DRIVER KEVIN MOLLOY RETURNS TO RACING AFTER THE FIGHT OF HIS LIFE
August 30,2008
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Kevin Molloy has already battled the fight of his life this season. That should make Sunday's fight in the Grand-Am KONI Challenge Series race seem relatively easy.
The New Jersey-born driver, who now lives in Palm Beach, Fla., will team with Nic Jonsson in the No. 79 Kinetic Motorsports BMW M3 in Sunday's 250-mile (112-lap) or two-and-a-half hour race at Thunderbolt Raceway at New Jersey Motorsports Park. There, he will also run in front of relatives, some of whom he is fairly unfamiliar with. It will also come in the same car that won two weeks ago at Le Circuit de Trois-Rivieres in Quebec.
Molloy hasn't been racing long. He started competing in 2004 and has been a regular on several circuits since. He usually competes in two races a month, and in 40 starts, the 37-year-old has 38 podium finishes. Among his victories was a 24-hour race of Nelson Ledges in Ohio.
"Since I was a kid, racing was always a passion of mine," Molloy said. "It feels so natural for me to be behind the wheel. It is a total sense of contentment for me."
In February, Molloy was competing in a six-hour race at Sebring in a PBOC event. During the race, the differential fluids dripped on the exhaust and caused smoke to seep into the cockpit, which Molloy inhaled for a couple of hours.
After a few days, Molloy was having trouble breathing and a loss of appetite and checked into the ER, where he sister is a nurse. He had chest X-rays taken, and doctors revealed they found Molloy had small cell carcinoma, with tumors that covered his body, including a grapefruit tumor pushing against his heart and another pushing against his esophagus, as well as tumors attaching his lungs, liver and spine.. Molloy spent the next seven days at the hospital, awaiting news from his biopsy. A month later, Molloy was sent to the University of Miami (Fla.), where he went for a trail study and to begin his chemotherapy.
"At one point I was laying on my sofa and just wanted to give up," Molloy said. "I thought I had a death sentence and didn't want to put my family and myself through this."
But he didn't let his family or anything else down, despite having a chance of survival around 10 percent. His wife Erin was seven months pregnant with son Kayman and he already had a 5-year-old daughter Parker. He was also running a successful drywall company - Molloy Interiors.
He began aggressive chemotherapy, enduring six straight hours three days a week, with treatments three times the normal amount of chemo. That didn't stop him from loving racing, though. Four months after being diagnosed, Molloy was competing in a two-hour enduro race at Homestead-Miami Speedway, driving an BMW M Coupe.
"My doctors weren't too happy with the fact that I went to race when I was going through chemo, but it was one of the best father's day I have had," Molloy said.
"During my chemo treatments, I use to sit with my i-Pod and envision being back at Sebring racing; I would sit with my laptop and listen to the races live," Molloy said. "All I wanted to do was get back on the track. Thinking about racing helped me take my mind off the situation I was going through. Heck, if I could have raced around my lawn cutting the grass in my helmet and suit, I would have."
On June 19, 2008, after four-and-a-half months of aggressive chemo, Molloy found out he was in remission. Doctors are astonished they cannot find any signs of the tumors.
Molloy - who will be racing the KONI Challenge with the support of his family, including aunts, uncles and cousins he has not seen in a very long time - competed in his first KONI Challenge race in 2007 at Homestead in the ST class, finishing 11th. This weekend will be the first for Molloy with the Kinetic Motorsports team and his second career KONI Challenge race. The Kinetic team tested at New Jersey, but Molloy couldn't make it due to chemo.
All Molloy wants to do is get back to racing, he said.
"Racing is where I can put on my helmet and block out everything else; I can just be in that moment and focus solely on racing," Molloy said. "My intention is to finish out the rest of the season, and I am really excited about the six-hour endurance race at VIR; that is my cup of tea. If I could race the entire six hours myself I would!
"I am excited about racing my first race back and my first GS race with Kinetic Motorsports," Molloy continued. "I had stayed in touch with (Kinetic team manager) Ed Hall regularly. Ed would call me periodically to see how I was doing. They are a first class, competitive team and I am looking forward to a great result. More importantly though, I'm so fired up and ready to have some fun again."
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