Man-made Thunder

Godwin Kelly grew up in Daytona Beach, Florida, and was raised on stock-car racing. His family moved from Chicago to the small, east coast resort town in 1958, a year before Daytona International Speedway opened for business. As a child, Godwin attended many of the bigger racing events with his parents, who were well-connected in the sport. One of the highlights of his teenage years was handing out sodas to the winning team after the 1970 Firecracker 400.  In 1977, while attending the University of Central Florida in Orlando, Godwin landed a part-time job with the Daytona Beach News-Journal, and within two years became a cub sports writer. For one of his first assignments in 1979 he was commissioned to “run the pits” – gathering information during the ’79 Daytona 500. It turned into an intriguing afternoon after Bobby and Donnie Allison got into a post-race scuffle with Cale Yarborough. It was baptism by fire for Godwin, as the infamous donnybrook provided the material for his first racing story.  In 1982 Godwin was named News-Journal’s motorsports writer, a position he has held to this day. After 30 years of motorsports reporting, Godwin is considered one of the top auto racing journalists in the United States, and has been awarded some of the highest honors for his writing. He was the youngest writer to ever receive the Henry McLemore Award for career achievement and is a two-time winner (newspaper and magazine categories) of the Russ Catlin Motorsports Journalism Awards of Excellence. He has also just been named part of Sirius Satellite Radio’s motorsports journalism “Dream Team,” further confirming his status as one of the best racing writers in America.