Kelby Rogerson

Kelby Rogerson pictured on his potato farm after retiring.
Details
Name	Kelby Rogerson
Born	29th Feb 1952
Nationality	Irish
Achievements
Drove in the Dywa Grand Prix Series

Kelby Colm Rogerson (born 29th February, 1952 in Ardee, County Louth) is an Irish former racing driver best known for briefly competing in the Dywa Grand Prix Series, before suffering a life-changing accident two laps into the first race.

Early life

Growing up in County Louth in the 1950s and '60s, Rogerson was raised from an early age to support the unification of Ireland. Once he left school, Rogerson began to smuggle weapons out of the Republic of Ireland and into Northern Ireland, replacing them with contraception on the British side of the border to make the return trip. He quickly built up good savings by doing this, eventually making enough that he could get out of the smuggling business and instead move into a safer and more sensible industry: in 1973, he started a new career in motorsport.

Early career in Ireland

Kelby Rogerson pictured during a Formula Ford race at Mondello Park.

Rogerson began his racing career in Ireland in 1973, racing in the Irish Formula Ford Championship. He became a very familiar face in the circles that conducted their racing at the Mondello Park, Phoenix Park and Kirkistown circuits in particular, as well as occasional appearances in hot rod events at Waterford Raceway and street races at Rathdrum. He owned and operated his own Crossle 30F Formula Ford car, as well as a Ford Escort Mk I that he used in hot rod races and on one ill-advised occasion, a road rally.

He also got the taste for more powerful machinery in the Formula Atlantic (and occasionally Formula 5000) cars that graced the three Irish racetracks with their presence - although Rogerson was occasionally stymied by the need to convince others that he was worth entrusting their cars to. His best result was a second place at Mondello Park just after Christmas in 1975, driving a Formula Atlantic car entered for him by Eddie Jordan. That sounds good, except for it being the second of only two Formula Atlantic cars in the race - the rest of the field was filled by Formula Ford entries because less motorsport-obsessed types were busy celebrating Christmas.

There is only so long that you can remain interested in the same three Irish racing circuits though, and Rogerson began to set his sights further afield. He competed in two races of the 1977 Super Visco British Formula Three Championship for Alan Docking Racing, and attempted to enter the 1977 Dave Lee Travis Trophy in the Shellsport International Series, but his Aim Racing Chevron-Ford failed to make the start of the race. As he was already in England, he used the opportunity to enter the 1977 Hot Rod World Final at Foxhall Stadium, but did not finish after being dumped into the wall by an angry Norwich man.

International open wheel career and Enna crash

Kelby Rogerson stricken in his cockpit after the terrifying crash at Enna. The rear portion of the car can be seen in the background.

In 1978, Rogerson finally got his break in international motorsport when the Dywa Grand Prix Series was founded by Dydo Monguzzi with the backing of Renzo Engineering. He managed to secure a drive with the newly-founded Scuderia Sighinolfi, and it was surprisingly cheap, setting him back roughly the same as he had once charged his buyers for however many condoms you can fit in a Ford Anglia.

However, two laps into that debut race, disaster struck in the form of an accident which saw Rogerson's Dywa torn to pieces. The front portion of the car continued for around 300 metres down the track, while the rear portion was thrown over the protective barrier and almost into the lake - narrowly missing a nearby marshal post. The rear right wheel also came separate, and ultimately ended up in the middle of the track. Rogerson had to be extricated from his stricken cockpit, and after prolonged surgery on fractured vertebrae was ruled out of the rest of the Dywa Grand Prix season.

This marked the end of Rogerson's open-wheel career, instead focusing his attention on touring car and oval racing where he felt he would be at less risk of sustaining a similar injury in the future. He was able to get back behind the wheel competitively for the 1980 season after considerable physiotherapy.

After open-wheel racing

Following extensive physical rehabilitation, Rogerson made his racing return in April 1979. He would be driving in the BMW M1 Procar Championship for B&S Fabrications.

BMW M1 Procar Championship

The Procar Championship season started at Jarama on 28th April.

British Touring Car Championship

Following the closure of the Procar Championship, Rogerson moved to the British Touring Car Championship. He experienced moderate success in the mid-1980s (at which time the series was still called the British Saloon Car Championship), consistently performing as one of the leading drivers in his class. When the World Touring Car Masters began in 1988, the exodus of leading drivers catapulted Rogerson into Championship contention - not that that title had a great deal of prestige until 1990, owing to the profoundly silly multi-class system.

World Touring Car Masters

After having chosen not to partake in the first four seasons of the WTCM, Rogerson was finally tempted to get involved after seeing the success of Silvio Bachot as an independent in 1991. As a result, Rogerson opted to source a car for the 1992 season, with a view to a partial schedule in Britain and Europe alongside his BTCC commitments.

Racing Career Results

Selected results from Irish races

Series	Event	Result	Team
Formula Ford	1974 Formula Ford Race at Kirkistown	3rd	Mr. K.C. Rogerson
	1975 Irish Formula Ford Championship	4th	Mr. K.C. Rogerson
Formula Atlantic	1975 Formula Atlantic Race at Mondello Park	2nd	Mr. E.P. Jordan
	1976 Irish Formula Atlantic Series	5th	Mr. K.C. Rogerson / Mr. E.P. Jordan [?]
Formula 5000	1974 Dublin Grand Prix (Mondello Park)	6th	Hogan Racing Limited

Dywa Grand Prix Series

Season	Team	Car	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Pts	Pos
1978	Scuderia Sighinolfi	Dywa-Renzo	ENN Ret	IMO INJ	ROU INJ	NUR INJ	MIS INJ	MUG INJ	BAR INJ	CAS INJ	CLE INJ	MNZ INJ	0	TBC